Knife Sheath Scrutiny Not a 'Big Deal' in Kohberger Case—Ex FBI Agent

• Bryan Kohberger, 28, is accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in a rental house on November 13, 2022.
• He was arrested after investigators connected DNA left on a knife sheath found at the crime scene to Kohberger.
• The knife sheath was reportedly sent for testing at a startup in Texas after initial testing at the lab in Idaho could not find anything on it.
• Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI agent, does not believe that will do much harm to the prosecution's case.

Reports that a knife sheath found at the scene where four University of Idaho students were murdered was sent out of state for testing won't be a "big deal," according to a former FBI agent.

Bryan Kohberger, 28, is charged in the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.

The four were found stabbed to death in a rental home near the university campus in Moscow on November 13.

Kohberger, then a graduate student at Washington State University in Pullman, was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania on December 30. According to a probable cause affidavit, investigators connected him to the crime after matching DNA from a knife sheath found at the scene to Kohberger's father's DNA, which was recovered from trash outside the family home.

Kohberger has not yet entered a plea to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary, but a lawyer who previously represented him said he was "eager to be exonerated." A preliminary hearing is set to begin on June 26.

Journalist Howard Blum, who is working on a book about the murders, recently reported that the knife sheath was sent out of Idaho to be tested at a startup in Texas because initial testing at the lab in Idaho could not find anything on it.

That lab had only been used for cold cases before Moscow investigators sent the knife sheath for testing, according to Blum.

Legal experts have said that if accurate, that detail could present a problem for the prosecution and boost Kohberger's defense. "It's a problem for the prosecution if the reports are accurate and the first lab did not match the DNA to Kohberger," Neama Rahmani, an attorney and former federal prosecutor, told Newsweek.

However, Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI agent, doesn't believe it will be a serious obstacle for the prosecution.

"The scientists will explain how they drew that DNA evidence and I just don't think this is going to be the big deal that it's being made out of by Mr. Blum," she said on NewsNation.

Coffindaffer also said there will be other evidence, including possibly DNA recovered from Kohberger's Hyundai Elantra, that ties him to the crime.

"There's going to be much more DNA evidence and other evidence that's extracted from that vehicle," she said.

"In addition, we can't forget the knife or the phone pings. We can't forget the video surveillance evidence. I think there's going to be a plethora of other evidence that ties Mr. Kohberger, but certainly that knife sheath is very important."