cover of episode SPECIAL: Idaho College Murders

SPECIAL: Idaho College Murders

2023/1/9
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The episode discusses the arrest of a 28-year-old PhD student suspected in the murder of four University of Idaho students. The suspect is currently held without bail and faces four counts of first-degree murder.

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To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, please visit patreon.com slash forensic tales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. On November 13th, 2022, four University of Idaho students were murdered in their off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho. All of them had been fatally stabbed to death.

After a seven-week investigation, the police arrested a suspect in the murders, a 28-year-old PhD student. The suspect is currently being held in jail without bail and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Within hours of his extradition to Idaho, the probable cause affidavit was made public. This chilling document outlines all the evidence against him and why the police believe they have their suspect.

This is Forensic Tales, episode number 158, The Idaho College Murders. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola. Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.

As a one-woman show, your support helps me find new compelling cases, conduct in-depth fact-based research, and produce and edit this weekly show. As a thank you for supporting the show, you'll get early ad-free access to weekly episodes, shout-outs and episodes, priority on case suggestions, and access to weekly bonus episodes.

To support Forensic Tales, please visit patreon.com slash Forensic Tales or simply click the link in the show notes. You can also support the show by leaving a positive rating with a review. Now let's get to this week's episode. Hey everyone, I'm doing something different on the show this week. In fact, I've never done this before, so it's a first for me.

Now, I've received so many requests from you to cover this story on the show, and up until this point, I've been hesitant. Usually, I like to cover cases that have been solved or unsolved cases where we have much more information and I can tell you the complete story. I've never covered a story so recent and new as what I'm about to do this week. So this episode is going to be a little different, but my gut is telling me that it's the perfect time to do this.

In this episode, I'm going to go through the timeline of events, what we know, and what's still a mystery. We'll talk about the victims and the suspect. We'll also do a deep dive into all the forensic evidence we know about so far, including everything outlined about the investigation in the police probable cause affidavit. This document sheds light on how authorities zeroed in on their suspect.

I'm talking about the Idaho college murders and the arrest of Brian Koberger. At 1158 a.m. on November 13th, 2022, a 911 call was placed from the residence of 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho to the Moscow Police Department. Moscow, Idaho is a small city in north central Idaho.

Before mid-November 2022, Moscow, Idaho was a place known for its suburban feel and countless bars and coffee shops. It's also home to the University of Idaho, the state's largest research university. Moscow, Idaho was a place where most people didn't lock their doors at night. Why would they have to? Crime was practically unheard of there, and violent crime is non-existent.

The rural college town hasn't seen a murder since 2015, but Moscow's safe and idyllic life changed after the morning of November 13th. The small college town was reminded that monsters live everywhere. Two minutes before noon, a college student living at 1122 King Road called the Moscow Police Department to report an unresponsive person inside the house. When the police officers arrived, the front door was open and everything about the house appeared normal.

The rented off-campus home was three stories and had a total of six bedrooms, two bedrooms on each floor. It looked like your typical college co-ed rental property. At least, that's how things appeared at first. But within minutes, the police realized they weren't just responding to a call about an unresponsive person. They were responding to a quadruple homicide.

When police entered the house, they discovered four dead college students inside, three females and one male. All four of them had been stabbed multiple times with what the coroner described as a larger knife. When the story first broke in the media, reports suggested the victims were all found murdered in their beds. But the coroner later confirmed that wasn't accurate. Although authorities believe that the victims were likely asleep when attacked, not all were in bed.

The first victim discovered was Zaina Kernodle. Her body was found on the floor near her bedroom on the second floor. The police were able to identify her from her driver's license and other personal belongings they found in the nearby bedroom. All of her wounds were consistent with a stabbing death. The police also found the second victim inside the bedroom. The police identified him as Ethan Chapin. He also had wounds the coroner described as sharp force injuries.

After finding the first two victims, the police headed to the house's third floor. The third floor consists of two more bedrooms and one shared bathroom. It's on the third floor they found the third and fourth victims. When authorities entered the first bedroom on the floor's west side, they encountered a dog. Later on, the police determined the dog belonged to the third victim and her ex-boyfriend.

The officers then made their way into the second bedroom on the third floor. That's when they discovered the bodies of two females lying side by side together in the same bed. They were Madison Mogan and Kaylee Gonzales. They also had multiple bodily injuries consistent with the stabbing death. All four victims inside the house had been stabbed to death. Some of them had defensive wounds on their arms and hands, indicated they might have attempted to fight back.

