A 28-year-old PhD student studying criminal justice and criminology was arrested in Pennsylvania in stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho college students whose bodies were found in a rental home near campus last month, authorities announced Friday.
Law enforcement in Idaho and Pennsylvania identified their suspect as Bryan Kohberger, who was taken into cutody early Friday morning by the Pennsylvania State Police at a home in Chestnuthill Township. He's being held in the Monroe County Prison without bond and will be held without bond when he returns to Idaho, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said.
Kohberger, a Pennsylvania resident, is expected to be extradited to Idaho to face charges in the case that has both captivated and mystified the globe. Once he is returned, the affidavit for four charges of first-degree murder will be unsealed and share the first clues behind his arrest and possible motive.
He is the first to be named a suspect in the killings since they happened. He is also charged with felony burglary in Idaho, Thompson said. An extradition hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
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Records show Kohberger is a PhD student studying criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, just a few miles from the Idaho murder scene. The university released a statement saying campus police assisted Idaho police in executing search warrants of Kohberger's office and apartment, both of which are located on the main campus in Pullman.
He also completed his graduate studies in DeSales University's criminal justice program in June 2022, a school spokesperson confirmed to NBC New York. Before that, Kohberger got his bachelor of science in psychology at the private Catholic university in Center Valley, Pennsylvania.
The Moscow Police Department, which received more than 13,000 tips related to the case, in addition to thousands of digital media submissions, didn't immediately confirm the apprehension Friday. The chief of police, along with university officials, are expected to provide an update on the case at a 4 p.m. ET news briefing.
Few details have been released publicly in the gruesome Nov. 13 slayings of 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, and 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. The four friends, members of the university’s Greek system, were discovered across the street from campus, leaving the small town of Moscow, Idaho, deeply shaken.
Moscow police had said they were looking for a white Hyundai Elantra believed to be in the immediate area of the King Road residence early on the morning the students were believed to have been killed. A few days before Christmas, they said a white sedan found in Eugene, Oregon, was not connected to the murders. Two senior law enforcement officials say a white Elantra was taken away from the Pennsylvania home where the suspect was apprehended Friday.
“We are still looking for the weapon,” Fry said. “I will say that we have found an Elantra.”
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The killings have drawn worldwide attention, especially among true crime aficionados. That's likely because so few facts have been released about the case, said Julie Wiest, a sociology professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania and an expert on extreme violence in media.
The last public development in the case came a few days before Christmas, when Idaho police announced a white sedan found in Eugene, Oregon, was not connected to the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students.
“Usually by now, there’s more facts that have been released by law enforcement, so I could see that ramping up the sort of digging and almost grasping at straws by people," Wiest said. "It’s not that typical, except in high-profile cold cases, where you might see people digging in that way.”
Ben Roberts, a graduate student in the criminology and criminal justice department at WSU, described Kohberger as confident and outgoing, but said it seemed like “he was always looking for a way to fit in.”
“It’s pretty out of left field,” he said of the news Friday. “I had honestly just pegged him as being super awkward.”
Roberts started the program in August — along with Kohberger, he said — and had several courses with him. He described Kohberger as wanting to appear academic.
“One thing he would always do, almost without fail, was find the most complicated way to explain something,” he said. “He had to make sure you knew that he knew it.”
No lawyer for Kohberger was listed in court documents and phone calls to the county public defender’s office went answered Friday.
The killings have left the close-knit community of Moscow stunned and grieving, shattering the sense of safety many had in the rural farming and university town. Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle lived together with two other roommates in the rental home just across the street from campus, and Chapin — Kernodle’s boyfriend — was there visiting.
The Moscow Police Department had asked anyone with information to email or call its tip line at 208-883-7180. The FBI, which is assisting in the investigation, created a website where people can upload security camera footage or other digital media from the area that was recorded around the time of the killings.
