(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 unsealed probable cause affidavit.
The court records — which became available Thursday morning after alleged 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 affidavit.
Investigators linked the 28-year-old suspect to the crime scene after finding a “tan leather knife sheath” laying next to victim Madison Mogen’s bed, according to the affidavit.
“The Idaho state lab later located a single source of male DNA left on the button snap of the knife sheath,” the document reads.
Authorities were able to link that DNA to Bryan Kohberger after investigators recovered trash from the Kohberger residence in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania.
On Dec. 28, law enforcement in Pennsylvania sent trash from the Kohberger family home to the Idaho State lab. The lab determined that the DNA from the Kohberger home most likely belonged to the father of the person’s DNA found at the scene.
“At least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father,” the affidavit says.
Investigators also used information from a surviving roommate who they say saw the suspect in 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 she heard crying and “saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her.”
The man then walked past her toward a sliding glass door. The witness described the figure as “5’10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” the affidavit says.
After seeing the figure, the witness went back into her room and locked the door. She did not say that she recognized the male, investigators said.
Law enforcement later determined that Kohberger matched the description the surviving witness provided.
A security camera less than fifty feet from one of the victim’s bedrooms picked up sound of a dog barking numerous times around 4:17 a.m. on the morning of the killings, the affidavit says.
After reviewing multiple videos obtained from the area where the killings took place, authorities saw the suspect’s vehicle — later determined to be a white Hyundai Elantra — multiple 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 three passes by the home where the victims were found and is later seen departing 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 around 2:44 a.m. and was later seen again near the WSU campus around 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 November 13, 2022, court documents say.
All of those occasions, except for one, took place in the late evening and early morning hours, investigators determined.
Kohberger’s phone was near his residence in Pullman, Washington at 2:47 a.m. on November 13 but did not appear on a network again until approximately 4:48 a.m. when it was detected south of Moscow, ID near Blaine, ID, the affidavit says.
Around 5:30 a.m. the phone was again detected in Pullman, which is “consistent with the phone traveling back to the Kohberger Residence,” authorities say.
Kohberger was arraigned in Latah County court Thursday and will be held without bail for the duration of his trial.
Read the full affidavit below:
