What are the latest details, evidence on the University of Idaho killings? Here’s what we know

MOSCOW (Idaho Statesman) — It’s been almost a month since Bryan Kohberger, the suspect charged in the fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students, last appeared in court and had his preliminary hearing date set for June 26.

Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania on Dec. 30. He faces four counts of felony first-degree murder and a felony burglary charge in the Nov. 13 attack that took the lives of University of Idaho seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington.

Since Kohberger’s last appearance in court Jan. 12, the Idaho Statesman has continued in-depth coverage on the case.

Here’s what we know and what has happened since the weekend of Nov. 12-13.

WHAT ARE THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS?

A gag order issued by Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall in early January preventing communication about the case from “investigators, law enforcement personnel, attorneys, and agents of the prosecuting attorney or defense attorney” was updated Jan. 19.

The updated order prohibits attorneys who are representing a witness, victim or victim’s family from discussing the case, in addition to the parties who were already prohibited. More than two dozen news outlets, including the Statesman and EastIdahoNews.com, have filed a petition with the Idaho Supreme Court to remove the order.

A pair of search warrants were unsealed Jan. 18, revealing that police had seized over a dozen items from Kohberger’s apartment in Pullman, Washington. Among the seized items include a black rubber glove, a vacuum dust container and red-stained bedding, according to the warrants.

The Statesman has also learned that Kohberger told a neighbor of prior DNA testing and that Kohberger’s court-appointed public defender, Anne Taylor, was actively representing one of the parents of the victims. Taylor filed an attorney withdrawal notice for the parent to represent Kohberger instead.

Along with continued coverage, the Statesman has prepared a timeline of events from the hours before the stabbings to Kohberger’s return to Idaho. You can read that timeline here.

WHO IS BRYAN KOHBERGER?

He is a 28-year-old Ph.D. student who was studying criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University. He finished his first semester in December. Police said in a news conference that Kohberger lived by the university in Pullman, about a 9-mile drive from Moscow and the University of Idaho.

Washington State University’s fall course catalog listed Kohberger as an assistant instructor for three undergraduate criminal justice courses. All three courses finished Dec. 9, according to the catalog, almost a month after the killings.

Court records show Kohberger is originally from Albrightsville, a hamlet in the Pocono Mountains near Chestnuthill Township in northeastern Pennsylvania. He graduated from Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania with an associate degree in psychology in 2018.

Kohberger next attended DeSales University in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and a master’s degree in criminal justice in May 2022. At DeSales, he conducted a survey as part of a research project seeking information from people who had committed crimes.

Among the questions in the survey were, “Did you prepare for the crime before leaving your home?” and, “How did you leave the scene?”

A review of court records in Washington, Idaho and Pennsylvania showed no criminal history for Kohberger, aside from an August 2022 infraction for failing to wear a seat belt in Latah County, where the University of Idaho is.

Kohberger’s father flew to Washington state and accompanied his son on a drive back to Pennsylvania for the holidays, something that had been planned all along, according to Jason LaBar, the attorney who represented Kohberger in Pennsylvania for his extradition. While on the cross-country road trip, the pair were twice pulled over by police in Indiana, each time for following too closely. They were issued warnings in both traffic stops, according to Indiana State Police and the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office.

Police released the body-camera footage from both stops, each showing Bryan Kohberger driving a white Hyundai Elantra with Washington plates.

WHAT DO THOSE WHO KNOW KOHBERGER HAVE TO SAY ABOUT HIM?

Kohberger was “gregarious and outgoing,” one of his classmates at Washington State told the Statesman. The classmate, Ben Roberts, said that Kohberger was “a little more eager” than his other classmates to present himself to others.

Roberts said that Kohberger would sit front and center of class and participate in every discussion — until a discussion about the Moscow homicides.

“He was completely silent,” Roberts said.

Other students told the Statesman that Kohberger “talked down to LGBTQ+ individuals, those who are in a marginalized community, those who were disabled, and women.” They also noted Kohberger said he “believed in traditional marriage” and got visibly upset when a colleague hung a pride ally flag on their office door.

