On Nov. 13, 2022, the world reacted in shock and horror to learn that four students at the University of Idaho were murdered in the middle of the night inside of a home near campus. The four victims were identified as Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
Shockingly, there were two other roommates living in the house who were present when the murders occurred. They were left unscathed.
The victims died from stab wounds, the Moscow, Idaho, police department confirmed days later.
A month and a half later, police arrested Bryan Kohberger, then age 28, as the suspect in the case. He was charged with four counts of murder and one count of felony burglary.
In the unsealed probable cause affidavit, which Townhall covered, it revealed that Kohberger’s cell phone was detected in the area of the victims’ home over 10 times between June 2022 and the night of the murders. On the night of the murders, his phone was pinged near Washington State University, where he was pursuing his Ph.D. in criminology. Shortly after, his phone went on airplane mode or was turned off. Over an hour later, his phone was detected near Moscow, Idaho, near the victims’ home, on a route driving back to WSU. Kohberger’s white vehicle, which was caught on security cameras, as well as DNA found on a knife sheath at the victims’ home, also connected him to the crime.
Reports that trickled out later on claimed that Kohberger had images of one of the victims on his cell phone, and he reportedly messaged one of them “several times” on Instagram.
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This week, reports broke that Kohberger was once investigated in connection with a chilling home invasion that took place miles away from where the University of Idaho college students were murdered.
The home invasion occurred in October 2021 in Pullman, Washington. Reportedly, Kohberger was investigated but never charged with a crime.
Body camera footage obtained by ABC News shed light on the incident.
“I heard my door open and I looked over, and someone was wearing a ski mask and had a knife,” the woman told officers in the footage, her voice shaking.
“I kicked the s*** out of their stomach and screamed super loud. They flew back into my closet and then ran out my door and up the stairs,” she explained.
Police never found a trace of the suspect or any physical evidence. But, thirteen days after the Idaho murders, Kohberger was named as a person of interest in the Pullman home invasion (via Daily Mail):
There were chilling parallels between the Pullman break-in and the Moscow homicides.
Both incidents involved a masked intruder, a knife, and a silent, predatory figure entering homes in the stillness of early morning hours.
But authorities have since clarified that Kohberger is no longer considered a person of interest in the Pullman case.
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The victim of the Pullman break-in described her attacker as being 5'3' to 5'5', while Kohberger stands at six feet tall.
Furthermore, Kohberger was not yet enrolled at Washington State University at the time of the 2021 incident.
Reportedly, police have closed the Pullman case and it remains unsolved.
At the time of the murders, Kohberger was a PhD student in criminology and working as a teaching assistant at Washington State University in Pullman.
After Kohberger’s arrest in 2022, Cheryl Goncalves, the grandmother of victim Kaylee Goncalves, told the New York Post. “This is what we wanted.”
“We wanted him caught and now we want justice,” she added.
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