Investigating the campus killings of four U.S. students in Moscow: A day after the university killed four students, police say a suspect had been arrested
Two federal law enforcement sources told CNN on Friday that a suspect was taken into custody in connection with the murders of four University of Idaho students.
Our analysts spent many hours trying to find the most relevant information for the investigators to follow up on. They have reinterviewed some of the folks we’ve interviewed earlier in this investigation to clarify information,” Lanier said Monday.
The killings in an off campus home riveted the nation and shocked the small college town of Moscow, which hadn’t had a murder in seven years. The community and student body were frightened and asked questions about the police investigation of the case.
The public will not be able to see much of the information at the very end of the case because it will be used for prosecution.
Moscow police initially told the public that the attack was targeted, with no further threat to the public. But by day four, Police Chief Jason Fry adjusted that statement: “We cannot say that there is no threat to the community.”
Snell acknowledges the early messaging may have been off, given that the roughly 30 members of the Moscow Police Department all initially responded to the crime scene, with no dedicated public information staff within the department.
In addition to the hundreds of leads, police are also combing through large files of surveillance footage submitted by residents of the early morning hours when police believe the murders happened.
Other angles are taking longer to investigate. To aid in the investigation of the attack on students, law enforcement asked local businesses to provide information on the purchase of a fixed-blade knife. The knife description is a match, but no businesses have given any information on where that knife was bought or obtained.
“We recognize that it’s always wise for people to lock their doors, walk in pairs, be alert of what they’re doing. We want to find and bring to justice those who killed someone, and we don’t like to see murderers go free.
He told CNN there could potentially be more than one person responsible for the killings. Police still believe it was a targeted attack and that there were two people in the house that survived.
How to Move on After the Fall Break: A Parent’s Message to the U.S. Department of State Dr. Scott Green (President)
The University of Idaho president said Tuesday that many students have given the school input on how they hope to proceed after the fall break, resulting in a decision to allow students to finish the rest of the semester either in-person or remotely.
In his message, University of Idaho President Scott Green said, “Faculty have been asked to prepare in-person teaching and remote learning options so that each student can choose their method of engagement for the final two weeks of the semester. Moving courses fully online is not preferred but may be necessary in limited situations.”
“It’s time for us to give those things back that really mean something to those families and hopefully to help with some of their healing,” Moscow Police Chief James Fry said last week in a video statement. I understand the meaning of some of those things, as a dad.
“As people are out there and they’re talking about this case, the public sentiment changes,” Snell said. “They’re confused. They’re upset. We want to try and make sure the truth is out, and we want to make sure rumors are false.
A Murder at a Border Collapsar: A Search for a Stagger at the Bell Hotel in Boiseville, Idaho
They are looking into information about a stalker. The release states that information about stalkers or strange occurrences should be reported to the Tip Line.
Later that morning, two surviving roommates “summoned friends to the residence because they believed one of the second floor victims had passed out and was not waking up,” police said in a release. Somebody called 911 from the house at 11:58 a.m. using one of the surviving roommates’ phones.
The dog that was found at the home where the stabbings occurred was turned over to Animal Services and then released to a responsible party, according to Moscow Police.
The autopsy shows the four were likely asleep when they were attacked. Some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times. There was no evidence of a sexual assault, police said.
Many residents and their loved ones are still on edge despite the fact that many details from the investigation have not been made public.
We do not want to compromise this investigation and so we will not be releasing specific details. It is what we must do. We owe that to both the families and the victims. We want more than just an arrest, we want a conviction,” Lanier continued.
Hundreds of University of Idaho students are taking final exams this week before the semester ends, and investigators are combing through thousands of tips in the case.
The Russia-U.S. Investigation of a White Hyundai Elantra Home Around the Time of the 2011-2013 Homicides
Last week, authorities sought information from the public regarding a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra they believe was “in the immediate area” of the crime scene around the time of the killings.
The occupant or occupant may have seen something. They may not know they have seen something,” Lanier said Monday, noting investigators want to speak with whoever was in the car.
