The Idaho State University murders

[DaveBrown74]

This is a truly horrible story, but I was glad to see today that they finally arrested someone. The suspect is a 28 year old grad student at Washington State U, which is only a 15 minute drive from Moscow, Idaho. The authorities picked him up at his parents' house in PA.

There isn't much info available on what led this man to allegedly kill these four people. As far as I know, there is no publicly available evidence that he was with the victims that night, although clearly the authorities may have information we don't know about (in fact that's probably the case).

Does anyone have any theories on what happened here? Did this guy know or have an encounter with these people, and they said or did something that caused him to snap? Or was this more of a Ted Bundy situation, where he didn't know his victims but rather sought them out based on his type and always intended to kill them? I tend to think the former but I don't know. Whatever his motive was, these killings were as evil as it gets. I'm glad they at least have (hopefully) their guy, and if this man is indeed guilty then at least he can't victimize more people.

There are plenty of articles but here is one:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/30/us/idaho-murders-arrest

[LennG]

I really haven't delved into this story much, but from what I have heard, there were 2 other people in the house and they weren't harmed.

Also, where this dude was arrested is about 10 minutes from where my son and family live. When we were looking to possibly moving up there, we looked at a couple of homes in this community.

Sad story all around but, I am happy that they caught the person responsible.

[DaveBrown74]

I really haven't delved into this story much, but from what I have heard, there were 2 other people in the house and they weren't harmed.

Also, where this dude was arrested is about 10 minutes from where my son and family live. When we were looking to possibly moving up there, we looked at a couple of homes in this community.

Sad story all around but, I am happy that they caught the person responsible.

I am too, assuming he is indeed guilty of these crimes.

You are correct - there were six people sleeping in the house at the time. Four were killed in their beds: three girls and one guy. There were two other girls in the house were unharmed and apparently slept through the whole thing.

The NY Post article has some more insight into this guy's background. Creepy stuff. He was clearly obsessed with the criminal mind.

https://nypost.com/2022/12/30/idaho-murder-suspect-bryan-kohberger-what-we-know/

[Slugsy-Narrows]

There is more to this and we don't know an 1/8 yet.  I think there could be more than 1 person involved.

4 people dead.  Some with defensive wounds.

2 people in house never woke up.  It couldn't have been quiet so alcohol must be involved for people to sleep that soundly.

Killing with a knife is also very "personal"

Just goes to show as I have said!  Evil finds a way to commit evil acts!

[DaveBrown74]

There is more to this and we don't know an 1/8 yet.  I think there could be more than 1 person involved.

4 people dead.  Some with defensive wounds.

2 people in house never woke up.  It couldn't have been quiet so alcohol must be involved for people to sleep that soundly.

Killing with a knife is also very "personal"

Just goes to show as I have said!  Evil finds a way to commit evil acts!

I believe I read somewhere that the two girls who were unharmed were in the basement. Maybe this guy never thought to go down there or didn't want to.

There was a rumor today that when this guy was arrested he asked the police if they had brought anyone else into custody, implying that he might not have acted alone. I also recall from a news report from maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago that there was some grainy footage of "shadowy figures" (plural) walking outside the house around the time of the killings.

I agree that there is probably still a fair bit we don't know. Now that they have the presumptive killer in custody a lot more should start to come out in the coming week or so.

[Slugsy-Narrows]

I believe I read somewhere that the two girls who were unharmed were in the basement. Maybe this guy never thought to go down there or didn't want to.

There was a rumor today that when this guy was arrested he asked the police if they had brought anyone else into custody, implying that he might not have acted alone. I also recall from a news report from maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago that there was some grainy footage of "shadowy figures" (plural) walking outside the house around the time of the killings.

I agree that there is probably still a fair bit we don't know. Now that they have the presumptive killer in custody a lot more should start to come out in the coming week or so.

Unless he lawyers up.  Then it will take longer

[T200]

They found his DNA at the scene but it was not found in any criminal database because he had not committed any crimes previously.

Someone thought of checking genealogy sites and found his father. After getting his name, I'm guessing they used the other tips they received (video footage of his vehicle at the location, cell phone records) to make a positive identification  and track him.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Everything about following this news has been super creepy. Finding the guy 2,532 miles away from the scene of the crime had to be daunting. Of course, he had an apartment 7 miles away from the scene as he was working on his Phd at Washington State University. But he came home for Christmas to be with his family in PA

I read that they (FBI and Police detectives) believed the car in question was a white Hyundai and the FBI traced ownership of 19,000 white Elantas. Kohberger's car was registered in Pennsylvania between Scranton and Allentown so he wasn't of immediate interest. However, when they cross referenced names with nearby schools, his name popped up and needed further investigation

They found his DNA at the scene of the crime, but nothing came up from the FBI database as he had no record. However, being a suspect, they did due dilligence and discovered he was a weirdo with his writings and had some people nervous to be around him...red flag. they interviewed some people from a nearby nightclub that had warned all their workers about him being shady and trouble. Then they found a match with his father's DNA in a genealogy database and that kind of sealed the deal for getting a warrant

