Six weeks before a masked intruder slipped inside a rental home on the edge of the University of Idaho campus, fatally stabbed four students and ducked into the darkness, Bryan Kohberger was coming under pressure.
During the fall semester of 2022, Kohberger was a 27-year-old doctoral student in criminology at Washington State University, an 8-mile drive west of the University of Idaho. His role as a teaching assistant, leading classes and grading papers, was not going well, students and sources who spoke to “Dateline” said. Some students complained that he was overly demanding, and they didn’t feel comfortable. A dean summoned him to discuss his professional behavior after he also clashed with colleagues.
But around that time, Instagram may have served as a distraction.
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Kohberger’s cellphone browsing history, obtained by “Dateline” and in the possession of law enforcement, shows dozens of pictures of female students at Washington State and the University of Idaho, many in bathing suits. A review of those accounts found some of them were close friends with or followers of three of the murdered students: Xana Kernodle, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; and Madison Mogen, 21.
While Idaho prosecutors allege Kohberger murdered the three housemates, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, a prior connection, if any, between the suspect and the victims has remained unknown.
Now, ahead of the long-awaited trial that’s set to begin in August, digital materials and documents obtained by “Dateline” offer new insight into the case in the weeks leading up to the killings until Kohberger’s arrest in late December 2022.
A judge entered a not guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf in May 2023 on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
Defense lawyers have said he maintains his innocence, and during a court hearing in Boise last month, they teased the possibility of an “alternate suspect.”
Visiting Moscow
In the summer before the murders, Kohberger had moved from the Poconos region of Pennsylvania, where his family lives, to Pullman, Washington, home to Washington State University.
He was invited to an afternoon pool party in nearby Moscow, Idaho, on July 9, according to three witnesses who met him there.
Kohberger’s phone data, analyzed by an FBI cellphone expert and obtained by “Dateline,” suggests he was in Moscow again that day after dark. Over the next month, the expert said, his phone data indicates a dozen trips to Moscow. In doing so, his phone had also connected with a cell tower providing coverage to within 100 meters of 1122 King Road, the address of the murdered housemates, according to the data.
In late September, records from the criminology student’s phone and in possession of law enforcement included an internet search for “Sociopathic Traits in College Student,” and the following month, there was a search for pornography containing keywords “drugged” and “sleeping.”
Then, on Oct. 14, Kohberger was pulled over in his white 2015 Hyundai Elantra for an alleged traffic violation, his second stop in seven weeks. He had an amicable interaction with the Washington State University police officer, bodycam video shows.
Five days later, another online search: “Can Psychopaths behave prosocially,” according to Kohberger’s phone data.
The following month, six days before the King Road murders, Kohberger’s phone connected with the same cell tower close to the home, the FBI data indicates. The data shows 23 visits over a four-month period, all after dark.
Kohberger’s lawyers have said in filings that he would take drives alone late at night, often hiking or stargazing, and contend cellphone data would show he was not near the crime scene when the killings occurred.
A timeline
On Nov. 12, 2022, the King Road housemates were out celebrating Senior Day as the University of Idaho’s football team played a home game that afternoon.
Around 9 p.m., Goncalves posted a carousel of pictures on Instagram showing her and her housemates that day. The caption: “One lucky girl to be surrounded by these ppl everyday.”
By 2 a.m. the next day, the housemates had returned after a night of partying: Goncalves and Mogen were together, while Kernodle was with Chapin, and two other housemates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were also still up.
At 3:30 a.m., a car that investigators believed to be a white Elantra was captured on a neighboring home’s security video. The footage, obtained by “Dateline,” shows the car going toward the King Road home, and circling past the block multiple times over the next half-hour. At 4:07 a.m., the white car drove by yet again, then didn’t come back into view until 4:20 a.m., when the video shows the vehicle speeding off.
It’s in that 13-minute time frame that prosecutors have said in a court filing they believe Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle and Chapin were murdered, suffering multiple wounds by a large knife.
Mortensen and Funke were not physically harmed, but Mortensen would later tell investigators that she had seen a figure walking past her in black clothing and a ski mask exiting the house.
Sources close to the investigation told “Dateline” they believe Mogen may have been the killer’s intended target because the intruder had gone directly upstairs to her bedroom, where Goncalves was with her.
The tan leather sheath for a large Ka-Bar knife was found on the bed next to Mogen’s body, investigators would later say.
The investigative sources also said Kernodle, who was still up after ordering food from DoorDash, was attacked next. Then, the sources said, the perpetrator turned to her boyfriend, who was believed to be asleep in bed, and “carved” Chapin’s lower legs with a blade.
Calls and online habits
Data from Kohberger’s phone indicates it had been turned off before 3 a.m. on the morning of the murders. It connected with a cell tower south of Moscow at 4:48 a.m., records show.
About 90 minutes later, the phone’s records indicate a call was made in the Pullman area to another phone — to a number registered to an account belonging to Kohberger’s father. It appears several family phones, including his mother’s, are on that account. At least three calls were made to that same number that morning.
Data shows the phone was briefly back in Moscow just after 9 a.m. before prosecutors say Kohberger returned to his apartment in Pullman, where he took a selfie at 10:31 a.m. with a thumbs-up pose in his bathroom mirror.
In the days after the murders, there was browsing activity on Kohberger’s phone that law enforcement would later collect forensically. One Google search was for “University of Idaho Murders.” Other searches were for a program about serial killer Ted Bundy and a YouTube video about the King Road victims.
By mid-December, Kohberger would return to his family’s home in Pennsylvania, with police in Moscow still not confirming publicly whether they had a suspect. The one “critical” clue they solicited the public’s help for was information on a car, what they believed to be a white Elantra, seen in the area around the time of the killings.
But investigators did have other evidence that they say pointed them to Kohberger, including DNA on the knife sheath found in Mogen’s bedroom.
Authorities used genetic genealogy to source the DNA. Two days after Christmas in 2022, investigators covertly pulled trash from outside the Kohbergers’ home for testing. According to prosecutors, the DNA turned out to be a statistical match.
In the meantime, the search history on Kohberger’s phone would show more videos of Ted Bundy, the song “Criminal” by Britney Spears and additional selfies, including Kohberger wearing a black hoodie like how Bundy was dressed in a program viewed on YouTube.
Then, on Dec. 30, just after 1 a.m., law enforcement agents descended on the family’s home with a warrant for Kohberger’s arrest.
If found guilty, he could face the death penalty, which his lawyers unsuccessfully argued should be ruled out because he has autism.
Kohberger has not spoken publicly in the case.
But in a recent court filing, his lawyers offered a glimpse into his demeanor when he was arrested: “He asked the officer about his education and suggested that they get coffee at a later date. He did not perceive the profoundly serious nature of the moment and exhibited no perception of what was happening.”
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