Others were likely asleep when they were stabbed and they had no chance. 21-year-old Madison Mogan was originally from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a larger city about 80 miles north of Moscow. She was a senior at the University of Idaho, majoring in marketing. Her roommate, 21-year-old Kaylee Gonzales, was originally from Rafton, Idaho, a city about 90 miles north of the university.

She was also a senior at the university, getting her degree in general studies. She and Madison had been friends since the sixth grade. According to Kaylee's sister, the two did everything together. They lived together, they got their first boyfriends around the same time, they graduated high school together, and they attended the University of Idaho together. And on November 13th, they died together in the same room and same bed.

20-year-old Zaina Kernodle was from Post Falls, Idaho. Like her roommate Madison, she was also studying marketing and was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority on campus. Zaina and Madison worked together at the Mad Greek restaurant in downtown. Finally, 20-year-old Ethan Chapin was the only male student killed. He was a freshman originally from Mount Vernon, Washington.

Like Zaina, he was also very involved in school activities and was a member of a fraternity. He was studying at the university to earn his recreation, sport, and tourism management degree. Ethan grew up part of a set of triplets with a brother and a sister. According to Ethan's mother, Stacey Chapin, the family was incredibly close. They always tried to eat dinner together and spend as much time together as possible.

All three Chapin triplets decided to attend the University of Idaho because they wanted a small town and a beautiful campus with a popular Greek system. Ethan and Zaina, a junior, started dating in the spring before the murders. In an Instagram post dated October 29, 2022, Zaina wished Ethan a happy birthday, captioning a photo of them together, life is so much better with you in it. Love you.

The brutal stabbing deaths of four young college students in the same house rocked not only the community of the University of Idaho, but the entire country. This quiet part of Idaho had never seen a crime like this. The last murder to happen there was back in 2015. Most of the police officers assigned to the case had never investigated a homicide before, let alone one involving four victims. It was like the entire thing had been written straight out of a horror film.

In the hours following the discovery of the bodies, the president of the University of Idaho canceled classes for the entire day of November 14th, and residents of Moscow began locking their doors at night. People didn't want to leave their houses alone, fearing that there was a killer on the loose. Who else would they target if someone could kill four innocent college students?

On January 5th, 2023, an Idaho judge publicly released the Moscow Police Department's probable cause affidavit in the case. A lot of the information contained in this episode comes directly from this document. If you're interested in reading the entire 19-page affidavit for yourself, it's been made public per the court's direction. But we're going to take a deep dive into the document here.

Let's start with the victims. According to the police probable cause affidavit, here is what we know about where the victims were up until the time of the murders. On November 12th, Ethan and his girlfriend Zaina went to a sorority party on the University of Idaho campus at 735 Nez Pierce Drive.

Other college students who attended the party said they saw Ethan and Zaina from around 9 p.m. that night on November 12th to 1.45 a.m. on November 13th. After the party, it's believed Ethan and Zaina returned to Zaina's house on King Road. Although it was initially reported in the media that Ethan lived at the house on King Road, it was later determined he was just staying the night there. He lived in another off-campus house.

But that night, he planned to spend the night with his girlfriend and her roommates. The other two roommates, Madison and Kaylee, were also out that night. They were seen at a local bar, The Corner Club, at 202 North Main Street in Moscow. A security camera inside the bar captured the girls there from around 10 p.m. on November 12th until 1.30 a.m. on November 13th.

At around 1.30 a.m., Madison and Kaylee were captured on another security camera near a local food vendor called The Grub Truck at 318 South Main Street. The Grub Truck live streams video on the streaming platform Twitch, which meant the video was available to both the public and law enforcement. After stopping by the food truck, the girls received a ride home to their shared house on King Road around 1.56 a.m.

No one else is seen leaving with Madison and Kaylee, and no one is seen following them. According to the affidavit, the police believe that all four victims were at the King Road residence by 2 a.m., and by 4 a.m., all were either asleep or at least inside their bedrooms, except for Zaina. Around 4 o'clock a.m., Zaina received a food delivery from DoorDash.

