SWAT teams descended on a sleepy residential community in Pennsylvania in the early hours of Friday morning to arrest Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger.
Kohberger, 28, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary – which he committed ‘with the intention to kill’ the University of Idaho students in Moscow on November 13, police say in a press conference on Friday.
Police also said they are still searching for the murder weapon used in the killings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin.
Kohberger is a PhD student in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, which is a short drive across the state line from the University of Idaho. Police say DNA evidence links Kohberger to the scene.
He was taken into custody in Albrightsville, a small town in the heart of the Poconos Mountains more than 2,000 miles from where the gruesome killings took place.
Friday’s arrest is the first major break in the case – with Kohberger asking if ‘anyone else was arrested’ when he was taken into custody.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested after a SWAT team swooped into Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, around 3am this morning. Local cops and the FBI took him into custody
Idaho police said the four University of Idaho students were murdered in their sleep between 3am and 4am (Pictured: Victims Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Maddie Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin)
Albrightsville, Pennsylvania was swarming with police on Friday after Kohberger’s arrest
Locals and at least one police officer are spotted in Albrightsville on Friday, after Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger was arrested
Kohberger is a registered Libertarian, and relatives described Bryan Kohberger as being ‘obsessive’ about his eating habits
Kohberger is a registered Libertarian, although does not appear to have had any active social media profiles at the time of his arrest.
A relative told The New York Post Kohberger is ‘OCD’ about his eating habits and forced his family to buy new pots that had never been used to cook meat.
‘It was above and beyond being vegan. His aunt and uncle had to buy new pots and pans because he would not eat from anything that had ever had meat cooked in them. He seemed very OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder)’ the woman said.
During a press conference on Friday authorities confirmed that a white Hyundai Elantra was discovered in the search – with sources saying it was towed from outside Kohberger’s home.
Law enforcement sources told CNN that his DNA was discovered at the scene of the crime – with officers managing to track down who owned the car seen in the area of the slayings.
However, Kohberger has no prior arrests, according to public records, so it is unclear how officials got hold of his DNA.
Authorities then discovered that he had left the area and traveled to Pennsylvania, where an FBI surveillance team had been tracking the 6ft tall man.
He was kept under surveillance, with the FBI watching him for four days, while investigators from Moscow Police and Idaho State Police worked to get an arrest warrant.
Authorities are still appealing for anyone with information on Kohberger or the quadruple murders to get in touch.
Fry refused to rule out that the killer had an accomplice, adding: ‘We have an individual in custody who committed these horrible crimes.’
Details of the killings, and the motive for them, are yet to be released with law enforcement saying a sealed arrest affidavit will be released once Kohberger is extradited back to Idaho.
He is currently in custody at Monroe County Jail in Pennsylvania until a hearing on January 3.
There is no set time scale for how long his extradition from Pennsylvania to Idaho might take. If Kohberger doesn’t contest it, it’ll happen relatively quickly.
The crime took place six weeks ago, 2,500 miles from where Kohberger was arrested
The suspect is believed to have driven some 2,300 miles from Moscow to Pennsylvania. He was attending college in nearby Washington State
A white Hyundai Elantra – the same make and model of car being sought by cops in connection to the killing – is said to have been towed from outside Kohberger’s home
As part of his research a DeSales Kohberger posted an appeal for help on social media with his research – which was looking at how ‘emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime’
Kohberger is being held for extradition in a criminal homicide investigation based on an active arrest warrant for first-degree murder
Nick Mcloughlin, who was friends with Kohberger at school told the Daily Beast he was ‘stunned’ to see his old acquaintance arrested.
Mcloughlin said Kohberger was ‘down to Earth,’ when he graduated junior year. But at the start of senior year, Kohberger returned ‘thinner than a rail,’ had turned ‘aggressive’ and taken up boxing.
Recalling how their friendship soured, Mcloughlin added: ‘He always wanted to fight somebody, he was bullying people. We started cutting him off from our friend group because he was 100 percent a different person.’
Kohberger said he has ‘no idea’ what prompted the sudden change.
Idaho murders arrest: the latest
Little is known about Kohberger’s family. His father, Michael, and mother Maryann, live in the home where he was believed to have been staying when he was arrested.
In 2010, Michael filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It’s unclear what he and his wife do for work now.
He has two older sisters – Anne and Melissa. Melissa, 31, is a therapist in New Jersey.
While he is accused of atrocious brutality, both Melissa and his mother Maryann have spoken out in the past against violence.
In May, after the Uvalde mass shooting in Texas, Maryann submitted a letter to a local newspaper in which she included a poem written by Melissa about the massacre.
Earlier this year, Kohberger’s mother MaryAnn submitted a poem written by his therapist sister about the Uvalde massacre
‘As I sat this morning, reeling from yet another school shooting, I found myself wrestling with which actions need to be taken to stop all the madness. What is the answer? Gun control measures? Mental health intervention?
‘Then I received a message from my daughter who works as a mental health therapist in New Jersey.
‘She shared a poem she had written, while in the greatest depths of despair. It shook me to my core, and I felt the need to share it,’ Maryann wrote.
The poem reads: ‘Bereft of their laughter
‘There is now not a sound
As we lower our children into the ground
‘Small hands and feet
‘Buried six feet deep into the earth of the world that failed them.’
No one from the family has yet commented on his arrest.
Classmates from the high school he attended have also spoken of their shock.
Outside the apartment of suspect Bryan Kohberger in graduate housing on campus at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington
‘Very strange kid. I worked with him for a bit at a pizza shop. Nice kid but just out there,’ commented one former colleague on social media.
Lawrence Rosenberg said he attended classes at the Career & Technical Institute with Kohberger, but that he dropped out in 2014 without completing the course.
‘He would always looked bugged eye’d like on drugs and nobody in the class really never talked to him that’s why he only went for 2 years and left without taking the final exam,’ he said.
De Sales, where Kohberger obtained his undergraduate degree and where he commissioned a survey of ex-cons on how they committed crimes, released a statement on Friday admonishing the violence of the murders.
‘On Friday, December 30, DeSales University learned of the arrest of Bryan Kohberger in connection with the murder of four University of Idaho students.
‘Kohberger received a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and completed his graduate studies in June 2022.
‘As a Catholic, Salesian community, we are devastated by this senseless tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims’ families during this difficult time.’
The University of Washington State, where he was studying recently, is yet to issue a statement.
Neighbors in the town of stood in the street on Friday as police swarmed the gate entrance to the town.
Kohberger is expected to stay in custody until January 3, when he is due in court for an extradition hearing.