Until today, the public was completely in the dark about the physical evidence that police had in the quadruple homicide that took the lives of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. The arrest affidavit written by Moscow police was released today before a hearing where suspect Bryan Kohberger was read his rights and was denied bail.
Police recounted in chilling detail the scene of the crime and the evidence that was gathered. One description, the manner of Ethan Chapin’s death, was completely redacted. Some are speculating that the description may have been too graphic to make public.
During the processing of the crime scene, investigators found a latent shoe print. This was located during the second processing of the crime scene by the ISP Forensic Team by first using a presumptive blood test and then Amino Black, a protein stain that detects the presence of cellular material. The detected shoe print showed a diamond-shaped pattern (similar to the pattem of a Vans type shoe sole) just outside the door of D.M.’s [Dylan Mortenson’s] bedroom (located on second floor). This is consistent with D.M.’s statement regarding the suspect’s path of travel.
Mortenson was the only eyewitness mentioned in the report who saw the killer exiting the house wearing a black mask. Previous reporting said the roommates did not witness anything.
Police found a KA-BAR knife sheath laying next to the body of Mogen and were able to pull DNA from the button clasp on the sheath. The FBI, who followed Kohberger for several days before his arrest, pulled DNA samples from the family’s trash bins and matched the DNA at the crime scene to the biological father of the unknown assailant. Earlier reports from Fox News that claimed open source databases were used, like Ancestry.com, were not accurate.
Questions about how police were led to Kohberger in the first place were answered. The white Hyundai Elantra seemed key to finding him. In the days immediately after the murders on November 13, police pulled all the surrounding video footage, called a “video canvass,” to try and find any activity around the time of the murders, which they had deduced from roommate Dylan Mortenson’s eyewitness account to have occurred between 4 a.m. and 4:20 a.m.
A review of camera footage indicated that a white sedan, hereafter “Suspect Vehicle 1”, was observed traveling westbound in the 700 block of Indian Hills Drive in Moscow at approximately 3:26 a.m. and westbound on Styner Avenue at Idaho State Highway 95 in Moscow at approximately 3:28 a.m. On this video, it appeared Suspect Vehicle 1 was not displaying a front license plate.
Kohberger’s car is a 2015 white Hyundai Elantra, which at the time had Pennsylvania plates. In Pennsylvania, it is not required to have a front license plate. It has been reported that Kohberger changed his plates five days after the murders and had Washington plates with a new number installed. On the night of the murders, the Elantra was seen many times near the home of the victims. “A review of footage from multiple videos obtained from the King Road Neighborhood strowed multiple sightings of Suspect Vehicle I starting at 3:29 a.m. and ending at 4:20 a.m.” Footage revealed the car making three passes by the house before the murders.
At 4:20 a.m. the same car was seen on footage speeding away from the house where the crime occurred.
After seeing the Elantra at the time of the murders near the victim’s residence, police then did a search for anyone with that type of car registered nearby. Footage obtained from Washington State University showed the same car leaving campus at 2:44 a.m. the night of the murders and heading toward Moscow. The car was seen again on the WSU campus at 5:25 a.m. Authorities located the car in the apartment complex where Kohberger lived and ran the tag, which connected the car to the man who is now charged with the murders.
Police were then able to get a search warrant for Kohberger’s cell phone location and found that the phone was dead at the time of the murders, going dark between 2:48 a.m. and 4:48 a.m. on November 13. The officer who wrote the affidavit pointed out that this is common in his investigations.
Based on my training, experience, and conversations with law enforcement officers that specialize in the utilization of cellular telephone records as part of investigations, individuals can either leave their cellular telephone at a different location before committing a crime or tum their cellular telephone off prior to going to a location to commit a crime. This is done by subjects in an effort to avoid alerting law enforcement that a cellular device associated with them was in a particular area where a crime is committed.
Further investigation showed that the phone belonging to Kohberger returned to the scene of the crime later that morning, pinging on cell towers that serviced the victim’s address between 9:12 and 9:21 a.m. Kohberger’s phone has not been back to Moscow since, according to the affidavit. The warrant also revealed that Kohberger’s phone was in the vicinity of the house twelve times in the days leading up to the murders.
The records for the 8458 Phone show the 8458 Phone utilizing cellular resources that provide coverage to the area of 1122 King Road on at least twelve occasions prior to November 13, 2022. All of these occasions, except for one, occurred in the late evening and early morning hours of their respective days.
The arrest affidavit can be read in full here. Follow my coverage on my Rumble channel and YouTube for more details. PJ Media will continue to report this developing story.
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