BOISE, Idaho — The Moscow Police Department confirmed at a press conference Friday afternoon that Bryan Christopher Kohberger had been arrested in Pennsylvania in the killings of four University of Idaho students in the early morning hours of Nov. 13.
Kohberger is a 28-year-old graduate student at Washington State University, located in Pullman, Washington, about 9 miles from Moscow. He faces four first-degree murder charges, the Latah County prosecutor said.
Pennsylvania State Police confirmed to the Statesman that Kohberger was taken into custody on a “fugitive from justice warrant” in connection with the homicides early Friday at a home in Chestnuthill Township in Monroe County, Pennsylvania.
Kohberger, of nearby Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, was awaiting extradition from the Monroe County Correctional Facility, according to court documents obtained by the Idaho Statesman and an online jail record.
Kohberger is a graduate student in the criminal justice and criminology department at Washington State University in Pullman, according to law enforcement officials and a page on the university’s website that was taken down later Friday.
Kohberger faces four first-degree murder charges and a felony burglary charge, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said at the press conference. No federal charges are expected at this time, one law enforcement official told McClatchy’s Washington, D.C. bureau.
Kohberger is expected to appear in court at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday for an extradition hearing, according to a court document.
Thompson said Idaho law stipulates that the affidavit with facts of the case against Kohberger has to remain sealed until Kohberger is physically in the state of Idaho.
The victims were Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington.
The slayings shocked the normally placid college town, and the mystery surrounding them captivated the nation. A motive for the killings has not yet been disclosed, and it’s not yet known whether a weapon has been found. Many details of the authorities’ investigation remained guarded as officials kept information confidential to maintain what they said was the integrity of the investigation.
One recent point of interest has been the search for a white Hyundai Elantra that investigators said was near the house where the students were killed the night they died. NBC, citing law enforcement sources, reported that a Hyundai Elantra was taken away from Kohberger’s home in Pennsylvania on Friday.
Shortly before noon Pacific time on Sunday, Nov. 13, Moscow police officers responded to a 911 call about an unconscious person in a house near campus. They walked in to find the four victims’ bodies. Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt reported that the students had been stabbed to death with a large, fixed-blade knife in the early morning hours.
Autopsies confirmed that all four students died from multiple stab wounds and were likely asleep when the attacks started. Some victims showed defensive wounds, indicating that they resisted the attacks. None of the victims showed signs of sexual assault, according to the coroner.
There was no sign of forced entry, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said at a news conference on Nov. 16.
Goncalves’ father, Steve Goncalves, revealed at a memorial vigil on Nov. 30 that his daughter and Mogen died together. The two victims had been close friends since sixth grade.
The three female victims — Kernodle, Mogen and Goncalves — lived at the King Road home with at least two other roommates, both of whom went unharmed. Letters from those two roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were read at a memorial in Post Falls on Dec. 2.
Chapin was staying the night with Kernodle, whom he was dating, according to family.
A review of court records in Washington and Idaho showed Kohberger has no criminal history aside from an August 2022 infraction for failing to wear a seat belt in Latah County, which includes Moscow.
Albrightsville, the residence a court record gave for Kohberger, is a hamlet in the Pocono Mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. Kohberger was jailed just to the east in Monroe County, near the New Jersey state line and about 75 miles west of New York City.
Reports of the arrest began to come just minutes after the Moscow Police Department announced that it would hold a news conference at 1 p.m. Pacific time (2 p.m. Mountain time) Friday. Idaho State Police spokesperson Aaron Snell declined to confirm the arrest when reached by the Idaho Statesman.
The Statesman has reached out to faculty in Washington State University’s criminal justice and criminology department.
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(McClatchy reporter Michael Wilner in Washington, D.C., Idaho Statesman reporter Kevin Fixler and Business and Local News Editor David Staats contributed.)
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