After picking the food up from the driver, the police believe she returned to the bedroom where she was staying with Ethan. Then sometime between 4 o'clock and 4.25, the murders unfolded. The DoorDash driver was interviewed by the police several times and was ruled out as a suspect. During these interviews, the driver didn't report either seeing or hearing anything suspicious in or around the house connected to the murders.

On the night of the murders, six people stayed inside the house. Four of them were killed and two of the roommates were left unharmed. Initially, it was reported the two surviving roommates might have slept through the attacks, but that's not true. According to one of the surviving roommates, she went to sleep in her bedroom on the second floor earlier that night, but was woken up around 4 a.m.,

She said she woke up because she heard noises that sounded like her roommate Kaylee was playing with her dog in one of the upstairs bedrooms. A little bit later, she said she heard Kaylee say something to the effect of there's someone here. Although according to the police affidavit, the roommate could have been mistaken about what she heard. A forensic analysis of Zaina's cell phone showed that the noise might have come from Zaina playing on her cell phone.

Cell phone records show that she was likely still awake and using the app TikTok at 4.12. After the roommate heard the strange noises, she looked outside her bedroom door but didn't see anyone. But when she opened it a second time, she did hear something. She said she heard what she thought sounded like Zaina crying, or at least it sounded like someone was crying in the direction of her bedroom. She also said she heard a male voice saying, "'It's okay, I'm gonna help you.'"

but she didn't go down the hall to check on her roommate. Instead, she stayed in her bedroom, a decision that likely saved her life at that particular moment. At 4.17 a.m., a security camera installed on the house directly across the street picked up on a distorted noise of what sounded like voices or a whimper, followed by a loud thud. The camera also captured a dog barking several times at 4.17 a.m.

This security camera is significant because it's located less than 50 feet from Zaina's bedroom, which means the camera likely captured the murders taking place. This is an important piece of detail because it helps put together the complete timeline. When the surviving roommate opened her door for the third time, she said she saw a man wearing all black with a mask covering his mouth and nose.

She said she didn't know who he was, but described him as being around 5'10". He wasn't muscular, but had an athletic build with bushy eyebrows. According to the roommate, when she saw the man in the hallway, she simply froze. She didn't know what to do. After what must have felt like a lifetime, the man simply walked past her and headed toward the back sliding door.

After the encounter, she said she locked herself in the room and didn't come back out until hours later. The Moscow police believe the masked person the roommate saw was in fact the killer. But why didn't he kill her like the others? Why did he decide to spare her life and simply walk through the back door? That's one of the many unanswered questions about this story that hopefully will be answered at some point in the future.

Based on the neighbor's security camera, the statements provided by the surviving roommate, the statements from the door dash driver, and forensic cell phone data, the police are confident the murders occurred between 4 and 4.25 a.m. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are some of your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day.

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Visit BetterHelp.com slash tails to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash tails. The entire three-story residence was swept for forensic evidence linked to the murders. Stabbing deaths are incredibly personal, so the chances of recovering the suspect's DNA and other trace evidence are high. They would have looked for anything from blood to fingerprints to touch DNA.

It was also possible the killer could have left blood behind at the scene if one of the victims managed to scratch or injure him. Some of the victims had defensive wounds, or at least one of them did. So it's possible that at least one of them caused an injury. It's also common with stabbings for the perpetrator to accidentally stab or injure themselves. If that's the case, the killer's DNA could be left behind at the scene or on the victim.

When crime scene investigators searched the house for forensic evidence, they recovered a latent shoe print. The shoe print was first identified using a presumptive blood test, then confirmed with an amino black test, a test that uses a protein stain to detect the presence of cellular material. Both tests showed a shoe print with a diamond-shaped pattern on the sole. The shape looked similar to the design of a Vans-type shoe.

The police discovered the shoe print just outside the door of one of the surviving roommate's bedrooms on the second floor. This was significant because it was consistent with the roommate's story about where the killer walked when he left the house. It was also significant because it was the first big piece of forensic evidence presumably left behind by the killer.

The second major piece of forensic evidence came from one of the bedrooms on the third floor. The police recovered a tan leather knife sheath lying on the bed next to Madison and Kaylee's bodies. The knife sheath was incredibly unique and had K-A-B-A-R and U-S-M-C, as well as the United States Marine Corps Eagle Globe stamped on the outside of it. The authorities immediately knew the sheath must have been left behind by the suspect.

