A criminology graduate student has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the killings of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in their beds more than a month ago, police said on Friday.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested early on Friday morning by the Pennsylvania state police at a home in Chestnuthill Township, authorities said. The Latah county prosecutor, Bill Thompson, said investigators believe Kohberger broke into the students’ home “with the intent to commit murder”.
He is being held for extradition to Idaho, and an extradition hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. Thompson said the suspect was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Pennsylvania police were helping police in Moscow, Idaho, Idaho state police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation “with a criminal homicide investigation”.
“Bryan C Kohberger was taken into custody … based upon an active arrest warrant for murder in the first degree,” the affidavit stated.
The four students – Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21 – were stabbed to death in an off-campus residence situated near university sorority and fraternity houses. Autopsies showed all four were probably asleep when they were attacked. Some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times.
The quadruple killing sent shockwaves and sowed mistrust. For weeks, residents remained on edge as no suspect was named. Authorities did not disclose the discovery of a murder weapon, nor proffer any possible motive.
Many of the 11,000 University of Idaho students left Moscow right after the murders, while others who departed for the Thanksgiving holiday opted not to come back.
Locksmiths’ vans could be spotted around town, amid reports that some locals requested pepper spray or guns for Christmas gifts. Local businesses reportedly shuttered early and residents feared walking or staying alone.
Before the killings, Moscow, a town of 25,000 near the border with Washington state, had not seen a murder in seven years.
Conspiracy theories proliferated. One University of Idaho professor sued a self-anointed TikTok psychic for alleged defamation over the claim, made without any evidence, that the academic was responsible for the killings.
Moscow police requested public help on 7 December and within a day had to send tips to a special FBI call center due to the volume of calls, the AP said.
The break in the case came after police asked the public for assistance locating a white sedan spotted near the students’ home around the time of the murders, the AP reported.
According to CNN, law enforcement homed in on Kohberger after linking him to the white Hyundai Elantra.
Announcing the arrest at a Friday news conference, the Moscow police chief, James Fry, called the victims by their first names, at times choking up when discussing the impact on the victims’ families and the close-knit rural community.
Fry said they were still “putting all the pieces together” to determine a motive.
Kohberger is a PhD student in the department of criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, which is a short drive across the state line from the University of Idaho.
He graduated from Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania with an associate of arts degree in psychology in 2018, said a college spokesperson, Mia Rossi-Marino. DeSales University in Pennsylvania said that he received a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and completed graduate studies there in June 2022.
Earlier this year, Kohberger posted on Reddit, asking former prisoners to take part in a research project aimed at understanding “how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime” and “the story behind your most recent criminal offense”, the Daily Beast reported.
