Roommate of Idaho murder victims saw black-clad figure in their house
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People who knew suspect Bryan Kohberger (left) say the criminal justice and criminology doctorate student had an analytical mind but could be cruel.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MOSCOW, Idaho – A criminology student charged with killing four University of Idaho students in a brutal stabbing attack
The suspect, Bryan Kohberger, 28, was taken into custody at his parents’ home in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania on Friday, nearly seven weeks after the deadly attack that horrified a college town in the hills of northern Idaho.
In court records made public after the suspect arrived back in Idaho to face murder charges, investigators wrote that a tan leather knife sheath was found on the bed next to one of the victims in the rental house where they were found stabbed to death.
The sheath, investigators said, had DNA on the button snap that was linked to Kohberger through a comparison with his father’s DNA.
Investigators did not detail a motive for the killings.
They said a review of surveillance footage from the neighbourhood of the murders showed that a white Hyundai Elantra similar to the one Kohberger drove was seen several times in the neighbourhood of the killings between 3.29am and 4.20am.
The vehicle made three passes by the residence where the killings occurred before returning a fourth time shortly after 4am.
The vehicle was seen 16 minutes later departing the area “at a high rate of speed”.
One of the surviving roommates in the house told investigators that she was awakened around 4am by noises that sounded like one of the victims playing with her dog upstairs.
Then she heard someone say something like, “There’s someone here.”
The roommate told investigators that she looked out of her bedroom but did not see anything.
Later, she said, she thought she heard crying coming from another room, then heard a male voice say something to the effect of, “It’s OK; I’m going to help you.”
The roommate reported looking out her bedroom door again after that and seeing a figure in black clothing and a mask covering the mouth and nose walk towards her and then to the back door.
The person had “bushy eyebrows”, she told investigators – a detail that they later concluded also matched the suspect.
The roommate said she locked herself in her room.
It is unclear why she did not call 911 at that time. Authorities were not called to the scene for several more hours.
Authorities did not detail any previous links between Kohberger and the victims, but said his phone had connected to cell towers near the residence in Moscow a dozen times in the months before the night of the killings.
That night, the victims had been out at a party and a bar near the University of Idaho campus in Moscow. In the early morning hours, Kohberger’s cellphone was detected in Pullman, Washington, where he lived, but it stopped connecting to cell networks at 2.47am.
The phone did not reconnect to the networks until 4.48am, when it made contact with towers south of Moscow. It then travelled a circuitous route back to Pullman, the investigators said, reaching there around 5.30am.
The investigation appeared to suggest that Kohberger returned to the crime scene: Later in the morning, the phone was detected in Moscow around 9.12am, connecting with the cell tower that serves the neighbourhood where the killings occurred. It stayed there for about nine minutes.
Kohberger, who faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary, agreed in a court appearance in Pennsylvania on Tuesday to be extradited and is now being held at the Latah County Jail in Moscow, Idaho.
In court on Thursday, his public defender, Ms Anne Taylor, said Kohberger “has a good family that stands behind him”.
He did not enter a plea.
The suspect was pursuing a doctorate in criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, about 15km from Moscow, where the murders took place. Some who know him said Kohberger had an analytical mind but could also be cruel.
Three of the victims – Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; and Xana Kernodle, 20 – lived in the house where the killings took place. A fourth, Ethan Chapin, 20, was there visiting Kernodle, his girlfriend.
The suspect received a new licence plate for his car five days after the murders. As police in Idaho were looking for information about a car fitting that description seen at the crime scene, he was stopped twice by the police in Indiana on Dec 15, while driving across the country. NYTIMES