Everyone in Moscow should be aware of what’s happening, avoid walking in dark places and walk in groups when possible, as the investigation continues, according to Lanier.
The FBI is trying to find the right people for the investigation. The public is asked to keep using the tip line to report any information about the vehicle.
The investigation into the homicides is being handled by dozens working around the clock across the local police department, the FBI and the Idaho State Police.
We have teams in Russia, Utah and Virginia as well as other locations around the country. And we’re prepared to do interviews and follow up on information at any point anywhere,” Lanier said.
And while the home remains a crime scene being monitored by a contracted private security company, authorities last week began returning some of the victims’ belongings to their family.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/13/us/university-of-idaho-student-killings-month-later/index.html
The University of Idaho students killed in September 2013: When someone killed in the bike path walked into a cyclist had nothing to do with with it
One of the things that is distracts investigators is tracking down rumors about specific individuals or specific events that may or may not have happened. It’s hard for investigators to stay on track.
Police have dispelled online reports that the victims were tied and gagged.
Police have also reassured the public that a September incident that involved an argument between a group of people walking on the University of Idaho bike path and a cyclist, who displayed a folding knife, is not connected to the students’ killings.
Additionally, police have released information eliminating some people as suspects, including a person listed on the lease of the residence where the killings happened.
“They have spoken to this individual and confirmed they moved out prior to the start of the school year and was not present at the time of the incident. Moscow police said they did not believe this person had anything to do with the murders.
The man seen in the video in the food truck visited by Mogen and Goncalves was also ruled out as a suspect by police.
The mother of one of the four University of Idaho students killed near the school was frustrated by police communications regarding the investigation.
“It’s sleepless nights. It’s feeling sick to your stomach. It’s just being left in the dark,” Kristi Goncalves, the mother of 21-year-old victim Kaylee Goncalves, said in an interview aired on NBC’s TODAY show Thursday.
We are running around for hours not knowing what is happening. “… We found out by people calling us. And the sheriff showed up about three hours later.”
How long have we known about autopsy results? Attorney Shanon Gray, an attorney for Goncalves, told Moscow police department investigators
Shanon Gray, an attorney for Goncalves, met earlier this week with the Moscow Police Department and said investigators have done a poor job communicating with families.
“My first thought just started being like, how long have they had this information? Where do they get this information? Was it on a camera?” He said that it was Goncalves.
Around the time of the killings, law enforcement asked the public for help finding a white car that they had seen near the home. The Moscow Police Department made the request Dec. 7, and by the next day had to direct tips to a special FBI call center because so many were coming in.
Goncalves said her family learned graphic details of their daughter’s autopsy when a woman from the coroner’s office called and asked her 17-year-old daughter if she wanted to know the findings.
I don’t know if they’re old or new, but there’s always a new one when we go around. “Goncalves said that.”
The Moscow Police Department Ends its Search for a Murder Weapon, and Assisting Families with Help in Solving Their Puzzles
Moscow, Idaho’s small college town has been appalled by the information police have received about the vehicle.
Due to the amount of tips received, calls are being directed to an FBI call center to help sort leads received, according to a Thursday update from the Moscow Police Department.
The resources of the global call center are enough to take calls, categorize them, and send them on to investigators to use their tips in the investigation according to the department.
Dozens of local, state and federal investigators are still searching for the murder weapon used in the attack last month in Moscow. Still, investigators maintain they have made progress but cannot share details as that could compromise the investigation.
Over the course of the investigation, investigators have gotten more than 6,000 tips. “We have quality information that we’re working on,” said Snell.
Chief James Fry said in a brief video statement that it was time to give those things back to the families and help with their healing.
“I’m a dad, I understand the meaning behind some of those things,” Fry said. The items are not needed for the investigation at this time.
The Stabbings in Moscow, Pennsylvania, and the Associated Business Related to the Goncalves-Kohberger Incident
Investigators believe all four victims had been out in the hours before the killings – two at a Moscow bar, the other two at a fraternity house – but had returned to the home by 2 a.m. on the day of the stabbings.
