Idaho murders – update: Bryan Kohberger appears to have ‘no connection’ to student victims
The four University of Idaho students murdered in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, had no known connection to their suspected killer Bryan Kohberger, according to an attorney for one of the victim’s families.
“No one knew of this guy at all,” Shanon Gray, who represents the family of victim Kaylee Goncalves, told Business Insider.
Mr Kohberger, a criminal justice PhD student at Washington State University (WSU), is charged with the murders of Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
The four students were found stabbed to death back on 13 November, with the affidavit revealing how a surviving roommate came face to face with the masked killer inside the home in the early hours of the morning.
Throughout the seven-week investigation that followed, Mr Kohberger continued with his studies at nearby WSU. Classmates have now revealed that they noticed a change in behaviour from the suspect, with the usually chatty student falling “completely silent” when the killings were discussed in class.
On 30 November, the 28-year-old was arrested at his family home in Pennsylvania. He is scheduled to next appear in court on 12 January for a status hearing.
Key points
Bryan Kohberger to appear in court this week
Victims have no known connection to accused killer
Kaylee Goncalves’ sister brands Kohberger ‘true evil'
Classmates reveal how suspect’s behaviour changed after murders
Affidavit reveals what led investigators to criminology PhD student
Bryan Kohberger devoted his life to studying crime. The Idaho murders have turned the tables
15:10 , Rachel Sharp
Bryan Kohberger became a household name upon his 30 December arrest in Pennsylvania for the killings of four University of Idaho students.
People from his past - though shocked - build a picture of a bullied loner who could be aggressive; fellow students from his time in Idaho describe a criminology zealot who “creeped people out”.
As he faces trial accused of shocking crimes, The Independent’s Sheila Flynn asks: Who really is Bryan Kohberger?
Bryan Kohberger devoted his life to studying crime. Now, the tables have turned
Is Bryan Kohberger the stalker Kaylee Goncalves complained about?
14:50 , Rachel Sharp
Prior to the 13 November massacre, investigators believe that Bryan Kohberger stalked the victims’ home at least 12 times.
Cellphone records show that his phone pinged in the area of the King Road home on at least twelve occasions between 23 June and 13 November when the murders took place.
The exact dates of these instances were not revealed in the documents but all bar one were in the late evening or early morning hours.
One incident was identified on 21 August, when the suspect was stopped by police just minutes from the home where he allegedly knifed the four students to death three months later.
A citation from Latah County Sheriff’s Office, obtained by The Independent earlier this week, reveals that the traffic stop took place at around 11.40pm at the intersection of West Pullman Road and Farm Road in Moscow.
The record shows he was stopped for failing to wear his seatbelt – just 1.7 miles and a five-minute drive from the victims’ student rental home.
On that occasion, Mr Kohberger’s cellphone pinged in the area of the King Road home from around 10.34pm to 11.35pm, the affidavit shows.
Prior to her death, Kaylee Goncalves had told friends and family members that she believed she had a stalker.
The details of the stalker were unknown and, throughout the murder investigation, Moscow Police said that they had been unable to confirm or deny the claims.
It remains unclear if Mr Kohberger was the stalker Goncalves was fearful of and how long he may have been surveilling the victim or victims at the home.
Xana Kernodle’s childhood best friend says she wants answers
14:30 , Rachel Sharp
Xana Kernodle’s childhood best friend has spoken out to say that she wants answers about her murder.
“I still think there are a lot of answers that I would like. Until I get those, I still am going to be a little hung up on this. So, it’s just about the answers, I guess,” Sydney Gribnitz told NewsNation.
Ms Gribnitz said that she was in shock when she heard that the friend she described as “one of the funniest people I’ve ever met” had been brutally killed.
“It definitely was a shock. We were really, really close in middle school, not as much recently,” she said.
“I guess just because I live in Florida. We were really far apart, but I always knew I could count on her. It’s just a lot.”
Ms Gribnitz and her father – who used to be Kernodle’s gymnastics coach – have now set up a fundraiser in the slain 20-year-old’s honour.
Read the affidavit on Bryan Kohberger’s arrest for the Idaho murders in full:
14:10 , Rachel Sharp
Authorities released an affidavit in support of suspect Bryan Kohberger’s arrest in the murders of four Idaho university students on Thursday as he appeared in court for his arraignment.
