“I won’t lie, I kind of spiraled yesterday,” Casey Arntz, 32, told the Idaho Statesman in a text Thursday.

“The state is showing BK (Bryan Kohberger) mercy by removing the death penalty. BK did not show Kaylee ANY mercy,” the family wrote in a statement.

Thompson noted the dense population of that area, where many college students live, and also acknowledged that the state did not know whether Kohberger had any contact with the victims in that time f...