On Friday, 28-year-old Bryan C. Kohberger was arrested and charged with the murder of four University of Idaho college students. The students were found stabbed to death in a home near their campus in Moscow, Idaho last month. Kohberger was a Ph.D. student in criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, located about 10 miles from Moscow. He had recently graduated from DeSales University with a master’s degree in criminal justice. Kohberger was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and is being held without bail in Pennsylvania, where he was taken into custody at his parents’ home. An extradition hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday.
The murders shocked the small Idaho college town and prompted many students to finish their classes online after Thanksgiving break. The suspect’s possible motive is unknown, and the knife believed to have been used in the attacks has not been found. Kohberger was described by some of his classmates as having a quiet, intense demeanor and making uncomfortable comments against the LGBTQ+ community. He had reportedly remained in classes and seemed more animated after the murders occurred.
The victims, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, were attacked in at least two separate bedrooms, likely while they were sleeping. Two roommates apparently slept through the stabbings and did not wake up until several hours later. In the weeks following the murders, police had been searching for the driver of a white Hyundai sedan that was spotted near the victims’ home on the night of the killings. The police later found a car matching that description.
In a Reddit post from about seven months ago, a user who identified themselves as Bryan Kohberger asked people who had spent time in prison to take a survey about crimes they had committed. The survey listed Kohberger as a student investigator working with two colleagues at DeSales and asked respondents to describe their “thoughts, emotions and actions from the beginning to end of the crime commission process.”
Several of Kohberger’s neighbors at his apartment complex in Pullman, Washington, expressed discomfort upon learning that the suspect had been living so close by and regretted regularly leaving their doors unlocked in the quiet housing development on campus. The complex includes about a dozen apartment buildings and a children’s playground.
The arrest of Kohberger has brought some relief to the community, but Moscow police Chief James Fry emphasized that “no arrest will ever bring back these young students.” He added, “However, we do believe justice will be found through the criminal process.”