The affidavit is filled with horror new details about the 13 November killings of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin - and what led investigators to identify Mr Kohberger as the suspect.
Read the full affidavit here:
Read the affidavit on Bryan Kohberger’s arrest for the Idaho murders in full
Victim’s sister believes Bryan Kohberger wouldn’t have been able to resist following the investigation online
13:50 , Rachel Sharp
The sister of murdered student Kaylee Goncalves has said that she suspects the accused killer wouldn’t have been able to resist following the investigation online so that he could watch “his circus” unfold.
Bryan Kohberger has spent years studying criminal justice and at the time of the murders was a criminology PhD student at Washington State University.
According to the affidavit, he appears to have stalked the home of the victims at least 12 times prior to the 13 November slayings.
“A lot of that comes from the fact that he had visited the home so many times before, late at night and early hours. He’s presented this pattern of behavior,” she told NewsNation.
“He went back to the home the morning of, before police had been called, I think to see if his circus, so to say, had started to unfold,” she said.
“I think he would not have been able to refrain from engaging with the online communities, the theories, the conspiracies, and everything in between.”
BTK killer Dennis Rader sees similarities between himself and Bryan Kohberger
13:30 , Rachel Sharp
BTK killer Dennis Rader has said that he sees similarities between himself and Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four Idaho students.
Rader, who was convicted of murdering 10 in Wichita, Kansas, told TMZ in a jailhouse email that he can relate to Mr Kohberger’s “dark mind” and believes he may have been motivated by “Fantasy Homicide” to kill – much like himself.
“[Mr Kohberger] may have killed by Fantasy Homicide. Which I did!” he wrote.
While Rader confessed to killing his victims in order to fulfill his sexual fantasies, a motive has not yet been revealed for the 13 November murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
Mr Kohberger has not yet entered a plea in Idaho court but is said to be planning to fight the allegations.
According to his affidavit, the suspect may have stalked the victims’ home at least 12 times prior to the murders.
BTK wrote in his email that he thinks Mr Kohberger would lie in wait for the victims and stalked them and their student home in Moscow, writing that this was ”much like I did”.
He went on to point out similarities between one of his own attacks and the quadruple murder that Mr Kohberger is now charged with.
In 1974, Rader murdered four members of the Otero family, strangling them to death in their Wichita home.
“Murder four, much like the Oteros, up close and personal stabbed,” he wrote in the email comparing the two crimes.
It previously emerged that BTK and Mr Kohberger have an eerie connection.
Mr Kohberger gained a Master’s degree in criminology in 2022 from Pennsylvania’s DeSales University, where he was taught by Dr Katherine Ramsland.
Dr Ramsland is the leading academic authority on the BTK killings and wrote the 2016 book Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer, drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews and phone conversations with the serial killer to delve deep into his psyche.
Bryan Kohberger applied for police internship around time of Idaho murders, arrest affidavit reveals
13:10 , Rachel Sharp
The criminology PhD student charged with the murders of four University of Idaho students had applied for an internship with the local police department within months of the murders, according to an unsealed arrest affidavit.
“Kohberger wrote in his essay he had interest in assisting rural law enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data in public safety operations,” the affidavit states.
The Independent’s Sheila Flynn has the full details:
Bryan Kohberger applied for police internship around time of Idaho murders
Victim’s family plans to set up foundation in her honour
12:50 , Rachel Sharp
The family of murdered student Kaylee Goncalves is planning to set up a foundation in her memory.
Goncalves’ sister Alivea Goncalves told NewsNation that they are in the early stages of launching a foundation to honour the 21-year-old.
Now that a suspect has been arrested for her murder, Ms Goncalves said that she and her family can finally begin the grieving process.
“We still have such a long road ahead of us. The relief that we all felt having a suspect in custody was, I can’t even describe it, like the weight of the world was lifted from our shoulders,” she said.
Former friend believed Kohberger had turned his life around
12:33 , Rachel Sharp
A former friend of suspected killer Bryan Kohberger has revealed that she believed he had turned his life around – before his shock arrest for a quadruple homicide last month.
On CBS News’ 48 hours, Bree said that she knew Mr Kohberger when they were in high school but their friendship ended when he began using heroin.
“You just saw him becoming more self-destructive… He really stayed secluded,” she said.
