Moscow murder suspect found

Photo Courtesy: Unsplash

Photo Courtesy: Unsplash

Marin Himes

   In the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022, four students from the University of Idaho were fatally stabbed in their off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho. A month after the murder, Bryan Kohberger was arrested in his home state of Pennsylvania for investigation. According to ABC News, federal investigators saw Kohberger throw out garbage into a neighbor’s trash can in the middle of the night.

   Kohberger, a Ph.D. student in criminology at a nearby university, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. On the day of the murder, police found the door to the off-campus residence open and the bodies of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in rooms on the second and third floors. Two other roommates were in the three-floor, six-bedroom rental at the time but were not injured.

   “I bristled in the days after the arrest when people questioned whether police had the right man because a Ph.D. candidate in criminal justice would be too smart for this crime,” John Miller, a CNN law enforcement analyst and former New York Police Department deputy commissioner, said. “You can teach a master’s class on how to do a complex criminal investigation based on this case.”

   According to CNN, the local police department stated the attack was targeted and not a threat to the community. Later that week Police Chief Jason Fry backtracked and made a statement.

    “We cannot say that there is no threat to the community,” Fry said. 

   After this statement was made, many of the students began to leave town. 

   For weeks on end, the authorities struggled to find a suspect and the murder weapon. According to TODAY, the families of the deceased did not know or recognize the suspect’s name. Kohberger is set to appear in court again on Jan. 12. The public defender who represented him in Pennsylvania, where he was held before being extradited to Idaho, believes that Kohberger will be exonerated.