A suspect has been named in the investigation into the homicide of four University of Idaho students who were found killed in an off-campus rental apartment in Nov. 2022. Three of the four victims were roommates and one victim was the boyfriend of one roommate. The victims—Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; Ethan Chapin, 20; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21—were stabbed to death nearly two months ago, and law enforcement kept details of the case pretty quiet.
As reported by CNN, suspect 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger is accused of killing the four students. He faces four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary, according to prosecutor Bill Thompson, who spoke during a news conference following Kohberger’s arrest.
Kohberger denies these allegations, per the attorney representing him for his extradition hearing, Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar. (LaBar is not part of Kohberger’s murder defense team.) The public doesn’t know a lot at the time of writing, but what we do know is below.
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Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania while visiting his parents over the holidays. He was arrested on Friday, Dec. 30, at around 3 in the morning. CBS News reports that doors and windows were broken in the parent's home and that both parents were home during the arrest.
Investigators reportedly homed in on Kohberger as a suspect after tying ownership of a white Hyundai Elantra (which you might remember police put out an alert to the public about) back to him, per CNN via two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation. ABC News reports that per anonymous law enforcement sources, a public genealogy database matched DNA recovered from the scene.
According to CNN, an FBI surveillance team monitored Kohberger for several days before his arrest. The probable-cause affidavit remains sealed until the suspect appears in Idaho court. There is also now a court order prohibiting both the prosecution and defense from public comment (unless it’s public record).
On Saturday, Moscow Police Chief James Fry told ABC News, “We believe we have our guy, the one that committed these murders.” Fry doesn’t anticipate further arrests as of the time of the interview.
Kohberger attended Washington State University’s criminology doctoral program, which is located in Pullman, about ten miles from Moscow.
In speaking to The Daily Beast in an interview, former classmate Nick Mcloughlin told the outlet that Kohberger had been overweight in high school, but finished their senior year “thinner than a rail” and “aggressive.”
“He always wanted to fight somebody,” Mcloughling recalled. “He was bullying people. We started cutting him off from our friend group because he was 100 percent a different person.”
Another former high school classmate, Sara Healey, told Fox News she remembered Kohberger as having something “off” about him and that he was “bullied a lot.”
As reported by BuzzFeed News (who reportedly viewed the post before the account was suspended shortly after Kohberger’s arrest), a June 2022 Reddit post from an account with Kohberger’s name presented an anonymous survey related to a research project seeking to “understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime.”
“I want him to be sick of seeing us,” Steven Goncalves, father of Kaylee, told NBC News in an interview on Monday. “And sick of knowing these people won’t let it go.” He added: “It’s a battle of wills, and we’ll see who wins.”
In a statement shared on Facebook, the Chapin family said: "We are relieved this chapter is over because it provides a form of closure. However, it doesn't alter the outcome or alleviate the pain. We miss Ethan, and our family is forever changed."
It is not publicly known if the victims knew the suspect. No possible motive has been made public. Police have not located a murder weapon. Kohberger is the first person to be arrested in connection to the murders.