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More details revealed in items seized from Monroe Co. murder suspect’s home

A knife, pocketknife, and a Glock 22 handgun with three empty magazines were confiscated from a Monroe County home where a Pleasant Valley High School graduate was arrested after he was charged in a quadruple murder.

Law enforcement officials revealed more details in additional court documents made public Thursday that were located from the home where they arrested Bryan Kohberger, who is accused in the slayings of four University of Idaho students.

The items were found at the home of Kohberger’s parents in Chestnuthill Township.

Kohberger’s car, the home, the garage and a shed on the property were all searched when he was arrested there Dec. 30. After his arrest, Kohberger was extradited to Idaho.

The new, unsealed documents were released just two days after authorities first revealed details about what items has been seized at the home when Pennsylvania State police arrested Kohberger in Albrightsville.

A former doctoral student at Washington State University, Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in connection with the stabbing deaths in Moscow, Idaho.

The bodies of Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were found on Nov. 13 at a rental home across the street from the University of Idaho campus. That house will be torn down, officials said.

Police previously matched Kohberger’s DNA to a knife sheath found at the scene of the quadruple murder that led to his eventual arrest in Monroe County, according to (a then) unsealed affidavit of probable cause.

Police said they recovered trash from Kohberger’s parents’ house, and a lab later determined the DNA from the trash belonged to a man who could not be excluded from being the father of the suspect who left DNA on the knife sheath.

In the affidavit, police said that Kohberger walked right by another woman living in the home after allegedly killing the four victims. The woman, identified in the documents by only her initials, D.M., told police she was awakened at 4 a.m. by what sounded like Goncalves playing with her dog in one of the upstairs bedrooms. A short time later she heard who she thought was Goncalves say something to the effect of “there’s someone here.”

A review of records obtained from a forensic download of Kernodle’s phone showed it could have also been her as she was using the TikTok app at around 4:12 a.m.

The woman said she looked out of her bedroom but did not see anything when she heard the comment about someone being in the house. She opened her door a second time when she heard what she thought was crying coming from Kernodle’s room.

According to the affidavit, she opened her door a third time when she heard crying and “saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking toward her.”

D.M. described the figure as 5’ 10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” the affidavit continues.

The female told police she locked herself in her bedroom after seeing the man.

Phone records, according to the affidavit, put Kohberger near the crime scene at least a dozen times before Nov. 13.

The phone did not report to AT&T between 2:47 a.m. and 4:48 a.m. on the night of the murders as investigators said they believe Kohberger turned it off to conceal his location.

Police said they used surveillance cameras to match a white 2015 Hyundai Elantra seen on the Washington State University campus to the vehicle spotted around the crime scene on the night of the murders.

Based on information provided on the Washington State website, Kohberger was a Ph.D student in criminology.

According to records provided by a member of the interview panel for the Pullman Police Department, Kohberger’s past education included undergraduate degrees in psychology and cloud-based forensics. These records also showed Kohberger wrote an essay when he applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department in the fall of 2022 stating that he had interest in assisting rural law enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data in public safety operations.

Kohberger also posted a Reddit survey, which can be found by an open-source internet search, asking participants to provide information to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision making when committing a crime.

Kohberger is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing in late June. He has not entered a plea.