What we know about the person who was arrested in the killings of college students in Idaho.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger arrested : The man who was arrested in connection with the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in November went to a nearby college and lived just a few miles from where the bodies were found.
The criminal complaint says that Bryan Christopher Kohberger, who is 28 years old, was arrested in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, on Friday. He was wanted for first-degree murder by the Moscow, Idaho, Police Department and the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office.
The four students who died—Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, Kernodle’s boyfriend—were all stabbed multiple times in the early hours of November 13 at a house off campus in the small college town of Moscow.
According to a now-removed university graduate directory, Kohberger is a graduate student in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University. CNN saw this directory earlier on Friday.
In a statement released Friday night, the university said Kohberger finished his first semester as a PhD student in the school’s criminal justice programme in December.
The statement also said that university police helped the police search his office and apartment, both of which were on the Pullman campus of the school.
Earlier, a CNN crew filmed police officers outside a WSU graduate residence in Pullman that was linked to Kohberger, according to the authorities.
The killings happened in Moscow, which is about 15 minutes by car from Pullman.
A post on Reddit that asked about crimes
A statement on the school’s website says that Kohberger went to DeSales University as an undergraduate and as a graduate student. The official Facebook page for DeSales University says that it is a Catholic school in Pennsylvania.
A spokesperson for the university said that he got his bachelor’s degree in 2020 and finished his “graduate studies for the master of arts in criminal justice programme” earlier this year.
On November 13, four University of Idaho students were killed off campus. Their names were Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen.
Four University of Idaho students were killed, and a graduate student at a nearby school has been arrested.
In a post that was taken down from Reddit after the arrest was made public, Bryan Kohberger, a student investigator for a DeSales University study, asked for people to take part in a study “to find out how emotions and psychological traits affect criminal decision-making.”
The now-removed Reddit post said, “In particular, this study wants to know the story behind your most recent crime, with a focus on what you were thinking and feeling at the time.”
CNN tried to talk to one of the main researchers on that study, a professor at DeSales University, but they wouldn’t say anything about it. The university hasn’t said anything yet.
CNN was also told by a representative of Northampton Community College that Kohberger was a student there and graduated in 2018 with an Associate of Arts in Psychology.
How the police were able to narrow their search
This month, police asked the public if they knew anything about a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra that they thought was in the “immediate area” of the crime scenes when the murders happened. Police had said before that after that call, a huge number of tips came in.
Investigators eventually narrowed their focus to Kohberger after finding out that he was the owner of that Elantra. Two law enforcement sources who were briefed on the investigation said that Kohberger was the main suspect.
His DNA also matched DNA that was found at the crime scene, the sources said. They also said that police think Kohberger left the area after the crime and went to Pennsylvania.
Sources also said that an FBI team had been keeping an eye on the suspect in the area where he was caught for several days.
One law enforcement source says that Kohberger drove the Elantra across the country and got to his parents’ house in Pennsylvania around Christmas.
Authorities kept an eye on Kohberger while investigators from the Moscow Police Department, the Idaho State Police, and the FBI worked with prosecutors to find enough evidence to get a warrant for his arrest.
A law enforcement source said that Kohberger was followed all over the country and that his parents’ house was also being watched.
Authorities want to know more about a suspect.
Still, the police want to talk to people who might know more about Kohberger.
Friday, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said, “This is not the end of this investigation. In fact, it’s just the beginning.” “You all now know the name of the person who has been accused of these crimes. Please spread this information and ask anyone who knows anything about this person to come forward.”
“Tell the investigators everything you know about him so that they, and eventually our office and the court system, can learn everything there is to know not only about the person, but also about what happened and why,” Thompson said.
Documents show Kohberger was charged with a crime on Friday morning. On Tuesday, he will have another court hearing in Pennsylvania about being sent to prison.
