"We were zeroing in on him": Public defender reveals Bryan Kohberger went on cross-country trip with father before arrest

Several weeks after the Idaho murders took place, law enforcement officials arrested Bryan Kohberger from Monroe County, Pennsylvania, as the sole suspect in the brutal deaths. Recent developments have revealed that Kohberger's cross-country journey from Pullman, Washington, to his parent's home in Pennsylvania has been monitored by investigators who were "zeroing in" on the suspect.

On December 30, the 28-year-old doctorate student was arrested at his family home in Chestnuthill Township, approximately 2,500 miles away from Moscow, Idaho, where Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were murdered in the early hours of November 13. According to investigators, Bryan Kohberger made the cross-country trip in a white Hyundai Elantra that has been at the heart of the investigation for a long time.

Kohberger's public defender, Jason LaBar, however, revealed to CNN that the suspect did not make the journey alone and that he was pulled over by the police twice on his way from his student housing in Pullman. According to the attorney, Kohberger's father traveled all the way to Washington to meet his son at his university. The father-son duo then made the cross-country journey back home for Christmas.

At some point during the long journey, investigators started tracking Bryan Kohberger’s movements across the country in the white Hyundai Elantra that was spotted near the crime scene on November 13.

An official told CNN:

"Sometime right before Christmas we were zeroing in on him being in or going to Pennsylvania."

Kohberger was under FBI surveillance for days after he reached his family home in the Pocono Mountains before he was arrested on December 30.

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Public defender claims that Bryan Kohberger was pulled over by police twice while on his way to Pennsylvania

After several weeks of conducting a tight-lipped investigation, police arrested Bryan Kohberger from Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, after tracking his movement from his student housing in Pullman to his family home.

His public defender, however, has claimed that not only did Kohberger make the journey with his father, but they were also pulled over by the police twice during their journey. In an interview, Jason LaBar told KTVB that Bryan Kohberger's white Hyundai Elantra was pulled over by police officials twice as they passed through Indiana.

While the attorney was unsure if the traffic stops resulted in any citations, he said that one of them was for speeding while the other was for following a car too closely.

The father-son duo was allegedly spotted by two other witnesses at an auto repair shop in Pennsylvania on December 16 when they stopped to service the car they were traveling in. A witness claimed that they had a conversation with the pair, and while they found Bryan Kohberger "a little awkward," he did not seem suspicious to them.

The witness, who requested anonymity, told CNN that the doctorate student spoke of his ambitions to work in behavioral criminal justice and become a professor.

Moscow Police Chief James Fry has previously stated that Bryan Kohberger is the sole suspect in the murders. Apart from the implicating Elantra, his DNA samples were also studied through genetic genealogy techniques and they matched the DNA found at the off-campus student housing in Moscow.

While the murder weapon remains at large, Kohberger is eager to be exonerated as soon as possible. His parents have said that they have fully cooperated with law enforcement agencies to seek the truth.