A 25 or 28-year-old graduate student was arrested Friday morning in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains in connection with the November murders of four University of Idaho students.
The suspect, Bryan Kohberger, is a graduate student at Washington State University, located less than 10 miles away from the University of Idaho, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said at a Friday news conference.
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He is a criminal justice graduate and planned to go on to his Ph.D.
According to the WSU website, Kohberger is pursuing his Ph.D. in criminal justice and criminology. As a psychology graduate student at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, he was a student investigator for a survey that explored people’s actions, thoughts, and feelings when they committed crimes.
One question in the study is, “Why did you choose that victim or target over others?” Another reads, “After committing the crime, what were you thinking and feeling?”
How remarkable!
He was partly identified using DNA technology and then traced to Pennsylvania through his car.
They watched the house he resided in for days before arresting him at his parents’ home in a gated community in Indian Mountain Lake. The probable cause warrant is sealed for now.
Shanon Gray, an attorney representing Goncalves’s father, Steve Goncalves, said law enforcement officials called the family last night to let them know about the arrest but gave no additional information about how or why they believe he might be connected to the murders.
“Obviously, they’re relieved that someone has been arrested,” Gray said. “You guys know about as much as we do right now.”
Kohberger, who is being held without bond, has an apartment in Pullman, Thompson said at the news conference. Thompson added that Kohberger’s next court date will be Tuesday, January 3, 2023, and a public defender is representing him.
When Bryan Kohberger was arrested, he “asked if anyone else was arrested,” Entin wrote in a tweet, adding, “I’m told he had a ‘quiet, blank stare.’” Police declined to say when asked in the news conference whether Kohberger made the first comment.
Reports say his family was very worried about his OCD and bizarre eating habits.
Investigators have determined that Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were seen at the Sigma Chi house on the University of Idaho Campus at 735 Nez Perce Drive. Kohlberger reportedly had ties to the House.
The four friends were found with knife wounds inside a home and were likely attacked while sleeping, according to previous statements from police.
Some had defensive wounds, and there was no sign of sexual assault.
The killings occurred sometime in the early morning hours of November 13, police have said. The victims’ bodies were found several hours later, at about noon, when a 911 call for an “unconscious person” was made, according to police.
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