It was immediately sent to the crime lab for forensic testing. The hope was to lift a fingerprint or DNA from it, and they were right. When the Idaho State Lab tested the sheath, they recovered a single source of male DNA on the bottom snap. It was the killer's DNA. On top of the footprint and the tan leather knife sheath, the Moscow police collected 113 pieces of physical evidence and took over 4,000 photos of the scene.

Key evidence was also found outside the house. According to the affidavit, the police conducted what they called a video canvas in the area around the house. They wanted to see if they could find any footage from the early morning hours of November 13th in the area that would help identify a suspect or their vehicle. During this video canvas, they found several surveillance videos from local businesses and other houses.

In many of these videos, they identified a small white sedan without a front license plate traveling in the area around the time of the murders. The first sighting of the white sedan happened at 3.26 a.m. The car was seen traveling westbound in the 700 block of Indian Hills Drive in Moscow. This is a road about a mile and a half away from the King Road where the murders took place.

A few minutes later, it was seen going westbound on Steiner Avenue at Idaho State Highway 95 at 328. This sighting is about a half mile away from the house. Between 329 and 420 a.m., the same white sedan without a front license plate is seen driving around the house on King Road three separate times.

Besides this particular vehicle, no other suspicious vehicles were seen driving toward or away from the house. At that point, the police identified the driver of the white sedan as their primary suspect in the murders. This was based on the video evidence that placed the car in the area of King Road multiple times before, during, and after the murders took place.

The white sedan is seen entering the area a fourth time at 4.04 a.m. This time the car is seen driving eastbound on King Road. It stopped briefly, then turned around in front of 500 Queen Road. It's then seen again driving back westbound on King Road, but the car wasn't able to park in front of the victim's house just yet.

The sedan then continued to the intersection of Queen Road and King Road, where it was captured on video making a three-point turn and then started driving eastbound again down Queen Road. After this sighting is when the police believe the murders happened. The next time the white sedan is captured on video is around 4.20. This sighting fits perfectly into the timeline when the police say the victims were killed.

But something was different about how the person was driving the car. This time they were driving at a much higher rate of speed than just 20 minutes earlier. Before, the car was driving at a normal rate of speed and that the driver didn't appear to be in a hurry. But by 4.20 a.m., they were speeding out of the area. And according to the police, this is when they believe the suspect was leaving the area. They drove much faster to get out of the neighborhood as quickly as possible.

Neighborhood cameras captured the city and traveling southbound on Walena Drive, about 0.3 miles away from the house. After that, the car is lost on video. But the police speculate the suspect exited the neighborhood at Palos River Drive and Conestega Drive. This is the suspect's route to get out of the murder scene. Once the police collected the surveillance video evidence, they turned the videos over to the FBI for analysis.

The FBI was tasked with identifying the make, model, and year of the car they believed was driven by the suspect. Because the car didn't display a front license plate, they couldn't conduct a standard DMV check to see who the car was registered to. According to the affidavit, the FBI agent tasked with analyzing the surveillance video has over 35 years of law enforcement experience and 12 with the FBI.

After the FBI reviewed the videos, the forensic examiner identified the white sedan as a 2011 to 2013 Elantra. But after further review, he said the car could also be a 2014 to 2016 model. From then, the police were hunting for anyone driving a 2011 to 2016 white Elantra.

But that search was challenging because more than 22,000 registered cars matched this search criteria. According to the affidavit, investigators got their hands on surveillance footage from the Washington State University campus in Pullman, Washington. The Washington State University campus is approximately 8 miles away from Moscow, Idaho, or about a 12-15 minute drive.

Video evidence showed that around 2.44 a.m. on November 13th, a similar white sedan was captured on WSU surveillance cameras traveling north on Southwest Nevada Street. A few minutes later, at 2.53 a.m., the same sedan was seen traveling towards SR-270. This footage is significant because the SR-270 connects Pullman, Washington to Moscow, Idaho.

At 2.53, the suspect went to Idaho to commit the murders. But the video evidence doesn't stop there. At 5.25 a.m., a white sedan, consistent with the suspect's vehicle, was captured on five different cameras in Pullman, Washington, and the Washington State University campus. Whoever committed the murders either lived or was staying in Pullman near the WSU campus.

According to the affidavit, on November 25th, the police department asked all law enforcement agencies in the area to be on the lookout for a 2011-2016 white Elantra. Four days later, a police officer with the Washington State University Police reported seeing the vehicle. The vehicle was reported as a 2015 white Elantra with a Pennsylvania license plate that read LFZ-5649.

