Prosecutors trying to get justice for four Idaho University students presented a court with a chilling account of what happened when the young adults were killed by Bryan Kohberger, who pled guilty to the crimes as part of a plea deal.
Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves, who were all students at the University of Idaho, lost their lives in November 2022 when they were stabbed at a home in Moscow, Idaho, in the early hours of the morning.
Kohberger, a former criminal justice doctoral student, was initially arrested in December 2022 before he formally submitted a guilty plea on Wednesday (2 July) to four counts of first-degree murder. He had also been charged with one count of burglary.
Prosecutors at the plea hearing outlined the evidence they had against Kohberger, painting a picture of what happened around the night of November 13, 2022.
Advert
The purchase of a weapon
The prosecutors' evidence against Kohberger stretched back months before the murder, to March 2022 when Kohberger was living at his parents’ Pennsylvania home. At that time, he bought a military-grade Ka Bar knife and sheath from the internet.
The knife was determined to be the same blade used to kill the four students, and DNA evidence linked Kohberger to a knife sheath found at the crime scene, though the weapon itself hasn't been recovered.
Activity around the murder scene
Three months after buying the knife, Kohberger moved to Pullman, Washington, which is located just minutes from the murder site in Moscow.
Advert
Kohberger began to pursue a PhD in criminology at Washington State University, but within weeks of his move, Kohberger’s phone began pinging off the cell tower which also served the Idaho house where Chapin, Kernodle, Mogen, and Goncalves were killed.
Prosecutors reported that between July and November, Kohberger’s phone pinged off the tower 23 times between the hours of 10pm and 4am. However, there was no evidence that Kohberger had direct contact with the students.
The night of the murder
On the night of the killings, Kohberger's phone was shut down in Pullman at around 2am. It wasn't turned on again until just before 5am, when it was traced to the Moscow area.
Advert
Prosecutors told the court that if Kohberger's case had gone to trial, they would have presented surveillance video of Kohberger's car and cellphone data which apparently placed him in the vicinity of the crime scene.
Security footage showed Kohberger's White Hyundai park behind the students' house, prosecutors said, after which Kohberger is believed to have entered the home at around 4am through a sliding door in the kitchen.
The first student he is believed to have encountered was Kernodle, 20, who died on the stairs of the home.
Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson said: “Her room was not on the third floor, it was on the second floor. He encountered Xana, and he ended up killing her, also with a large knife.”
Advert
Kohberger reportedly then stabbed Chapin, also 20, while he was sleeping in Kernodle's bedroom, followed by the killings of Mogen and Goncalves on the third floor of the home.
Following the stabbings of all four students, two other housemates who survived the ordeal looked into the hallway and reported seeing a man with 'bushy eyebrows'.
Security footage then showed Kohberger's car leaving the neighborhood.
The following days
At around 9am in the morning of November 13, cell phone records indicated Kohberger returned to the area of the Moscow home, but he was back home by 9:30am.
Advert
In the following days, Kohberger traveled to Lewiston, Idaho, where prosecutors believe he may have dumped the murder weapon.
He was also found to have attempted to delete his online purchase history, and changed his car’s registration from Pennsylvania to Idaho.
Thompson then added: "Mr. Kohberger proceeded to finish his semester of studies at Washington State University and return to Pennsylvanian for the holidays."
The admission
At the hearing, Judge Steven Hippler clarified that Kohberger agreed with his plea deal, which spares him the death penalty but leaves him facing up to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, and a 10-year sentence for the burglary charge.
Advert
The judge asked: "Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?," to which Kohberger replied: "Yes."
Topics: Bryan Kohberger, Crime, True crime, US News
Emily Brown