Police found two victims on the second floor and two more on the third floor when they arrived. There was no sign of forced entry or damage, police said.
Police have said that a coroner found the victims were stabbed multiple times, and that the victims probably slept when the attacks began. The manner and cause of death were homicide by stabbing, the coroner said.
Police outlined a situation in October when a man appeared to be following Goncalves outside a local business, according to a news release from the department. Police said the incident was an isolated one, and the man and associate were trying to meet women at the business.
Mr. Kohberger has been accused of crimes but the justice system in the US doesn’t believe him. “He should be presumed innocent at the very least until proven guilty in a court of law.”
The FBI and the Pennsylvania State Police made the arrest in the case of the fatal stabbings, according to a law enforcement source.
Moscow Police say Kohberger has been arrested in connection with a student killed in a rental home in Latah County, Idaho
Moscow police say they have worked with a property management services company to remove “potential biohazards and other harmful substances used to collect evidence,” the update said. The property management company will inherit the home.
Latah County prosecutors have said the affidavit for four charges of first-degree murder in Idaho will remain sealed until he is returned. He is also charged with felony burglary in Idaho. Many details of the case are expected to be released after Kohberger’s first appearance in an Idaho courtroom, Dahlinger said.
A law enforcement official confirmed the arrest to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the official could not publicly discuss details of the investigation ahead of a formal announcement expected later Friday.
A student with the same name listed in the Department of Criminal Justice at Washington State University is a short trip across the state line from the University of Idaho. Messages seeking more information were left for officials at WSU.
The five students who were killed were members of the university’s Greek system. Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle lived in the three-story rental home with two other roommates. Kernodle and Chapin were dating and he was visiting the house that night.
A DeSales University student in the town of Pullman, Washington, who was just miles away from the four killings at the University of Idaho
The online sleuths were drawn to the case because they speculated about suspects and motives. In the early days of the investigation, police released relatively few details publicly.
Almost a third of University of Idaho students decided to attend classes online because they were afraid of another attack, leaving dorm and apartments in the town for the safety of their hometowns. The university hired an additional security company and the Idaho State Police sent troopers to patrol the streets of the city because of safety concerns.
The man who attended a nearby university and lived just miles from where the four University of Idaho students were killed was arrested in connection with the killings.
Authorities said that this is a person who lives in Pullman, Washington, a city close to the site of the killings. His office and apartment were searched by law enforcement Friday morning, the university said in a statement.
University police assisted authorities in executing search warrants at his office and apartment, both located on the school’s Pullman campus, the statement added.
He earned his graduate degree from DeSales University in June of 2022, according to the website. He also got an associate degree from Northampton Community College in 2018, the college confirmed to CNN.
The now-removed Reddit post said, “In particular, this study seeks to understand the story behind your most recent criminal offense, with an emphasis on your thoughts and feelings throughout your experience.”
CNN was able to speak to a professor at DeSales University, who declined to comment on the matter. The university has not responded to comment.
The case of Kohberger, a man charged in the killings of four Idaho college students, is still in the prosecutor’s office
According to two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation, investigators were able to nail the suspect through both evidence and his car’s ownership.
A source with knowledge of the case said that genetic genealogy techniques were used to connect the two. He was identified as the suspect after his genetic material was run through a public database to find family members, according to a source.
Two law enforcement sources have said that the FBI tracked him for four days before his arrest, and they worked with prosecutors to get a warrant.
Bill Thompson, the prosecutor of Latah County said that this is a new beginning and that the investigation isn’t over. The public is urged to come forward with any information about the person charged with these offenses in order to exonerate that person.
Thompson urged anyone with information about the suspect to call the tip line, as he wanted anyone with knowledge of him to help investigators.
More context: State law limits what information authorities can release before Kohberger makes an initial appearance in Idaho court, Fry told reporters, and that could have to do with the lack of further details. The police chief thanked the public for being patient and acknowledged the impatience with the pace of updates on the case.
