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Bryan Kohberger stands charged with one of the most highly publicized offenses in recent US history: the murders by stabbing of four University of Idaho students on November 13, 2022. The incident startled the small college community of Moscow, Idaho, and caught national attention while police struggled to reconstruct events on the night of the slayings.
Kohberger, a doctoral student of criminology at Washington State University, was apprehended over six weeks after the murders. Police say he broke into the off-campus residence where the students resided and murdered them in the wee hours of the morning. Extensive forensic analysis, security cameras, cellphone records, and eyewitness testimony have all been part of the investigation.
Exclusive new details about the University of Idaho murders investigation involving Bryan Kohberger will be revealed in the Dateline NBC episode titled The Terrible Night on King Road. It is scheduled to air on Friday, May 9, 2025, at 9 pm EST on NBC.
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The two-hour broadcast will feature never-before-reported evidence, interviews with former students, friends of the victims, and expert analysis, providing insight into the case just weeks before Kohberger’s trial begins.
Significant facts regarding the crimes and evidence against Bryan Kohberger
1) The victims and the crime scene
As per ABC7, the victims were University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Kaylee Goncalves. Police said the four were stabbed to death in a rental home close to campus on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, early on November 13, 2022.
Two other roommates were present at home but were not injured. Autopsies confirmed that each victim had been stabbed multiple times. The crime scene was reported as extremely violent, with officials explaining that the assault most likely happened when some victims were sleeping.
2) Timeline and suspect identification
As per ABC News, police spent weeks collecting evidence before they could identify a suspect. A white Hyundai Elantra was caught on surveillance tape driving past the victims' home several times, both before and after the killings. Police tracked the vehicle to Bryan Kohberger, who resided in Pullman, Washington, which is approximately 10 miles from Moscow.
Cell phone records showed that Kohberger's cell phone was around the area of the residence at least 12 times before the murders, nearly every time late at night or early morning. On the night of the killings, his phone was turned off for about two hours, which investigators say is consistent with an attempt to conceal his location.
3) Forensic evidence and DNA
As per NBC, one of the most important pieces of evidence was a knife sheath discovered at the crime scene, which held DNA that investigators subsequently matched to Kohberger. Court documents report that police also took trash from Kohberger's family residence in Pennsylvania to verify the DNA connection.
The murder weapon has not been recovered, but prosecutors said Bryan Kohberger's Amazon shopping history indicates he purchased a knife that is similar to the one thought to have been used to kill the victims.
4) Eyewitness testimony
One of the surviving roommates testified to seeing a man wearing black with a mask covering his nose and mouth in the house on the night of the killings, as per ABC News. She said the man had bushy eyebrows and was athletically built. This eyewitness testimony was part of the affidavit used to arrest Kohberger and has been quoted as corroborating evidence in the case.
5) Kohberger's background and arrest
As reported by NBC, Bryan Kohberger was 28 years old and a Ph.D. student in criminology when he was arrested. He was arrested at his parents' residence in Pennsylvania on December 30, 2022, over six weeks after the killings. Kohberger has entered not-guilty pleas and claims innocence.
His lawyers have contended that cellphone records indicate he was in another location when the murders were committed, and they will seek to introduce expert witnesses to establish this.
According to CNN, the jury selection for the murder case will start in July in Boise, with the trial expected to begin in August.
The case against Bryan Kohberger involves the murder of four students at the University of Idaho in November 2022. Watch the Dateline NBC episode on Friday, May 9, 2025, at 9 p.m. EST on NBC for more details.
