Suspect Accused Of Murdering 4 Idaho College Students Arrested In Pennsylvania And Held Without Bond
Four university students were mysteriously killed in Idaho roughly six weeks ago. A suspect was finally arrested and detained in connection with the murders. He's a 28-year-old criminology graduate student named Bryan Christopher Kohberger.
The unthinkable happened in a small college town in northern Idaho called Moscow, when four University of Idaho students were violently killed. Their deaths remained a tragic mystery for several weeks, but local police announced on Friday that a suspect was apprehended and detained.
Suspect Accused of Murdering 4 Idaho College Students Arrested in Pennsylvania and Held Without Bond
Xana Kernodle (pictured below), Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen (pictured below) were all 20- or 21-year-olds who were found stabbed to death in their beds on November 13. They were in a rental home near the campus of University of Idaho. The young students displayed multiple stab wounds and some showed defensive injuries. The violent act shook the small town of Moscow, which has a population of 25,000 and hasn't seen a murder in over five years. These shocking murders were so frightening that almost half of University of Idaho students left the city and decided to switch to remote learning.
Family members of the victims expressed frustration at how long it took for officials to find the suspect, but he has finally been apprehended. His name is Bryan Christopher Kohberger and he's a 28-year-old who just finished a graduate program studying criminology. He was picked up in Pennsylvania and is being held for extradition on a warrant for first degree murder, per paperwork filed in Monroe County Court. He has been given the option to return to Idaho voluntarily; if he doesn't, Moscow police will begin extradition proceedings through the governor's office.
Kohberger was arraigned on Friday morning in Pennsylvania and he has a court hearing set for January 3. He's being held without bond. Moscow police chief James Fry says investigators are still looking for the murder weapon that was used to kill the college students and they're still piecing together more evidence related to the case. There isn't much known about Kohberger at the moment other than the fact he graduated from Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania with an associate of arts degree in psychology in 2018. He apparently completed a bachelor's degree in 2020 and graduate studies in June 2022 at DeSales University in Pennsylvania.
A graduate student in the criminology and criminal justice department at WSU who knew Kohberger, Ben Roberts, said he was pretty outgoing and seemed confident.
"It’s pretty out of left field," he said. "I had honestly just pegged him as being super awkward."
Autopsy reports show that all four students were attacked while they were sleeping. There was no sign of sexual assault, but some of the victims exhibited defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times. Two of the victims were found on the second floor of the building and the other two were found on the third floor. All four were out the previous night enjoying themselves with friends, returning home past 1 a.m. to settle in for the night. There were two surviving female roommates who lived on the basement floor of the building. They slept through the attacks and were unharmed.
The brutality of these murders has made the case national news and the families are relieved that the suspect has finally been apprehended. A motive has not yet been revealed as the entire country waits for more updates.