A former high school classmate told NBC’s “Dateline” and ABC’s “20/20” that Kohberger was overweight as a teenager and she believes that girls used to bully him. The classmate, Casey Arntz, said that she stayed in touch with Kohberger after high school.

One of Kohberger’s students at Washington State, Hayden Stinchfield, told “Dateline” and “20/20” that Kohberger was unapproachable as a teaching assistant and would grade students harshly. Stinchfield noted that Kohberger’s grading style became much more lenient in the final weeks of the semester, after Nov. 13.

WHAT HAPPENED THE WEEKEND OF THE KILLINGS?

Shortly before noon Pacific time on Sunday, Nov. 13, Moscow police officers responded to a 911 call about an unconscious person at a house near campus. They walked in to find the four victims’ bodies. Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt reported that the students had been stabbed to death in the early morning hours with a large, fixed-blade knife.

The three female victims — Kernodle, Mogen and Goncalves — lived at the King Road home during the fall semester with at least two other roommates, both of whom were unharmed. The Statesman previously reported that all three female victims were current residents, but Kristi Goncalves, mother of Kaylee, told NBC that her daughter had recently moved out of the house and was back for the weekend to visit Mogen.

Chapin was staying the night with Kernodle, whom he was dating, according to family.

The probable cause affidavit, written by Moscow Police Cpl. Brett Payne, indicates that the stabbings most likely happened between 4 and 4:25 a.m. Moscow police came to this conclusion following interviews with the two surviving roommates.

Autopsies confirmed that all four students died from multiple stab wounds. The autopsy also suggested that the victims were likely asleep when the attacks started; according to Payne’s account, he found the bodies of Kernodle and Chapin on the second floor. The affidavit is not clear on the location. Kernodle was on the floor.

Mogen and Goncalves were found in the same bed in Mogen’s third-floor bedroom.

Some victims showed defensive wounds, indicating they may have struggled against the attacker. None of the victims showed signs of sexual assault, according to the coroner.

Kristi Goncalves told NBC that she initially received a call from a relative with connections in Moscow that “something bad happened to Kaylee.” Goncalves said she remained calm until someone from the Sheriff’s Office visited her house and told her what had happened.

WHAT DID THE SUSPECT DO BEFORE AND AFTER THE STABBINGS?

Moscow police used cellphone service data and security cameras throughout Moscow and Pullman to follow Kohberger’s suspected activities before and after the stabbings. According to cellphone pings at nearby cellular towers, Kohberger had visited the King Road area 12 times before the weekend the killings occurred, police say.

But according to telecommunications expert and former electrical engineer Ben Levitan, whom the Statesman interviewed, cellphone records can provide only someone’s estimated location, not pinpoint their exact location. Levitan said that the nearest cell tower to the King Road home covers an area of 27.3 square miles, so while cellphone data can show Kohberger switching between a tower that services Moscow and one that services Pullman, it doesn’t show his exact position.

At 2:42 a.m. Nov. 13, cellphone data shows Kohberger left his residence in Pullman, according to police. At 3:28 a.m., a white Hyundai Elantra with no front license plate was seen driving through Moscow. Between 3:29 a.m. and 4:04 a.m., security footage showed a similar vehicle driving past 1122 King Road several times.

At about 4:20 a.m., the vehicle was spotted leaving the King Road area at a high speed. Camera footage and cellphone pings show Kohberger traveling south to Genesee before heading west toward Uniontown, Washington, and then north back to Pullman.

Cellphone data shows that Kohberger returned to the King Street area at about 9:12 a.m. Later that day, he also visited Clarkston, Washington, just across the Snake River from Lewiston, which is south of Moscow.

WHAT WERE THE VICTIMS DOING BEFORE THE ATTACK?

Kernodle and Chapin were at a party at the Sigma Chi fraternity house — less than a 600-foot walk from the house on King Road — and returned home at about 1:45 a.m. that Sunday, police said.

