Police body camera footage shows Bryan Kohberger, the 28-year-old man charged with stabbing four University of Idaho students in an early morning mass murder, being pulled over by police in Washington state a month before the slayings.
Kohberger, then a criminology student at a nearby campus for Washington State University, had been pulled over on Oct. 14. The officer said he ran a red light and was blocking a crosswalk at an intersection.
“What actually happened was I was stuck in the middle of the intersection, so I was forced to the left,” Kohberger said.
“Yeah, I was behind you the whole time,” the officer replied, confirming that that was, indeed, how he ran the red light and blocked the crosswalk.
He told the officer he had been behind another driver who made a right but did not immediately put on their signal. He also said that he is from a rural area of Pennsylvania and that they don’t have crosswalks there.
The officer recommended that Kohberger not go into the intersection until he was able to pass through.
“I do apologize if I was asking you too many questions about the law,” he told the officer. “I wasn’t trying to disagree with you.”
The officer let him go with only a warning.
Authorities claim that on Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger broke into the Moscow, Idaho, home of University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Madison Mogen, 21, stabbing them all to death. Family members of the victims spent weeks pleading with the public for any information that could help find the killer; Kohberger was arrested at the end of December in at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania.
In addition to the victims, two other roommates lived at the residence at the time the students were killed. A woman, identified in documents only as D.M., said she woke up at approximately 4 a.m. to the sound of what sounded like Goncalves playing with her dog in one of the third-floor bedrooms.
“A short time later, D.M. said she heard who she thought was Goncalves say something to the effect of ‘there’s someone here,”” documents stated. “A review of records obtained from a forensic download of Kernodle’s phone showed this could also have been Kernodle as her cellular phone indicated she was likely awake and using the TikTok app at approximately 4:12 a.m.”
D.M. said she looked out her bedroom but did not see anything. She said she opened her door a second time when she heard what she believed to be crying coming from Kernodle’s room. She heard a male voice say something to the effect of, “It’s ok. I’m going to help you.”
A security camera at a home immediately northwest of the murder scene picked up distorted audio of what sounded like voices, or a whimper followed by a loud thud. A dog barked numerous times beginning at 4:17 a.m. This camera was less than 50 feet from the west wall of Kernodle’s bedroom.
“D.M. stated she opened her door for the third time after she heard the crying and saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” authorities wrote. “D.M. described the figure as 5’10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows. The male walked past D.M. as she stood in a ‘frozen shock phase.’”
This figure walked towards the back sliding glass door. D.M. said she locked herself in her room.
“This leads investigators to believe that the murderer left the scene,” authorities said. They suggested that based on various evidence, the killings happened between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m.
Authorities tracked the suspect’s vehicle and eventually found it in a parking lot of a Washington State University apartment complex. It was Kohberger’s vehicle, they said. Authorities also said Kohberger’s physical description was consistent with the man who D.M. said she saw in the home on Nov. 13.
Newly-released search warrant and gag order documents also show investigators looking through Kohberger’s apartment at Washington State University and wanting to search a storage closet he had at his apartment building.
“I believe the storage was likely used by Kohberger to store items and was likely accessed between the time of the murders and his travel to Pennsylvania,” stated the document.
An uncased pillow and mattress cover tested positive for blood, though documents did not indicate whose blood this was.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
