The suspect in the deaths of four University of Idaho students is set to appear in court for a status conference on Thursday, his second appearance in an Idaho court since his extradition from Pennsylvania following his arrest late last month.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, is being held without bond in Idaho’s Latah County jail on four charges of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in the stabbing deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
The four undergrads were discovered dead in an off-campus residence on November 13 after a night out, according to police, straining tensions in the college town of Moscow, Idaho, near the Washington state border.
Authorities apprehended Kohberger over seven weeks later, hauling him into jail at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania, where he had gone for the holidays, according to his attorney. While it took nearly two months for authorities to officially name a suspect, detectives had began focusing on Kohberger as a suspect weeks earlier, despite rising criticism while the investigation looked to be at a halt.
A witness statement from one of the victims’ surviving roommates, who told police she saw a guy dressed in black inside the house the morning of the deaths, was among the most remarkable pieces of evidence, according to a probable cause affidavit issued last week. The witness characterized the man as being around 5-foot-10 or taller, athletically built, and with bushy eyebrows.
On addition, investigators were intrigued to a white automobile observed in neighborhood security film in the vicinity of the property. By November 25, they had advised local law enforcement to keep an eye out for the vehicle, which had been identified as a Hyundai Elantra.
Officers at Washington State University, where Kohberger was a PhD student in criminal justice at the time, spotted such a car and determined it was registered to Kohberger, according to the affidavit.
When police checked for his driver’s licence information, they discovered it was compatible with the description of the man clothed in black supplied by the roommate, notably noting his height, weight, and bushy eyebrows, according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, Kohberger acquired a new licence plate for his automobile five days after the deaths. According to Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, who represented the defendant in his extradition, when he was caught in Pennsylvania last week, a white Elantra was discovered at his residence.
Phone records showed Kohberger’s phone had been near the victims’ house at least a dozen times since June, according to the affidavit. The phone was also found near the scene of the deaths hours later, between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m., according to the affidavit.
Furthermore, garbage retrieved from Kohberger’s family home indicated a DNA profile related to DNA on a tan leather knife sheath discovered laying on the bed of one of the victims, according to the affidavit. The DNA collected from the garbage is thought to be that of the biological father of the individual whose DNA was discovered on the sheath, according to the report.
A law enforcement source informed CNN that Kohberger was also being watched for four days before his detention. During that period, he was spotted putting trash bags in neighbours’ garbage cans and “cleaning his car, inside and out, without missing one inch,” according to the source.
A court order forbids the prosecution and defence from making any comments other than referring the case’s public documents.