What Newly Released Documents in the Idaho Murder Case Reveal

Pennsylvania search warrant documents unsealed this week revealed that authorities seized weapons and other items in a December raid of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger’s parents’ home. Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November.

Pennsylvania State Police and FBI arrested Kohberger in the early morning hours of Dec. 30 at his family home in the Pocono Mountains, nearly seven weeks after four students were stabbed to death on Nov. 13 in their off-campus home in the sleepy college town of Moscow, Idaho. The unsealed court records, which were released Tuesday, show that law enforcement discovered and confiscated knives, a gun and black clothing, medical-style gloves and masks—among other items—back in December.

The victims’ roommate, who was in the Moscow home at the time of the murders, described the suspect as “clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose,” according to court documents.

Investigators also seized, searched and later dismantled a 2015 white Hyundai Elantra that Kohberger sometimes drove. Authorities said the car matched the vehicle seen in surveillance footage close to the home where murders took place, and used the footage to connect Kohberger to the murders.

Authorities also retrieved DNA swabs from Kohberger on the day of the search, according to court documents. An earlier released affidavit also said that law enforcement found a leather knife sheath at the crime scene that had Kohberger’s DNA on it.

Kohberger, 28, was a criminal justice PhD student at Washington State University, about eight miles from Moscow. He faces four counts of first-degree murder in the killings of Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21.

The violent deaths in Moscow shocked the community and sent waves of panic as the search for the suspect ensued for almost a month and a half after the murders. It was announced this week that the home where the students were killed will be demolished.

The owner of the Moscow home offered to give the property to the University of Idaho and the school accepted.

“This is a healing step and removes the physical structure where the crime that shook our community was committed,” University President Scott Green said in a memo.

A motive for the crimes has not been revealed. Kohberger has not entered a plea yet and is being held without bail in Latah County Jail in Idaho. A preliminary probable cause hearing is scheduled to begin on June 26.