What to Know
- The man accused in the November slayings of four University of Idaho students arrived in Idaho Wednesday night to face first-degree murder charges after leaving a Pennsylvania jail in the custody of state police.
- Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Washington State University, was flown by Pennsylvania State Police to Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport, a small regional airport near the Idaho border, and handed over to local authorities Wednesday evening.
- Kohberger's arrival means the court documents filed in his case should soon be unsealed, potentially shedding some light on Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson's reasons for accusing Kohburger.
The suspect in the November slayings of four University of Idaho students has arrived in Idaho, where he is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary.
Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Washington State University, was flown by Pennsylvania State Police to Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport, a small regional airport near the Idaho border, and handed over to local authorities Wednesday evening.
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Uniformed law enforcement officers were waiting on the tarmac for the Pennsylvania State Police plane to land, and then they escorted the handcuffed Kohberger to a caravan of five vehicles for the short drive from Washington across the Idaho border to the Latah County Jail.
Kohberger's arrival means the court documents filed in his case should soon be unsealed, potentially shedding some light on Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson's reasons for accusing Kohberger.
Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in eastern Pennsylvania last week in connection with the stabbing deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
On Tuesday Kohberger agreed to be extradited to Idaho, and his attorney Jason LaBar said Kohberger was eager to be exonerated.
Police have released few details about the investigation and a magistrate judge has issued a sweeping gag order barring attorneys, law enforcement agencies and other officials from discussing the criminal case. But court filings, including a document laying out Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson's reasons for accusing Kohberger of the killings, are expected to be unsealed now that Kohberger has arrived.
The nighttime attack at a home near the University of Idaho campus spread fear through the surrounding community, as authorities seemed stumped by the brutal stabbings. Investigators appeared to make a breakthrough, however, after searching for a white sedan that was seen around the time of the killings and analyzing DNA evidence collected from the crime scene.
Investigators have said they were still searching for a motive and the weapon used in the attack.
The bodies of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington were found Nov. 13 at the rental home where the women lived. Kernodle and Chapin were dating, and he had been visiting the house that night.
Capt. Anthony Dahlinger, of the Moscow Police Department in Idaho, told The Associated Press on Saturday that authorities believe Kohberger was responsible for all four slayings at a rental home near campus.
“We believe we’ve got our man,” said Dahlinger, adding that investigators obtained samples of Kohberger’s DNA directly from him after he was arrested.
Latah County, Idaho, prosecutors have said they believe Kohberger broke into the victims’ home intending to commit murder.
Jason LaBar, the chief public defender in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, said Kohberger is eager to be exonerated and should be presumed innocent and “not tried in the court of public opinion."
After Tuesday’s hearing, LaBar described Kohberger as “an ordinary guy,” and said that after his extradition he would be represented by the chief public defender in Kootenai County, Idaho.
Moscow police had already identified a white Hyundai Elantra seen near the scene of the crime, and asked the public for help finding the white sedan. Tips poured in, and Idaho investigators soon were trying to narrow down a list of roughly 20,000 possible vehicles to find the right one.
The Indiana State Police announced Tuesday that on Dec. 15, a trooper stopped a white Hyundai Elantra on Interstate 70 for following too closely. A body camera worn by the trooper appeared to show Bryan Kohberger in the driver's seat, the police said. At the time, there was no information available to the trooper that would have identified Kohberger as a suspect in the Idaho killings, the agency said, and he was released with a verbal warning.
Kohberger had also been stopped a few minutes earlier by a deputy from the Hancock County Sheriff's Department for following too closely, and given a verbal warning, the sheriff's department said.
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