It's amazing how many crimes (old and new) have been solved using DNA from genealogical resources. Amazes me to be honest

[DaveBrown74]

Everything about following this news has been super creepy. Finding the guy 2,532 miles away from the scene of the crime had to be daunting. Of course, he had an apartment 7 miles away from the scene as he was working on his Phd at Washington State University. But he came home for Christmas to be with his family in PA

I read that they (FBI and Police detectives) believed the car in question was a white Hyundai and the FBI traced ownership of 19,000 white Elantas. Kohberger's car was registered in Pennsylvania between Scranton and Allentown so he wasn't of immediate interest. However, when they cross referenced names with nearby schools, his name popped up and needed further investigation

They found his DNA at the scene of the crime, but nothing came up from the FBI database as he had no record. However, being a suspect, they did due dilligence and discovered he was a weirdo with his writings and had some people nervous to be around him...red flag. they interviewed some people from a nearby nightclub that had warned all their workers about him being shady and trouble. Then they found a match with his father's DNA in a genealogy database and that kind of sealed the deal for getting a warrant

It's amazing how many crimes (old and new) have been solved using DNA from genealogical resources. Amazes me to be honest

My understanding is he always left Washington for PA right after the murders. If so, that would have been well before school broke up for the winter break. These murders were in November. So that could have also been a potential red flag.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

My understanding is he always left Washington for PA right after the murders. If so, that would have been well before school broke up for the winter break. These murders were in November. So that could have also been a potential red flag.

Being a PhD candidate does not require you to be on campus all that much. You are doing research that can take you all over the country...and world, for that matter. There is limited structure and limited coursework, mostly taking a few tests here and there to monitor progress. Not being on campus is the norm for many, if not most, PhD students. Earning your doctorate can be done on campus or online to give the candidate lots of flexibility in preparation for his or her dissertation - that is the biggie. So I'm not sure how big of a red flag that would be, but it certainly didn't eliminate him as a suspect...which is 99% of the battle for detectives...that is, assume every suspect is guilty and methodically eliminate each one by one. The guilty one keeps coming closer and closer into focus as pieces of the puzzle are systematically removed from the suspect list

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Interestingly, Brian Kohlberger was on the FBI's radar long before his arrest. So much so, that as Kohlberger's father and son were driving from Washington to Pennsylvania, the FBI had cops in Indiana pull the car over for "following too closely" (probably a bogus excuse) in order for the cops to use their lapel video cameras to get a look at Brian's hands to see if there were any cuts or bruises as the crime scene indicated that the victims fought back

Not very clear picture, but here's what was on the video clip:



IMOFWIW, the FBI knew much more about the suspect long before the families of the victims (who had complained endlessly about lack of progress and possible suspects) knew what was going on behind the scenes. Great work by the FBI, cops, and crime scene forensics crew

[DaveBrown74]

Interestingly, Brian Kohlberger was on the FBI's radar long before his arrest. So much so, that as Kohlberger's father and son were driving from Washington to Pennsylvania, the FBI had cops in Indiana pull the car over for "following too closely" (probably a bogus excuse) in order for the cops to use their lapel video cameras to get a look at Brian's hands to see if there were any cuts or bruises as the crime scene indicated that the victims fought back

Not very clear picture, but here's what was on the video clip:



IMOFWIW, the FBI knew much more about the suspect long before the families of the victims (who had complained endlessly about lack of progress and possible suspects) knew what was going on behind the scenes. Great work by the FBI, cops, and crime scene forensics crew

I hadn't seen this. Thanks for posting it.

I agree that they did a solid job catching this guy. Obviously, after an appalling, heinous crime such as this one, the public wants answers immediately. It's not always so easy. This crime happened in the middle of the night, and the perpetrator then disappeared across the country. Since his DNA was not on file, it's not like it was that helpful in their hunt for him. I think they did a solid job to get this disgusting creep. If anyone deserves the death penalty, it's someone like this.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

I hadn't seen this. Thanks for posting it.

I agree that they did a solid job catching this guy. Obviously, after an appalling, heinous crime such as this one, the public wants answers immediately. It's not always so easy. This crime happened in the middle of the night, and the perpetrator then disappeared across the country. Since his DNA was not on file, it's not like it was that helpful in their hunt for him. I think they did a solid job to get this disgusting creep. If anyone deserves the death penalty, it's someone like this.

According to reports, the cops and FBI were on to him quite early. They also knew he was very smart and was a PhD candidate in criminology and knew all the loopholes...hence, they took their time to dot every "i" and cross every "t" in collecting evidence so when the arrest was made, they wouldn't bungle it. Of course they couldn't tell the families of the victims who were screaming for answers and wanting to know why no one was arrested because they were doing their due diligence to make sure this guy hangs and doesn't get off on a technicality

Timeline:

Murders: November 12
FBI figured it was Kohlberger: November 28
Stopped by cops in Indiana: December 15
Arrest: December 30