When she saw him again sometime later, she said it appeared as if he was getting his life together.
“He was telling me that he wanted to get sober, that he was getting sober. … And he wanted to let me know like, ‘I’m gonna do better. I’m gonna be better,’” she said.
Bree said that he “wanted to do something that impacted people in a good way” and that she believed that studying criminology was his way of doing this.
Instead, he is now facing the death penalty for the murders of four students.
Masked killer’s chilling words, DNA details and new timeline: Key revelations in the Bryan Kohberger affidavit
12:10 , Rachel Sharp
Stunning new details about the murders of four University of Idaho students have been revealed in an affidavit supporting the arrest of suspect Bryan Christopher Kohberger.
Mr Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology PhD student at Washington State University, has been charged in the 13 November deaths of Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21. They were killed in a rental home just blocks from the UI campus in Moscow, Idaho, right across the state border from WSU in Pullman, Washington.
The suspect was arrested in his native Pennsylvania, then extradited to Idaho, where court documents were unsealed following his first appearance before a judge in the state.
Portions were redacted but the remaining pages revealed chilling details about the murders - among them that a surviving roommate came face to face with the killer; Kohberger’s cell phone record and police traffic stops indicate he’d been casing the home; and DNA from a knife sheath was used to forensically connect the grad student to the crimes.
Here are the biggest revelations from the documents:
Key revelations from Bryan Kohberger’s arrest affidavit
Victim’s sister believes Bryan Kohberger wouldn’t have been able to resist following the investigation online
11:50 , Rachel Sharp
The sister of murdered student Kaylee Goncalves has said that she suspects the accused killer wouldn’t have been able to resist following the investigation online so that he could watch “his circus” unfold.
Bryan Kohberger has spent years studying criminal justice and at the time of the murders was a criminology PhD student at Washington State University.
According to the affidavit, he appears to have stalked the home of the victims at least 12 times prior to the 13 November slayings.
“A lot of that comes from the fact that he had visited the home so many times before, late at night and early hours. He’s presented this pattern of behavior,” she told NewsNation.
“He went back to the home the morning of, before police had been called, I think to see if his circus, so to say, had started to unfold,” she said.
“I think he would not have been able to refrain from engaging with the online communities, the theories, the conspiracies, and everything in between.”
Bryan Kohberger’s hearing rescheduled
11:30 , Rachel Sharp
Bryan Kohberger’s next court appearance has now been rescheduled.
The murder suspect’s preliminary status hearing will now take place at 8am PST on Thursday 12 January, instead of the original time of 10am PST.
A court order announcing the change revealed that there was a scheduling conflict with the original time.
“Due to scheduling conflicts, the parties stipulated to changing the time of said hearing. Therefore, with good cause, it is hereby ordered that the Preliminary Status Hearing will be held on January 12, 2023 at 8:00 am. (PST) in Courtroom I of the Latah County Courthouse,” the order reads.
VOICES: My father is the BTK serial killer. This is why I’m speaking out about Idaho suspect Bryan Kohberger
11:10 , Rachel Sharp
“In the early hours of Friday, December 30, glass shattered out of the windows of the Kohberger family home, in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, as local police and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a no-knock search warrant. Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old teaching assistant and PhD student in criminal justice at Washington State University, was apprehended while staying with his family over the holiday break.
“While obtaining his master’s degree in criminal justice at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, Kohberger studied under Dr. Katherine Ramsland, a professor of forensic psychology and criminal justice, who teaches a course specifically on serial killers.”
BTK’s daughter Kerri Rawson writes for The Independent:
My father is a serial killer. This is why I’m speaking out about the Idaho suspect
Idaho university campus has ‘sense of relief’ after arrest, says provost
10:50 , Rachel Sharp
Students, staff and faculty of the University of Idaho now have a “sense of relief” after a suspect was arrested for the quadruple homicide, according to the university’s provost and executive vice president Torrey Lawrence.
“I think I speak for many in our community that there’s a great sense of relief, but it’s bittersweet because this is still a horrible tragedy,” Mr Lawrence told CNN.
Mr Lawrence said he hopes Bryan Kohberger’s arrest will reassure students to return to in-person learning in the spring semester, which starts on Wednesday.
“The timing of this for our students was probably good. Hopefully we can really just be focused on classes starting and on that student experience that we provide,” he said.