Goncalves and Mogen spent the evening at the Corner Club bar before stopping at a food truck parked downtown on the way home. They used a “private party” for a ride home from the food truck, police said. Both women were home at around 1:56 a.m., police said.

The ride-share driver who took Goncalves and Mogen home the morning of the killings also spoke to two media outlets. NewsNation and The Daily Mail each reported that the man, referred to by police as a “private party” in shuttling the two young women home, agreed to speak with them on the condition of anonymity.

He said that he was familiar with Goncalves and Mogen, as well as Kernodle, from prior ride-share trips, and that he noticed “nothing out of the ordinary about that night,” according to The Daily Mail.

Multiple calls were made from Goncalves’ and Mogen’s cellphones between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. to a male who did not answer. Goncalves’ sister, Alivea Goncalves, said the calls were made to her sister’s ex-boyfriend, she told The New York Times. Her sister was known for frequently making late-night phone calls, she said.

According to statements made from the surviving roommates, all five roommates plus Chapin were home by 2 a.m. and in their rooms by 4 a.m., aside from Kernodle, who received a DoorDash order around 4 a.m.

According to surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen’s police interview, she was awakened at around 4 a.m. in her second-floor bedroom by what sounded like Goncalves playing with her dog in a room on the third floor. Mortensen also said that she thought she heard someone say, “There’s someone here.” Phone records show that Kernodle was likely awake and using TikTok at 4:12 a.m., police say.

Soon after, Mortensen said that she heard crying. Upon opening her door, she saw a figure clad in black walk past her and toward the sliding doors on the second floor. Mortensen described the figure as “5-foot-10 or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows.” The man wore a mask over his mouth and nose, she told police.

THE SEARCH FOR A WHITE HYUNDAI ELANTRA

Police first asked for the public’s help in locating a white 2011-13 Hyundai Elantra on Dec. 7, stating that they believed the driver or any passengers had knowledge that could help the investigation. Before asking for the public’s help, they also alerted local law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for white Elantras on Nov. 25.

On Nov. 29, Washington State University police searched for white Elantras registered at the university, which led to them discovering Kohberger’s name, according to Moscow police. The license information and photograph on the university’s database matched Mortensen’s description. The car registered to Kohberger was a white 2015 Elantra.

The probable cause affidavit says at an unspecified date an expert told police the car they were looking for could be from 2011 to 2016.

On Dec. 15, body-cam and dash-cam footage released by the Indiana State Police showed Kohberger and his father pulled over twice within a 10-minute span along a stretch of eastbound Interstate 70. Kohberger was behind the wheel of his white 2015 Elantra and identified himself to police on both occasions.

Upon Kohberger’s arrest in Pennsylvania, police seized the vehicle, which was parked at his parents’ house.

WHAT OTHER EVIDENCE DO POLICE HAVE?

Police found a knife sheath left at the scene of the crime. According to the probable cause affidavit, DNA was taken from the knife sheath and sent to the Idaho State Laboratory along with trash obtained from Kohberger’s parents’ house in Pennsylvania, where Kohberger was arrested.

When comparing the DNA found on the sheath to the DNA from the trash, test results “identified a male as not being excluded as the biological father” of the suspect. Specifically, “at least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father,” investigators wrote in the affidavit.

Police also seized more than a dozen items from Kohberger’s apartment in Pullman, according to two unsealed search warrants. Police executed the warrant on Dec. 30 and seized a black rubber glove; a vacuum dust container; red-stained bedding, a desktop computer tower; an Amazon Fire TV Stick cord/plug; a Walmart sales receipt and two receipts for Marshalls department store; and 13 possible hair strands.

Moscow Police Sgt. Dustin Blaker wrote in a statement seeking the warrant that it was likely that blood from the scene of the crime at the King Road residence “likely transferred to Kohberger’s person, clothing, or shoes.”

Idaho Statesman reporters Sally Krutzig, Kevin Fixler, Angela Palermo and Mia Maldonado contributed.