New details have emerged about the Idaho murders crime scene despite a gag order in the case.
Sources close to the investigation told NewsNation that Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle’s bodies were first found by his best friend, who reportedly checked their pulses before speaking to a 911 dispatcher. Chapin, Kernodle, and her roommates Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen were stabbed to death around 4am on 13 November.
However, authorities did not arrive at the scene until one of their surviving roommates called police nearly nine hours after the slayings. An affidavit released last month revealed that the roommate saw the killer leave the scene that night but was “shocked in fear” and locked herself up in her room.
Kernodle and Chapin’s bodies were found in her room on the second floor while Mogen and Goncalves’ bodies were found in a bedroom on the third floor of the home. Chapin, who was dating Kernodle, was visiting the residence at the time of the killings.
Very few details about the murders that rocked the college town of Moscow were revealed until the 30 December surprise arrest of Washington State University PhD student Bryan Kohberger. Mr Kohberger was staying at his parent’s home in Pennsylvania when he was taken into custody but has since been extradited to Idaho.
The criminology student is now behind bars at the Latah County Jail ahead of his preliminary hearing on 26 June.
Last month, a judge has issued a gag order in the case banning any law enforcement, attorneys representing survivors, witnesses or the victims’ family members from talking or writing about the case.
Goncalves’ family has since filed an appeal against the unusually restrictive gag order. News organisations are also asking the judge to pull back the scope of the gag order, saying that media access to officials can provide the public with important context in such high-profile criminal cases.
Yet, accounts from sources close to the investigation have continued to transpire even after the gag order was issued. Last week, it surfaced that Mr Kohebrger was fired from his teaching assistant in the criminology department in August because of his “behavioural problems” and a “sexist attitude towards women”, according to NewsNation.
The suspect, now facing the death penalty for four counts of murder, was linked to the murders through DNA found on a knife sheath left behind at the scene, cellphone data and surveillance video of what prosecutors believe to be his white Hyundai Elantra leaving the scene after the slayings.
One of the victims’ surviving roommates was also able to partially describe the killer to investigators after she came face to face with him in the aftermath of the murders.
In January, police in Washington unsealed search warrants for Mr Kohberger’s apartment in Pullman and his office at Washington State University (WSU).
The searches were carried out on the same day that he was taken into police custody in Pennsylvania. The unsealed documents reveal that investigators seized a string of items from his home including possible human and animal hair strands, a disposable glove, items with red and brown stains and a computer.
The murder weapon – a fixed-blade knife – was not recovered during the searches and it is still unclear where it may be.
