Jan. 5 (UPI) — The chilling details of Bryan Kohberger’s activities on the night four University of Idaho students were stabbed and killed were revealed in a police affidavit on Thursday.
Investigators used cellphone data to place Kohberger in the area of the killings, DNA evidence to identify him and eyewitness accounts to determine how the killings may have played out.
Moscow, Idaho, Police Cpl. Brett Payne said that the killings took place on the second and third floors of the residence where Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernoldle, 20, lived.
The bodies of Kernoldle and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were found in Kernoldle’s room on the second floor of the off-campus home. Mogen and Goncalves were found together in Goncalves’ room.
Two roommates of the victims, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were also in the home at the time. Both were on the first floor where their rooms are.
On the night of the November killing, Kernoldle and Chapin attended an event at a fraternity house, according to Funke. They are believed to have returned to the home on King Road by 2 a.m. Meanwhile Mogen and Goncalves were at the Corner Club, a local bar on North Main St. At about 1:30 a.m., they stopped for food at a food truck before going home.
Mortenson and Funke said all of the victims were home and in their bedrooms by 4 a.m.
Shortly after 4 a.m. Kernoldle was using TikTok, according to phone data. At around that time, Moretenson said she believed she heard someone say “there’s someone here.” She looked out her bedroom door and did not see anything. A few moments later she looked again when she thought she heard someone crying, then a male voice saying “”it’s OK, I’m going to help you,” or something similar.
A surveillance camera from a nearby residence picked up audio described as a “whimper” followed by a “loud thud” at about 4:17 a.m.
A short time later, Mortenson saw the suspect, described as a figure dressed in black with bushy eyebrows, walking past her as she stood in her doorway in a “frozen shock phase.”
A Hyundai Elantra believed to be owned by Kohberger was seen on multiple cameras in the area around the time of the killings, including footage of it speeding away from the area at about 4:25 a.m.
A Ka-Bar brand leather knife sheath with a U.S. Marine Corps insignia was found on the scene, along with a latent shoe print of a “Vans type shoe.”
Kohberger, a PhD student in the criminal justice and criminology department at Washington State University, holds undergraduate degrees in psychology and cloud-based forensics. He had applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department in Washington and written an essay about his desire to assist law enforcement in collecting and analyzing data.
The suspect posted a survey on Reddit, asking users to share information about how to “understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision making when committing a crime.”
Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains on Friday. He drove home for the holidays with his father, arriving in Pennsylvania on Dec. 17.