When the university police officer checked DMV records to see who the car was registered to, it belonged to a man named Brian Koberger. According to DMV records, Brian Koberger lived at 1630 Northeast Valley Road in Pullman, a location about three quarters of a mile away from the intersection of Stadium Way and Cougar Way.

This specific location is significant because that intersection was the last camera location that picked up the white Elantra on the night of the murders. Later that day, around 12.58 a.m., another Washington State University police officer was also looking for a white sedan.

This officer found a 2015 white Elantra in a Pullman, Washington parking lot at 1630 Northeast Valley Road, an apartment complex that houses Washington State University students. This officer also ran the car's license plates and found out that it was registered to Brian Koberger, but it had a Washington tag. From this moment on, Brian Koberger became the prime suspect in the murders.

But who exactly is Brian Koberger? Here is what we know so far about the man believed to be responsible. 28-year-old Brian Christopher Koberger was born on November 21, 1994. He grew up in Pennsylvania with his parents, Michael and Marianne, and his two sisters. He attended Pleasant Valley High School and graduated in 2013.

He graduated from DeSales University with an undergraduate degree in psychology and cloud-based forensics in 2020. Then he obtained a Master of Arts in criminal justice in June of 2022. At the time of the murders, he was a PhD student in criminology at Washington State University, about a 12 to 15 minute drive away from where the murders happened in Idaho.

Besides being a Ph.D. student, he also worked as a teaching assistant for the university. By November 2022, he had just finished his first semester at WSU and lived in an on-campus student and family housing in WSU's Steptoe Village. In the fall of 2022, Koberger applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department.

In an essay submitted with his application, he wrote about his interest in helping law enforcement agencies better collect and analyze technical data in public safety operations. Authorities also uncovered a Reddit survey where he posted and asked people to provide information to, quote, understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime, end quote.

Once Brian Koberger became the prime suspect, authorities analyzed cell phone data and learned that he went near the house on King Road several times before the murders. This evidence suggests he might have stalked his victims before he killed them. According to cell phone data outlined in the affidavit, Koberger's cell phone pinged off cell towers around the house on King Road 12 separate times before November 13th.

All of these occasions, except for one, happened in the late evening or early morning hours. Here is what we know about at least one of these visits. On August 21st, Koberger's cell phone was in the area for about an hour, from 10.34 p.m. to 11.35. At around 11.37 p.m., he was pulled over at a traffic stop by a county sheriff's deputy for a traffic violation.

At the time, Koberger was driving a white 2015 Elantra with Pennsylvania license plates set to expire on November 30, 2022. During this traffic stop, Koberger provided the sheriff deputy with his phone number ending in 8458, the same phone number the police used to search cell phone towers around the house on King Road.

The affidavit also outlined Coburger's cell phone activity on November 13th, the night of the murders. Around 2.42 a.m., his cell phone pinged a tower near Northwest Valley Road in Pullman, Washington. This is a cell tower near his on-campus WSU apartment. Around five minutes later, at 2.47, the phone traveled south through Pullman. This is consistent with the movement of the White Elantra.

But at 2.47 a.m., his cell phone completely stopped communicating with cell phone towers. This means the cell phone was either turned off or placed in airplane mode. After 2.47 a.m., the phone's connection to the AT&T network was disabled. The phone wasn't turned back on until 4.48 a.m. At 4.48, the phone pinged a tower near Idaho State Highway 95 south of Moscow.

Then between 4.50 a.m. and 5.26 a.m., his cell phone pings several towers consistent with him driving south on State Highway 93, then west towards Uniontown, then back north to Pullman, Washington. At 5.30 a.m., the phone was back at Koberger's apartment near the WSU campus.

According to the affidavit, his cell phone data is consistent with the white sedan's movements from Pullman, Washington to Moscow, Idaho. It also fits the timeline of the murders based on all the other evidence the police gathered. But that's not all the police have regarding cell phone evidence. There's more that's outlined in the affidavit. The police believe Brian Koberger returned to the house on King Road a few hours after the murders.

