June 21 (UPI) — Samples taken from an Idaho murder scene last year contain a match to DNA taken from the cheek of suspect Bryan Kohberger, according to court documents.
In a motion filed last week and made public Wednesday, prosecutors contend the FBI’s crime lab matched Kohberger’s sample to DNA found on the sheath of the Ka-Bar brand knife recovered from the crime scene in Moscow, Idaho.
The FBI took control of the investigation from the Idaho State Police.
Federal agents used investigative genetic genealogy as part of their research, initially collecting trash from the family home in Pennsylvania, which contained DNA from Kohberger’s father. They later constructed a family tree. Kohberger, 28, was indicted by a grand jury in May.
He did not speak during the arraignment.
The former Ph.D. criminology student at nearby Washington State University is charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
Xana Kernodle, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were found stabbed to death in an off-campus house for the University of Idaho in Moscow, a town of 25,800 people.
The four were found dead in late November.
Kohberger later drove across the country to spend the holidays at the family home in Pennsylvania. He was arrested there in December and agreed to be extradited to Idaho to face the charges.
