CBS News published December 30, 2022: Police announce arrest in murders of 4 University of Idaho students. Officials in Moscow, Idaho, held a news conference to announce the arrest of 28-year-old Bryan Christopher Kohberger in connection with the murders of four University of Idaho students who were stabbed to death in a home in November. Watch their full remarks.
NewsNation published December 30, 2022: Idaho murders: Suspect on suicide watch. NewsNation's Brian Entin reports Bryan Kohberger is on suicide watch in a Pennsylvania jail after being arrested in connection with the quadruple murder of four University of Idaho students.
Fox News published December 30, 2022: Judge Jeanine: The investigation 'really begins now' in Idaho murders. Fox News co-host Judge Jeanine Pirro joins 'The Five' panelists to react to police arresting a suspect in the slayings of University of Idaho students.
KREM 2 News published December 30, 2022: Suspect in University of Idaho murders arrested in Pennsylvania.
CBS News
written by Allison Elyse Gualtieri
Friday December 30, 2022
A suspect has been arrested for the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students, authorities said Friday. Word of the arrest came more than six weeks after roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle were found stabbed to death in their home in Moscow, Idaho, along with fellow student Ethan Chapin.
The suspect, Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, Moscow Police said during a news conference Friday. He is facing four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary, said Bill Thompson, Latah County prosecutor.
Pennsylvania State Police said Kohberger was arrested on a fugitive from justice warrant. He is being held in Monroe County Correctional Facility pending extradition to Idaho, authorities said.
Officials said they are limited in what information they can release, as the probable cause statement with details of the investigation is sealed under state law until Kohberger has appeared in an Idaho court. He was expected to be back in court in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Thompson said.
Law enforcement sources told CBS News that FBI agents conducted surveillance on Kohberger in Pennsylvania in the days prior to his arrest.
"For a lot of law enforcement, it was a fairly sleepless couple days ... leading up to everything we were doing," Moscow Police Chief James Fry said Friday. "I have faith in those agencies across the nation, I have faith in our officers, I have faith in the FBI, and they did a great job. There was some times, even throughout the day, that we were always concerned."
Kohlberger is a graduate student at Washington State University, the prosecutor said. Kohlberger was listed earlier Friday on Washington State University's website as a Ph.D. student in the department of criminal justice and criminology at the school's campus in Pullman, Washington, although his name was later taken down. Pullman is about 15 minutes from Moscow, Idaho.
DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, confirmed that Kohberger received a bachelor's degree there in 2020 and completed graduate studies in June 2022.
The four victims were found around noon on Sunday, Nov. 13, after a 911 call to police reported an unconscious person. Officials had earlier described the murder weapon as a large fixed-blade knife. Police are still looking for the knife, authorities said Friday.
Investigators allegedly used forensic analysis to link Kohberger to the crime scene, law enforcement sources told CBS News.
Mogen and Goncalves were both 21-year-old seniors at the university, and were best friends. The two had been at a downtown bar called The Corner Club that night and stopped at a food truck.
Kernodle, 20, was a junior and dating 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, a freshman. The two had attended a party earlier at the campus house of Sigma Chi, where Chapin was a member.
"Today we are commemorating our Maddie's and her friend Kaylee with relief knowing that she can now be properly laid to rest," read a statement from the Mogen family. Earlier this month, Goncalves' family had announced on Facebook they would hold a "celebration of life" for Goncalves and Mogen at 3 p.m. local time Friday in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.
"This is the news we have been waiting for and a relief for our community and most importantly, the families of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin," University of Idaho president Scott Green said in an email to students and staff following the arrest. "We are grateful for the hard work of law enforcement to protect our community and bring justice."
He said the university does not appear to have any record of Kohberger.
During the course of the investigation, police said they have fielded 19,000 tips related to the slayings, as well as reviewed more than 113 pieces of physical evidence from the home, "approximately 4,000 photographs" and "multiple" 3-D scans that crime scene investigators took, and had conducted more than 300 interviews. They had initially seized three dumpsters and five cars from the crime scene, but had announced earlier this month they would start returning some of the victims' belongings to their families.
Remediation at the house, set to begin Friday, was halted by the court, said Moscow Police Chief James Fry.
"Since November, investigators have been laser-focused on pursuing every lead in our pursuit of justice. This complex case took extensive work to develop a clear picture of what occurred," he said. Police would not say if any motive had been determined and would not say if they were looking at any other suspects.
Fry said Friday that authorities had located a white Hyundai Elantra. Earlier this month, police had announced they were looking for a white 2011-2013 Elantra in connection with the investigation.
Early on, police had said they did not believe a surviving roommate or the friends who had called 911 had been involved in the killings. They also said they cleared another person, a former sixth roommate who had moved out of the house at the beginning of the school year, and a few other people who had encountered some of the students the prior evening, such as the person who drove Goncalves and Mogen home at the end of the evening.
Rumors and speculation have swirled about the case, circulating online via social media and TikTok, which law enforcement called "a huge distraction."
