Suspect Bryan Kohberger may have stalked the Idaho house where four students were brutally knifed to death “at least 12 times” before the killings, an arrest affidavit suggests.
The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found at their King Road rental house opposite the University of Idaho in the city of Moscow on 13 November.
Mr Kohberger, a PHD criminology student from nearby Pulman, Washington, has been charged with their murders and appeared in an Idaho court on Thursday morning, just before which a probable cause affidavit describing the police case against him was unsealed.
Investigators state in the document that they received historical data for the suspect’s phone from AT&T for the time after his account was opened in June 2022 “to determine if Kohberger stalked any of the victims in this case prior to the offense, conducted surveillance on the King Road Residence, was in contact with any of the victims’ associates before or after the alleged offense.”
And the document states that Mr Kohberger’s phone showed that it had registered in the area of the King Road murder house “on at least twelve occasions prior to November 13, 2022.”
Investigators wrote that “all of these occasions, except for one, occurred in the late evening and early morning hours of their respective days.”
Police state in the affidavit that they believe that the students were killed in their beds between 4am and 4.25am after a night out in Moscow.
Mr Kohberger is a PHD criminology student at Washington State University, which is around 10 miles from the scene of the crime.
He was taken into custody in Pennsylvania last week and a white Elantra was seized from the family property he was tracked to.
The suspect arrived in Moscow on Wednesday evening, after being flown under armed guard from Pennsylvania. He was booked into Latah County Jail on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
Mr Kohberger made an initial appearance before the Latah County Magistrate Court judge at 9.30am local time on Thursday and was served his arrest warrant.