WATCH: Bryan Kohberger pulled over by police in bodycam footage
10:30 , Rachel Sharp
In mid-December, Bryan Kohberger and his father drove from Washington state to Pennsylvania together in his white Hyundai Elantra – a vehicle at the centre of the murder investigation and something believed to have ultimately led to his arrest.
During that journey, the father and son were pulled over twice by police in Indiana on 15 December.
Bodycam footage from one of the two December stops is available below:
Idaho murders victim had no idea she was being stalked by ‘true evil’ before stabbing, sister says
10:20 , Rachel Sharp
The grieving sister of slain University of Idaho student Kaylee Goncalves has said that her sibling had no idea she was being stalked by “true evil” before she was brutally stabbed in an attack that sent shockwaves through the small college town of Moscow.
Alivea Goncalves spoke out for the first time since Idaho authorities released the arrest affidavit for suspected killer Bryan Kohberger, revealing chilling new details about the quadruple murder of Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
She said that the revelation that the 28-year-old criminology PhD student appears to have stalked the student home on King Road, Moscow, prior to the 13 November murders especially haunts her.
“We had no idea. She had no idea. I had no idea that true evil was genuinely watching them,” she told NewsNation.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:
Idaho murders victim had no idea she was being stalked by ‘true evil’, sister says
Bryan Kohberger’s classmate says he fell ‘completely silent’ when murders discussed in class
10:10 , Rachel Sharp
Throughout the seven-week investigation into the murders, Bryan Kohberger continued with his studies at Washington State University and completed the first semester of his criminal justice PhD.
His classmates have now revealed that they noticed a change in behaviour from the suspect during that time, with the usually chatty student falling “completely silent” when the killings were discussed in class.
Ben Roberts, a WSU graduate student in criminal justice studies, told the Idaho Statesman that Mr Kohberger was usually very vocal in class and would often share his opinion and challenge his classmates on the topic of the criminal mind.
“He sat front and center, and was not hiding or tucking back in the back,” he said.
“He was right there in the middle of it.”
This all changed when the murders of four Idaho students was brought up in class one day.
At that point, Mr Kohberger fell “completely silent,” said Mr Roberts.
Idaho murder victims had no connection to Bryan Kohberger, says attorney
10:05 , Rachel Sharp
The four University of Idaho students murdered in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, had no known connection to their suspected killer Bryan Kohberger, according to an attorney for one of the victim’s families.
“No one knew of this guy at all,” Shanon Gray, who represents the family of victim Kaylee Goncalves, told Business Insider.
His comments come as prosecutors in Idaho are yet to reveal a motive for the brutal quadruple murders or what connection – if any – they believe Mr Kohberger had to any of the victims.
The affidavit, released last week, revealed how cellphone data suggests that the suspect stalked the home of the victims at least 12 times between June and the night of the murders.
Idaho murders victim’s parents call for death penalty for accused killer Bryan Kohberger
10:00 , Rachel Sharp
The grieving parents of one of the slain University of Idaho students have called for the death penalty for the man accused of stabbing her and her three friends to death in a brutal knife attack.
Kaylee Goncalves’ parents Steve and Kristi Goncalves spoke to NewsNation on Thursday night just hours after they came face to face with their daughter’s accused killer Bryan Kohberger for the first time in court in Idaho.
Mr Goncalves said that justice for his daughter would mean the death penalty for the 28-year-old criminology PhD student, saying that “he has to pay” for what he allegedly did to Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
Read the full story:
Idaho murders victim’s parents call for death penalty for Bryan Kohberger
Bryan Kohberger’s Idaho murders arrest affidavit raised more questions than answers
09:55 , Rachel Sharp
Why did the surviving roommate wait eight hours to call 911 after seeing the killer?
Who was the intended target?
Is Bryan Kohberger the stalker Kaylee Goncalves complained about?
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp reports on the questions still unanswered in the case:
Bryan Kohberger’s Idaho murders arrest affidavit raises these new questions
Students return to Moscow this week
09:47 , Rachel Sharp
Students are returning to Moscow this week after the holidays for the start of the spring semester.
Classes will resume on Wednesday 11 January following the winter break.
Before Bryan Kohberger’s arrest, the university offered students the option of remote learning if they were afraid to return to campus.
Now that the suspect is behind bars, it remains to be seen if more students will return to in-person learning.