"Tracking down rumors and quelling rumors about specific individuals or specific events that may or may not have happened is a huge distraction for investigators and oftentimes is the result of social media propagation. And it is very, very frustrating to investigators and hard to stay on track," Moscow Police Capt. Roger Lanier said last week.
Law and Crime Network published December 30, 2022: Idaho Student Murders Suspect Arrested: Everything We Know So Far. Nearly seven weeks after four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their college home, police announced the arrest of 28-year-old Bryan Christopher Kohberger. Kohberger now faces extradition after being charged with four counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. The Law and Crime Network's Angenette Levy breaks down everything we know so far with veteran homicide detective Fil Waters and retired FBI Agent Bobby Chacon.
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New York Post
written by Olivia Land and Mark Lungariello
Friday December 30, 2022
A 28-year-old suspect was taken into custody in connection with the slayings of four University of Idaho students on Friday morning.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger was arrested by police and the FBI around 3 a.m. in Chestnuthill Township in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, according to reports.
Kohberger, who briefly appeared in court Friday morning, was been pursuing a doctorate in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, less than 10 miles from Moscow, where the killings took place.
Following the pre-dawn police raid, a car matching the description of the white Hyundai Elantra authorities have said they were looking for in connection to the murders was also seized.
Kohberger’s DNA has also been matched to samples recovered at the scene of the crimes, according to CNN.
Around the time of his arrest, authorities in Washington state executed search warrants at Kohberger’s apartment and office on Washington State University’s campus, the school said in a statement.
“This horrific act has shaken everyone in the Palouse region,” the university said.
News of the arrest comes almost seven weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were found stabbed to death in their beds at their off-campus home on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13.
Two other roommates were also home at the time of the killings, but were left unharmed.
Local police have been joined by the FBI and state police in a huge investigation to find the killer and had combed through some 20,000 tips and collected thousands of pieces of evidence in relation to the grisly murders.
Law enforcement sources described the bloody crime scene as “the worst they’ve seen” and photos showed blood oozing down the side of the building.
The vicious slayings — which saw each of the victims disturbed in their sleep, then stabbed multiple times in their chest area — have dominated headlines for several weeks, with experts and amateurs alike speculating on possible motives and suspects.
Best friends Goncalves and Mogen, who met in the sixth grade, were last seen on surveillance footage at Moscow’s Corner Club just hours before the stabbings. They subsequently stopped at a food truck before returning to their rented home before 2 a.m. Kernodle and Chapin had been at a party at the nearby Sigma Chi fraternity house and had arrived home shortly before.
Police say the four students were murdered sometime between 3 and 4 a.m. but were not discovered by roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke until much later that morning. Mortensen and Funke had become worried when they could not reach their friends and called police, who made the grim discovery.
Amid criticism over a supposed lack of progress, Moscow Police Chief James Fry previously told the press that any information was useful to his department and urged people to come forward. “Whether you believe it is significant or not, your information might be one of the puzzle pieces that help solve these murders,” he said.
As of this week, police were also continuing their search for a white 2011-13 Hyundai Elantra that was believed to have been in the area at the time of the murders. According to investigators, the occupant of the correct car may have “critical information” related to the case, but as of Friday morning, there was no confirmation whether the suspect in custody was connected to the vehicle. \
Despite the slow pace of the investigation, Mogen’s father, Ben Mogen, told the Spokesman-Review he was hopeful that justice would be served. “From the very beginning, I’ve known people don’t get away with these things these days. There’s too many things that you can get caught up on, like DNA and videos everywhere,” the grieving dad said.
The murders, which took place the week before Thanksgiving, shook the campus in the small city of 25,000 along the border of Washington state.
Chapin was a freshman majoring in recreation, sport and tourism management originally from Mount Vernon, Washington, according to the university. Kernodle had been a junior marketing major and was a Post Falls, Idaho, native.
Goncalves was a senior majoring in general studies from Rathdrum, Idaho, and Mogen was a senior majoring in marketing from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
A chilling photo posted on Instagram hours before the murders showed the four roommates together, smiling, with Mogen on Goncalves’ shoulders.
“One lucky girl to be surrounded by these people every day,” Goncalves wrote.
NewsNation published December 30, 2022: Arrest made 2,500 miles away in Idaho quadruple homicide. The suspect who was arrested in connection with the killing of four University of Idaho students was taken into custody some 2,500 miles away, in eastern Pennsylvania. NewsNation's Xavier Walton has the latest.
NewsNation reports the suspect created a Reddit post 7 months ago, that has since been taken down, asking readers for help with "a research project that seeks to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision making when comitting a crime." Asking questions why did you choose that victim? What was the first move they made? and how did you leave? Fortunately for us someone took a screenshot and shared it with us, CLICK HERE. They are sharing info on Reddit that the suspect was posting gruesome messages on social media after the murders that you can also read at the Reddit link I shared. On Monday, December 12, an Anonymous person posted on 4chan something really sick that he did to the victims and said, "I'm hiding in the woods in shithole PA. Good luck catching me." This indicates he was hiding out in the Pocono Mountains in PA. (emphasis mine)
NewsNation published December 30, 2022: Idaho murders: Investigators leave suspect's apartment with evidence. Nancy Loo reports from the Idaho murders suspect's Pullman, Washington apartment minutes after investigators left with evidence. Loo says they took a computer from the scene, among other items, after searching for hours.
