(NewsNation) — Police identified Bryan Kohberger, the 28-year-old criminal justice graduate student accused of killing four University of Idaho students, through a combination of DNA evidence at the scene, cell phone records and Kohberger’s white Hyundai Elantra, according to a newly concluded special probable cause affidavit.
Court records — which became available Thursday morning after suspected killer Bryan Christopher Kohberger arrived in Idaho — reveal the justification authorities used to obtain a warrant for Kohberger’s arrest.
Scroll to the bottom of the article to read the full statement.
Investigators linked the 28-year-old suspect to the crime scene after finding a “tanned leather knife sheath” lying next to victim Madison Mogen’s bed, according to the affidavit.
“The Idaho State Laboratory later found a single source of male DNA left on the knife’s holster button,” the document states.
Authorities were able to link that DNA to Bryan Kohberger after investigators recovered debris from Kohberger’s residence in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania.
On December 28, law enforcement in Pennsylvania sent debris from the Kohberger family home to the Idaho state lab. The lab determined that the DNA from Kohberger’s home most likely belonged to the father of the person’s DNA found at the scene.
“At least 99.9998% of the male population is expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father,” the statement said.
Investigators also used information from a surviving roommate who they say saw the suspect at the home.
In the early hours of November 13, before the victims were discovered, investigators say one of the surviving roommates opened her door after hearing crying and “saw a figure dressed in black clothing and a mask covering his mouth and the nose of the person who was walking towards her. .”
The man then walked past her towards a sliding glass door. The witness described the figure as “5’10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with hooded eyebrows,” the statement said.
After seeing the figure, the witness returned to her room and closed the door. She did not say she recognized the man, investigators said.
Law enforcement later determined that Kohberger matched the description provided by the surviving witness.
A security camera less than fifty feet from one of the victim’s bedrooms captured the sound of a dog barking multiple times around 4:17 a.m. the morning of the murders, the affidavit said.
After reviewing multiple videos taken from the area where the killings occurred, authorities saw the suspect’s vehicle — later determined to be a white Hyundai Elantra — several times between 3:29 a.m. and 4:20 a.m. on the morning of the attack.
Investigators say the suspect’s vehicle made three initial passes near the home where the victims were found and was later seen leaving the area “at a high rate of speed,” according to multiple videos from the neighborhood.
Authorities later reviewed video footage from the Washington State University (WSU) campus, where Kohberger was studying criminal justice, and observed a vehicle matching the one seen on video near the Idaho crime scene.
That car was observed traveling from WSU toward Moscow, Idaho at about 2:44 a.m. and was later seen again near the WSU campus at about 5:25 a.m., investigators say.
Authorities also used Kohberger’s cell phone records to link him to the crime.
Kohberger’s phone was near the victims’ residence at least twelve times between June 2022 and Nov. 13, 2022, court documents say.
All but one of those cases occurred in the late evening and early morning hours, investigators determined.
Kohberger’s phone was near his Pullman, Washington residence at 2:47 a.m. on Nov. 13, but didn’t appear on the network again until about 4:48 a.m. when it was discovered south of Moscow, ID near Blaine, ID. ID, the statement said.
Around 5:30 a.m., the phone was discovered back in Pullman, which is “consistent with the phone traveling back to the Kohberger Residence,” authorities say.
Kohberger was arraigned in Latah County District Court on Thursday and will be held without bail for the duration of his trial.
Read the full statement below:
This story is developing and will continue to be updated.
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