DNA, other evidence led investigators to Kohberger

Investigators said they used DNA evidence, phone records and surveillance footage to link murder suspect Bryan Kohberger to the killings of four University of Idaho students, according to newly unsealed court documents.

Kohberger, 28, of Pullman is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, all felonies.

After his arrest Friday, Dec. 30, in Pennsylvania, Kohberger was returned to Idaho and appeared before a Latah County judge Thursday morning. He is being held without bail in the Latah County Jail.

Kootenai County’s chief public defender, Anne Taylor, now represents Kohberger. Kootenai County commissioners approved an agreement Tuesday with Latah County to provide public defense services, though the details of the agreement are not publicly available.

Thursday, the court unsealed a partially redacted affidavit of probable cause, which is a summary of the evidence and circumstances leading to Kohberger’s arrest.

Kohberger allegedly murdered four students — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — in a rental home on King Road, near the U of I campus, in the early morning hours of Nov. 13. Investigators believe the murders occurred between 4 and 4:25 a.m.

Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle were from Kootenai County and graduated from local schools, while Chapin was from Conway, Wash.

Police found Kernodle and Chapin deceased in the same room on the second floor of the house, while Mogen and Goncalves were found together in Mogen’s room on the third floor.

Investigators collected a “tan leather knife sheath” from the scene, court documents said, and found DNA on it. The sheath was stamped with “Ka-Bar,” “USMC” and the U.S. Marine Corps insignia.

All occupants of the house were believed to be in their bedrooms by 4 a.m., except for Kernodle, who received a DoorDash order around 4 a.m. Phone data showed she was using the TikTok app at 4:12 a.m.

A surviving roommate told police she was awakened around 4 a.m. by what sounded like Goncalves playing with her dog in an upstairs bedroom.

The roommate then heard who she thought was Goncalves say, “There’s someone here.”

At that point, the roommate said she looked out of her bedroom but didn’t hear anything. She opened her door again when she heard what sounded like crying coming from Kernodle’s room, followed by a male voice.

“It’s OK,” the voice reportedly said. “I’m going to help you.”

At 4:17 a.m., a security camera at a residence less than 50 feet from Kernodle’s bedroom picked up distorted audio of what sounded like “voices or a whimper, followed by a loud thud,” court documents said. A dog began barking.

The roommate said she opened her door a third time and saw a man dressed in black and wearing a mask that covered the mouth and nose. The man was 5 feet, 10 inches tall or taller, she said, with bushy eyebrows and an athletic build.

She stood in a “frozen shock phase” as the man walked toward the back sliding door. Then she locked herself in her bedroom.

A footprint found at the crime scene was consistent with the roommate’s description of the suspect’s path, court documents said.

Surveillance footage showed a white sedan with no front license plate make multiple passes by the King Road house between 3:29 a.m. and 4:20 a.m. The vehicle reportedly left the area at a high speed and appeared to be headed toward Pullman.

A forensic examiner identified the vehicle as a 2011-2016 white Hyundai Elantra. Additional surveillance footage caught a sedan matching that description heading toward Moscow around 2:53 a.m. and returning to Pullman after 5 a.m.

Two weeks after the killings, police asked area law enforcement agencies to watch for white Elantras. On Nov. 29, a Washington State University officer located a 2015 white Elantra with a Pennsylvania license plate registered to Kohberger.

Kohberger was also connected to the vehicle through a review of Latah County reports that included a traffic stop in August in Moscow during which Kohberger was detained. He was driving a white Elantra with Pennsylvania plates set to expire Nov. 30, 2022. He was also detained in October during a traffic stop by a WSU police officer, and Kohberger was again driving the white Elantra.

In Pennsylvania, police said, a front license plate is not required. Five days after the killings, Kohberger registered the vehicle in Washington.

Kohberger studied criminal justice and criminology at WSU. Court documents indicate that he applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department in fall 2022, submitting an essay where he described an interest in “assisting rural law enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data in public safety operations.”

Police had Kohberger’s cell phone number from a traffic stop in August, but the phone did not utilize any cell towers in the area between 3 and 5 a.m. Nov. 13.

Investigators obtained a search warrant for Kohberger’s phone data on the days before and after the murders. That data showed Kohberger leaving his Pullman residence before 3 a.m. and heading south out of Pullman the night of the killings.

The phone stopped transmitting signals around 2:47 a.m. and didn’t resume until nearly 5 a.m., utilizing cell towers near the town of Blaine. The phone then used towers heading into Pullman.

Phone records dating back to June showed that Kohberger’s phone used cell towers serving the King Road home at least a dozen times before Nov. 13. All but one occasion occurred late at night or early in the morning.

On Dec. 27, Pennsylvania police recovered trash from Kohberger's family's residence in Albrightsville, Pa. and sent it to the Idaho State Lab for testing.

The next day, the lab reported that the profile of the DNA obtained from the trash indicated a high probability it is from the biological father of the person who left DNA on the knife sheath at the Moscow crime scene.

A status hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 12.

In Idaho, first-degree murder is punishable by up to life in prison or the death penalty.