Bryan Kohberger had pictures of one of the victims on his cell phone and was clearly 'paying attention to her,' a source told People

• Idaho killings suspect Bryan Kohberger had photos of one of the victims on his phone, a source told People.
• The source told People the images were found on Kohberger's phone after his arrest.

University of Idaho killings suspect Bryan Kohberger reportedly had several photos of one of the slain women on his cell phone, an unnamed source familiar with the investigation into the November stabbing deaths of four college students told People magazine.

The source told People that authorities discovered the images on Kohberger's phone that was seized after his arrest.

"He had more than one picture of her," the source told People in a report published on Wednesday. "It was clear that he was paying attention to her."

It is unclear whether the photos mentioned by the source were taken of one of the victims or whether they were downloaded from social media.

Kohberger's attorney, Anne Taylor, did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Thursday. The Idaho judge in the case has previously issued a gag order prohibiting those involved, including lawyers, from discussing the case.

Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in their beds inside a Moscow, Idaho, off-campus rental home shared by the women in the early morning hours of November 13.

Kohberger, 28, was a Ph.D. student in the criminal justice program at Washington State University at the time he was charged late last year with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in connection to the killings.

A lawyer for Goncalves' family previously told Insider that the slain college students had no prior connection to Kohberger.

"No one knew of this guy at all," attorney Shanon Gray said.

Additionally, an investigator familiar with the case told People in a January report that Kohberger slid into the direct messages of one of the four victims on Instagram in the weeks before the slayings.

"He slid into one of the girls' DMs several times but she didn't respond," the anonymous source told People at the time. "Basically, it was just him saying, 'Hey, how are you?' But he did it again and again."

Authorities identified Kohberger as a suspect in the high-profile case through DNA discovered at the crime scene, cell phone records, and a car, according to a previously released affidavit.

According to the affidavit, cell phone records obtained by police showed that Kohberger's phone was near the three-story home where the victims lived with roommates at least a dozen times between June and before the early morning killings.