Almost two months after the murder of four students in Idaho, we now know why the police arrested Bryan Kohberger: His DNA was found on a knife sheath at the scene. Incidentally, the “affidavit” released Thursday justifying his arrest leaves many gray areas hanging over a case that has stunned America.
Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – 20 and a couple – were stabbed to death in their college dorm while they were sleeping on November 13. The murder weapon was never found, but a knife sheath was left on the bed of one of the victims. A trace of DNA was analyzed and matches that found in the trash in the Kohberger, Pennsylvania home.
Bryan Kohberger had turned off his phone the night of the quadruple murders, but phone records show he’d been in the neighborhood a dozen times in the past few weeks. And according to CCTV footage, his car, a white Hyundai Elantra, was near the student house between 3:29 a.m. and 4:20 a.m.
The four University of Idaho students, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen (above), and Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle, were killed on November 13, 2022. – Instagram
One of the survivors faces the killer
Two other students in the dorm were not attacked. One of them, DM, told investigators she heard a noise. And thought I heard one of the victims say, “There’s someone (in the house)”. When she opens the door to her room for the third time, she faces the killer, dressed in black and masked, and only sees “his eyebrows in battle”. She remained “petrified, in shock” and then saw the suspect exit through a sliding patio door. The young girl then locks herself in her room at around 4:17 am. For some reason not explained in the document, she did not call the police until 11:58 am.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, is a criminology graduate student who studied at a nearby university. After the murder, he ordered new license plates, then drove across the country with his father to vacation at the family home in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested on December 30. He initially refused to answer investigators’ questions.