Court files: Suspect’s DNA found at Idaho crime scene
BOISE, Idaho — The DNA of the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students was found on a knife sheath recovered at the crime scene, and cellphone data shows that he was in the area of the victims’ home multiple times in the months before the November attack, an investigator said in court documents unsealed Thursday.
The documents were made public minutes before Bryan Kohberger, 28, a criminology doctoral student at nearby Washington State University, appeared in court to face four charges of first-degree murder. He was ordered held without bail.
The court documents also detail a surviving roommate’s chilling encounter with a masked intruder the night of the stabbings. But the documents still leave many questions unanswered, including why police weren’t called to the home until nearly eight hours after the killings likely occurred.
According to the unsealed court documents, traces of DNA from a male later determined to be Kohberger were found on the button of a leather knife sheath found in the rental home where the victims were killed. Investigators later closely matched the DNA on the sheath to DNA found in trash taken from Kohberger’s parents’ home in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week.
Two other roommates were at home during the Nov. 13 killings, but were not harmed, according to the affidavit written by Brett Payne, a police corporal in Moscow, Idaho.
Surveillance footage captured near the home showed a white sedan — later identified as a Hyundai Elantra — drove by the home three times in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, returning a fourth time at about 4:04 a.m. The car was next spotted on surveillance cameras leaving the victims home 16 minutes later “at a high rate of speed,” according to the affidavit.
Latah County prosecutors said they believe Kohberger broke into the victims’ home intending to commitmurder.Butinvestigators have made no statements about whether they think Kohberger knew the victims: Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Ethan Chapin, 20; and Xana Kernodle, 20.
Kohberger was extradited Wednesday from Pennsylvania.
One of the surviving roommates said she was woken by noises at about 4 a.m., and thought she heard a housemate say something like, “There’s someone here.” She looked outside her bedroom and didn’t see anything. Later she thought she heard crying coming from Kernodle’s room and looked outside. That’s when she said she heard a male voice say something to the effect of, “It’s OK, I’m going to help you,” Payne wrote in the affidavit.
She opened her door a third time and saw a masked man in black clothing whom she did not recognize walking toward her and stood in “frozen shock” as he walked past her toward a sliding glass door, the affidavit said. She went back to her room and locked the door.
Investigators believe the suspect then left the home.