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Police reportedly surveilled the man accused of the November slayings of four University of Idaho students as he traveled across the country and in Pennsylvania before swooping in to make an after-dark arrest.
Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old Ph.D. student and teaching assistant in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, was arrested at his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, on Friday.
Authorities in Idaho have said they believe Kohberger broke into the victims' rental home in Moscow intending to commit murder.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were found stabbed to death on November 13. The killings rocked the rural town and the community remained on edge as weeks went by without a suspect being arrested.
Police honed in on Kohberger as the suspect in the slayings through DNA by using public genealogy databases, ABC News reported, citing law enforcement sources.
According to the outlet, local police and the FBI tracked Kohberger to Pennsylvania through his vehicle, a white Hyundai Elantra—the same model that Moscow police said had been seen near the home around the time of the killings.
Kohberger drove some 2,500 miles across the country with his father in mid-December to spend the holidays with his family, Jason LaBar, the chief public defender in Monroe County representing Kohberger, has said.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Pennsylvania State Police Major Christopher Paris said troopers with the agency's Bureau of Criminal Investigation were called by the FBI to assist with surveillance on Kohberger before his arrest.
Paris said investigators from Pennsylvania state police's Troop N then began to collaborate with authorities in Idaho.
"It was through this collaboration and the charges pending in Idaho that those troopers were able to obtain search warrants and a fugitive from justice warrant that was prepared here in Monroe County," Paris said.
Paris said state police then began to carry out Kohberger's arrest, with the agency's Special Emergency Response Team taking the lead.
"Tactical assets were then staged in Monroe County into the evening of Thursday, December 29 [...] and in the early hours of Friday, December 30, those warrants were executed at the location," Paris said.
Kohberger's warrant merited an after-dark arrest, Paris said, which requires a higher standard of probable cause.
"Surveillance was conducted and we wanted to go in at a time when we thought it would be the safest for everybody," he said. "Safest for anybody else in the house, safest for Mr. Kohberger and safest for our people."
The tactical response team reviewed floor plans of the home, and broke multiple doors and windows when they entered, Paris said.
Kohberger was arrested "without incident" and the scene was turned over to the FBI, he added.
Andrew McCabe, a former FBI acting director, said Saturday that Kohberger was on the "radar" of investigators before he left for Pennsylvania.
The surveillance effort would have crossed multiple FBI field divisions, McCabe said. "Would involve multiple surveillance teams who were following him in certain areas and handing him off to new teams," he said.
Kohberger's family home was probably under surveillance before he arrived in mid-December, former FBI agent Tracy Walter said on NewsNation's Banfield.
"I am certain that the FBI resident agency that is closest to his hometown in Pennsylvania was probably notified and probably did do some surveillance on his family home prior to Kohberger getting to his family home," Walder told Ashleigh Banfield.
"Additionally, I think they also watched Kohberger as well and his activities [...] and I think from that, from surveilling his activities, they were able to really focus in on the fact that he was a suspect, especially when the lookout came out for the white Hyundai and he happened to have one."
Kohberger on Tuesday agreed to be extradited from Pennsylvania to face charges in Idaho. LaBar, who only represented Kohberger over the extradition, has said his client was eager to be exonerated. The suspect, once in Idaho, is to be represented by Kootenai County chief public defender Anne Taylor. Newsweek has contacted her for comment.
More details about the case are expected to be released when an affidavit is unsealed after Kohberger arrives in Idaho.
However, an Idaho magistrate judge on Tuesday evening issued a so-called "gag order" barring attorneys, law enforcement personnel, investigators and others involved in the case from talking publicly about it outside of court.
"Due to this court order, the Moscow Police Department will no longer be communicating with the public or the media regarding this case," the police department said in a news release on Tuesday.
About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more