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Associated Press
written by Marc Levy, Rebecca Boone, and Mike Balsamo
Friday December 30, 2022
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A 28-year-old criminal justice graduate student was arrested in eastern Pennsylvania on Friday as a suspect in the mysterious stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students last month, authorities said.
DNA evidence played a key role in identifying Bryan Christopher Kohberger as a suspect in the killings, and officials were able to match his DNA to genetic material recovered during the investigation, a law enforcement official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation.
The students — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — were stabbed to death at a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, sometime in the early morning hours of Nov. 13.
Moscow Police Chief James Fry said Kohberger attends Washington State University, which is only a few miles across the state line from Moscow.
Investigators are still looking for a weapon, Fry said at a press conference. He was emotional as he announced the arrest, calling the victims by their first names.
The killings initially confounded law enforcement and shook the small farming community of about 25,000 people, which hadn’t had a murder for five years. But tips began pouring in after law enforcement asked the public for help finding a white Hyundai Elantra sedan seen near the home around the time of the killings.
In addition to the DNA evidence, authorities also learned Kohberger had a white Hyundai Elantra, the official who spoke anonymously said. In recent days, federal investigators had been watching Kohberger and arrested him early Friday morning at a home in Chestnuthill Township, Pennsylvania.
Federal and state investigators are now combing through his background, financial records and electronic communications as they work to identify a motive and build the case, the official said. The investigators are also interviewing people who knew Kohberger, including those at Washington State University, the official said.
During the press conference, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said investigators believe Kohberger broke into the students’ home “with the intent to commit murder.” He is being held without bond in Pennsylvania, and will be held without bond in Idaho once he is returned, Thompson said. The affidavit for four charges of first-degree murder in Idaho will remain sealed until he is returned, as required by state law.
Kohberger is also charged with felony burglary in Idaho, Thompson said. An extradition hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Kohberger just completed his first semester as a PhD student in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University. He is also a teaching assistant for the university’s criminal justice and criminology program, according to WSU’s online directory. University police assisted Idaho law enforcement in executing search warrants at Kohberger’s campus apartment and office, the university said. WSU officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Kohberger’s work as a teaching assistant.
“This horrific act has shaken everyone in the Palouse region,” said WSU provost Elizabeth Chilton in a prepared statement, referring to the scenic rolling hills surrounding both universities. “We will long feel the loss of these young people in the Moscow-Pullman community and hope the announcement today will be a step toward healing.”
WSU and UI are partners in several academic programs, and students sometimes attend classes and seminars or work at the neighboring schools. That doesn’t appear to be the case with Kohberger: University of Idaho President Scott Green wrote in a memo to students and employees on Friday evening that the Idaho school had no record of him.
Kohberger graduated from Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania with an associate of arts degree in psychology in 2018, said college spokesperson Mia Rossi-Marino. DeSales University in Pennsylvania said that he received a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and completed graduate studies in June 2022.
Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington, were members of the university’s Greek system and close friends. Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle lived in the three-story rental home with two other roommates. Kernodle and Chapin were dating and he was visiting the house that night.
Autopsies showed all four were likely asleep when they were attacked. Some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times. There was no sign of sexual assault, police said.
Police said Thursday the rental home would be cleared of “potential biohazards and other harmful substances” to collect evidence starting Friday morning.
Shanon Gray, an attorney representing Goncalves’s father, Steve Goncalves, said law enforcement officials called the family last night to let them know about the arrest, but gave no additional information about how or why they believe he might be connected to the murders.
Ben Roberts, a graduate student in the criminology and criminal justice department at WSU, described Kohberger as confident and outgoing, but said it seemed like “he was always looking for a way to fit in.”
“I had honestly just pegged him as being super awkward.” Roberts said.
Roberts started the program in August — along with Kohberger, he said — and had several courses with him. He described Kohberger as wanting to appear academic.
“One thing he would always do, almost without fail, was find the most complicated way to explain something,” he said. “He had to make sure you knew that he knew it.”
Ethan Chapin’s family emailed a statement after the press conference. “We are relieved this chapter is over because it provides a form of closure. However, it doesn’t alter the outcome or alleviate the pain,” the family wrote. “We miss Ethan, and our family is forever changed.”
The case enticed online sleuths who speculated about potential suspects and motives. Safety concerns also had the university hiring an additional security firm to escort students across campus and the Idaho State Police sending troopers to help patrol the city’s streets.
Kohberger was arrested in eastern Pennsylvania in the Pocono Mountains. No lawyer for Kohberger was listed in court documents and phone calls to the county public defender’s office went answered Friday.
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