Suspect set to waive extradition hearing
BOISE, Idaho — A suspect arrested in connection with the slayings of four University of Idaho students plans to waive an extradition hearing so he can be quickly brought to Idaho to face murder charges, his defense attorney said Saturday.
Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student and teaching assistant in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, was taken into custody early Friday morning by the Pennsylvania State Police at his parents’ home in Chestnuthill Township, authorities said.
Bill Thompson, a prosecutor in Latah County, Idaho, said during a news conference Friday that investigators believe Kohberger broke into the University of Idaho students’ home near campus “with the intent to commit murder.” The bodies of the students — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — were found on Nov. 13, several hours after investigators believe they died.
The arrest in the disturbing case brought a sense of relief to the small northern Idaho college town after weeks passed with little information released by police. But it has also raised questions about whether the suspect knew the victims, what he has been doing in the weeks since the killings and how authorities tracked him down in Pennsylvania.
Kohberger’s attorney, chief public defender Jason LaBar, said Kohberger plans to tell a judge in Monroe County, Pa., on Tuesday he will waive his extradition hearing so he can be quickly brought to Idaho to face the charges and is eager to be exonerated.
LaBar also cautioned people against passing judgment on the case until a trial is held. The case has generated massive amounts of speculation on social media, with would-be sleuths frequently trying to pin the blame for the deaths on various friends and acquaintances of the victims.
“Mr. Kohberger has been accused of very serious crimes, but the American justice system cloaks him in a veil of innocence,” LaBar wrote in a prepared statement. “He should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise — not tried in the court of public opinion.”
Neighbors of the Kohberger family in Chestnuthill Township, Pa., told the Scranton Times-Tribune on Friday they were shocked to see law enforcement vehicles outside the home.
Eileen Cesaretti, who lives across the street, said she loves Kohberger’s parents and is fond of their son, who she said helped her and her husband around their house when he was home from school.
“I don’t think he’s capable of doing something like this. I pray to God he’s innocent,” Cesaretti said.
Nephi Duff lives next door to Bryan Kohberger at a Washington State University apartment complex for graduate students and families. He told Spokane, Wash.-based television station KREM2 that recent crimes like the slayings in Moscow have left him feeling unsafe.
“I don’t recall ever seeing him around,” Duff said of Kohberger. “I thought I was moving to a safe, small community, but that hasn’t been the case recently. I just think if these things are happening right under my nose, how do I protect [my family]?”
BK Norton, a student in the WSU Criminal Justice and Criminology Department, said Friday that they didn’t know Kohberger well but didn’t like him.
“We interacted in class, but personally, I was not a fan of Bryan because of comments he had made about LGBTQ+ individuals,” they said in an email to The Associated Press. “He was a little off, but I always thought it was because he was awkward and wanted to fit in.”
Thompson, the Idaho prosecutor, has asked anyone who knows Kohberger to call the police tip line to share the information.
“Call the tip line, report anything you know about him to help the investigators and eventually our office and the court system understand fully everything there is to know about not only the individual, but what happened and why,” Thompson said.
Federal and state investigators are now combing through Kohberger’s background, financial records and electronic communications as they work to identify a motive and build the case, a law enforcement official who could not publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The investigators are also interviewing people who knew Kohberger, including those at WSU, the official said.