Authorities carefully tracked the man charged in the killings of four Idaho college students as he drove across the country around Christmas and continued surveilling him for several days before finally arresting him Friday, sources tell CNN.
He drove cross-country in a white Hyundai Elantra and arrived at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania around Christmas, according to a law enforcement source. Authorities were following him as he traveled and surveilling his parents house, the source said.
The suspect can return to Idaho voluntarily or stymify their return. But if he chooses not to, Moscow police will have to initiate extradition proceedings through the governor’s office, which could take some time, Fry said.
The story of the murders of four freshman students in Strutsbug, Pa. (The epsilon) Kohberger
It stated that the study would focus on the story behind your most recent criminal offense with an emphasis on your thoughts and feelings.
STROUDSBURG, Pa. — Relatives of a man arrested in Pennsylvania in the slayings of four University of Idaho students expressed sympathy for the victims’ families but also vowed to support him and promote “his presumption of innocence.”
His parents, Maryann and Michael, along with his sister and mother, said in a statement released by his attorney that they care deeply for the families who have lost their children. There are no words that can adequately express how sad we feel and we pray for them.
The family said that relatives will continue to let the legal process unfold, and that “as a family we will love and support our son and brother.” They say they have fully cooperated with law enforcement to try to to “seek the truth and promote his presumption of innocence rather than judge unknown facts and make erroneous assumptions.”
Bill Thompson, a prosecutor in Latah County, Idaho, said during a news conference Friday that investigators believe Kohberger broke into the University of Idaho students’ home near campus “with the intent to commit murder.” The bodies were found after investigators thought they had died.
That document, “will tell us an awful lot,” said CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson. “It will speak to the issue of probable cause – why is he under arrest, what is the justification for holding him and for going after him from a prosecution perspective.”
Idaho Killings of the Broyan-Kohberger Suspect Monday: An Attorney for the Victims’ Families
Kohberger’s parents and two sisters plan to attend Tuesday’s hearing, public defender Jason LaBar told CNN Monday. They will not be permitted to visit him while they’re there.
Authorities have not said publicly whether Kohberger knew any of the victims, who all were found dead hours after a Saturday night out: Chapin and Kernodle had attended a party on campus earlier that night, police have said, while Mogen and Goncalves went to a downtown bar before ordering food at a late-night food truck.
“No. 1: I’m looking for DNA,” he said. Is his genetic information located in the residence? … Is there any reason to explain the DNA, is there a basis to know or understand why he would be there?”
Shannon Gray, an attorney for the families of the victims and law enforcement, told CNN Monday that they are going to look into whether there is a connection between the victims and the suspect.
The attorney encourages the community to contact the Moscow Police Department with any information they have about the defendants and their victims.
In some cases offenders have been in areas of study that have prepared them to commit a crime. She noted that studying the criminal mind did not cause him to do this, no matter how he is found guilty.
“He’s interested in this, but the ideation of committing a violent crime had to already be there in order to motivate him to commit the crime,” O’Toole said. This was a way to explore what he was interested in doing.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/02/us/idaho-killings-bryan-kohberger-suspect-monday/index.html
When did Kohberger get there? The case of a young man in Elk Grove, Pa., on December 17, 1997, arrived on law enforcement radar
It’s also unclear why Kohberger wasn’t arrested until more than six weeks after the victims were found dead. Fry did not reveal Saturday when the case came onto law enforcement’s radar.
The suspect and his father arrived in Pennsylvania on December 17th, after a cross-country drive, according to LaBar.
An FBI surveillance team from the Philadelphia field office had been tracking him for four days in the area where he was arrested, according to two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation.
He said he was very excited because the celebration of life was the same day that he and his friends were doing it. His wife wanted to have this event behind us before the event began so she could focus on our girls, and that is what happened.
“We’re definitely going to look at this guy, look him in his eyes. He’s going to have to deal with us,” said Goncalves, who plans to attend the suspect’s court appearances. He hasn’t been dealing with us for seven weeks.
“We want information on that individual,” Fry said Saturday. We want the updated information so we can start building the picture now. Every tip is important.