Idaho Murders: Trash Can DNA, Cellphone Records Led to Suspect's Arrest in Quadruple Homicide

On December 30, Bryan Kohberger was arrested and charged with the murder of four college students in Moscow, Idaho. Police say he violently murdered Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethn Chapin, 20, in the morning hours of November 13.

A newly released affidavit has revealed that Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the quadruple homicide that shook an Idaho college town, was primarily identified by cellphone location data and police examining DNA found at the scene.

The alleged murderer made his first court appearance on Thursday, which later prompted the release of the affidavit that led to Kohberger's arrest warrant.

The affidavit describes the experience of officer Brett Payne as he observed the gruesome murder scene and how he found a knife sheath next to the body of one victim. The file states the button clasp on the sheath contained traces of DNA left by a male.

It was further detailed that the sheath included Marine Corps markings; however, Kohberger, a Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University, has not served any time in the US military.

Law enforcement officers would ultimately match that DNA to samples gathered from the trash cans of the parents of Kohberger. The test, according to the affidavit, “did not disqualify” the DNA from being the biological father of the person who left DNA at the scene of the quadruple homicide. It notes that 99.9998% of the male population would have been disqualified from being the biological father of the person who left the DNA on the knife sheath.

Prior to searching trash cans belonging to Kohberger’s parents, authorities first connected him to the crime by using surveillance footage and cellphone location data.

In August, months before the murders, Kohberger was pulled over in a white Hyundai Elantra and gave the officer his cellphone number. Surveillance footage showed a white sedan, identified by an expert as a Hyundai Elantra according to the affidavit, circling the area of the murders between 3:29 a.m. local time and 4:04 a.m. It is later seen driving away from the scene “at a high rate of speed” at 4:20 a.m.

The murders are thought to have occurred between 4:00 a.m. and 4:25 a.m. based on what other residents of the building heard and saw that night.

Law enforcement then obtained the cellphone data of the number Kohberger gave the officer when he was pulled over in August. They found that while his cellphone did not ping nearby cell towers at the time of the murder, what it did show added to their suspicions.

The number associated with Kohberger connected to cell towers near his Pullman, Washington residence, about 10 miles from Moscow, at 2:47 a.m. It then stops communicating with cell towers, which indicates it was either put into airplane mode, was without coverage or had been turned off.

The phone then begins communicating with a cell tower south of Moscow at 4:48 a.m. and then eventually returns to Pullman.

Officer Payne states in the affidavit: “The route of travel of [Kohberger’s phone] during the early morning hours of November 13, 2022 and the lack of the… phone reporting to AT&T between 2:47 a.m. and 4:448 a.m. is consistent with Kohberger attempting to conceal his location during the quadruple homicide.”

Additionally, records indicated that Kohberger’s phone pinged the cellphone towers that served the area of the murders at least 12 times since June, with all but one of those coming in the “late evening and early morning hours,” including the time Kohberger was pulled over in August.

Kohberger’s phone pinged cellphone towers in Moscow the morning after the murder and once more on November 14, though police do not believe he went to Moscow on that day. His cellphone has not pinged any cell towers serving the Moscow area after that date.