Suspect in University of Idaho quadruple killings, Bryan Kohberger, indicted by grand jury on murder and burglary charges
By Dakin Andone and Cheri Mossburg, CNN
(CNN) — The suspect in the fatal stabbing last year of four University of Idaho students has been indicted by a grand jury on murder and burglary charges, a court official told CNN.
Bryan Kohberger was indicted on all five original charges – four counts of murder and one count of burglary – Latah County Deputy Court Clerk Tamzen Reeves said Wednesday. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty.
A hearing is set for Monday.
Kohberger was arrested in December for allegedly carrying out the November 13 killings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, at a home just outside the University of Idaho’s main campus in Moscow, not far from the border with Washington state.
CNN has reached out to Kohberger’s attorney for comment.
The slayings prompted a weekslong search for a suspect, leaving the campus and surrounding community wracked with uncertainty and fear until Kohberger’s arrest December 30 at his parents’ Pennsylvania home, where an attorney for the suspect said he had gone for the holidays.
Investigators narrowed in on Kohberger – a graduate student in Washington State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology in nearby Pullman – after focusing on a white Hyundai Elantra seen in surveillance footage near the crime scene, a probable cause affidavit released in January states.
Area law enforcement were notified by November 25 to look out for the vehicle, the affidavit reads, and WSU police within days identified a white Elantra and found it registered to Kohberger.
Kohberger’s driver’s license information was consistent with the description of a man the victims’ surviving roommate gave police, the affidavit says, specifically noting his height, weight and bushy eyebrows. The roommate told investigators she saw a man clad in black in the morning of the attack.
Investigators then connected Kohberger to the crime scene after DNA on a tan leather knife sheath found lying next to one of the victims was linked to DNA on trash recovered from Kohberger’s family home, according to the affidavit.
Following his arrest, Kohberger waived extradition and was sent back to Idaho. He was booked into the Latah County Jail on the same counts for which he was indicted.
Still, much about the case remains unknown, particularly with a wide-ranging non-dissemination order in place that prevents attorneys for any interested party in the case from commenting beyond the public record, leaving a veil of secrecy.
Prior to news of the indictment, a preliminary hearing was scheduled for the end of June, where it was expected the parties would detail evidence collected by the state. But that hearing has been canceled, Reeves said, and court records indicate the names of the witnesses who testified before the grand jury are under seal.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