Koberger's cell phone pinged a tower near the victim's house between 9.12 a.m. and 9.21 a.m. Then the cell phone traveled back to Washington around 9.32. According to investigators, this is when he returned to the house and before the police were called. Each of the 12 separate times Koberger traveled to Moscow, Idaho, he brought his cell phone with him. We know he did because his cell phone was communicating with AT&T and the network towers in the area.

but on the night of the murders, he either didn't bring his cell phone with him or turned it off. Investigators know this because his car was seen driving to Idaho right before the murders, but his cell phone wasn't communicating with network towers. Koberger likely turned his phone off or put it in airplane mode because he knew that the police could track it. He thought by turning his cell phone off, the police wouldn't be able to place him on King Road on the night of the murders.

This behavior is consistent with someone trying to conceal his location during a quadruple homicide. Although the affidavit doesn't outline what Coburger did during his 12 visits to King Road, the police speculate he stalked his victims. He could have used these trips to Idaho to learn more about his victims, learn their schedules and routines.

He might have even gone inside the house on one of these trips to get familiar with the house's layout. Although this is simply a theory because there isn't any evidence, at least of what we know, that he's ever been inside the house before. About seven weeks into the investigation, authorities uncovered forensic evidence linking him to the murders. They only had cell phone data and surveillance video until this point. But by late December, they had the forensic evidence.

An FBI surveillance team from the Philadelphia field office had been tracking him for four days. While he was being watched, investigators from Idaho, the Idaho State Police Homicide Bureau, and the FBI worked with prosecutors to develop sufficient probable cause to obtain an arrest warrant. But to get a warrant, they needed forensic evidence.

Sometime right before Christmas, Brian Koberger drove across the country in his white sedan to his parents' house in Pennsylvania. Maybe he made the trip to be with his family over the holidays, or maybe he knew the police were zeroing in on him. But as soon as he arrived in Pennsylvania, the FBI began its surveillance.

According to an article by CNN, during the FBI surveillance, Koberger was seen wearing surgical gloves multiple times outside his parents' house. He was also observed doing a deep clean of his white car. Two days after Christmas, on December 27th, police in Pennsylvania searched a trash can outside Koberger's parents' house in Pennsylvania.

Not everyone knows this, but trash is considered public domain. So as soon as you put something in your trash can and put it on the curb to get picked up, it's legal for police to go through it without a warrant. In this case, several items from Coburger's parents' trash were collected and sent to the Idaho State Lab for testing. The testing was expedited due to the urgency of the investigation. And about 24 hours later, they had the results.

On December 28th, the Idaho State Lab reported that a DNA profile obtained from the trash and the DNA profile obtained from the leather knife sheath recovered next to one of the victims belonged to a male. The DNA profile was taken through a public database to find potential matches for family members through genetic genealogy.

Once possible family matches were found, the lab determined this male was the biological father of the killer. According to the affidavit, at least 99.99998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect's biological father.

This meant Brian Koberger's father was the biological father of the Idaho college murderer. Based on all the evidence outlined in the probable cause affidavit, the police requested an arrest warrant be issued for 28-year-old Brian Christopher Koberger on December 29th. The affidavit requested he is charged with burglary and four counts of first-degree murder.

As soon as the warrant was signed, Brian Koberger was arrested in Pennsylvania. He was detained at the Monroe County Correctional Facility until he agreed to be extradited back to Idaho on January 3rd, 2023. The next day, on January 4th, he was on a plane headed back to Idaho. Once he landed, he was taken to the county jail where he's currently held without bail.

Koberger's first court appearance was just a few hours later on January 5th. At this hearing, he was formally charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. He faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted. This is obviously a very recent case, and there's still so much about it to be uncovered.

Although Brian Koberger has been arrested for the murders, he's presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But right now, it doesn't look good for his defense. Based on the probable cause affidavit made public just a few days ago, police and prosecutors are confident Koberger is their suspect. His vehicle was captured on multiple surveillance cameras around the murder scene at the time the murders took place.

Cell phone data suggests he might have stalked his victims during 12 separate trips to King Road, and his DNA was found at the crime scene. Brian Koberger is scheduled to be back in court for a status hearing on January 12, 2023. According to his defense lawyer, he is looking forward to proving his innocence in the murders.

If you're interested in reading the entire probable cause affidavit, it's available for you to read right now online. Almost everything discussed in this episode came directly from the affidavit. So if you're interested in this case, I encourage you to check it out for yourself. To share your thoughts on the story, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook. To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales.

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