Idaho murders: FBI watched Bryan Kohberger take out the trash from his parents’ home

An FBI surveillance team watched Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger take out the trash at his parent’s house wearing surgical gloves at 4am – before dumping it in a neighbor’s bin.

New details of how the authorities snared the alleged quadruple murderer have been revealed, with officers watching the 28-year-old for four days before his arrest.

The officers were tasked with tracking Kohberger so they could arrest him as soon as a warrant was issued as well as trying to get hold of an object to compare DNA to a sample found at the scene.

He was also seen cleaning the inside and outside of his car, with the source adding that he didn’t ‘miss an inch’. 

Law enforcement saw him multiple times outside of his parent’s $250,000 Pennsylvania home wearing surgical gloves. 

A source told CNN Kohberger wore surgical gloves while taking out the bags, and was even seen putting trash into his neighbor’s bins at around 4am.

This was prior to his arrest, with agents recovering items from both his family home and the neighbors.

All of the items were sent to the Idaho State Lab, with them managing to confirm DNA found on a USMC sheath button which officers discovered next to the bodies of Kaylee Goncalves and Maddie Mogen.

Unsealed court documents show the painstaking work done by officers, who matched the DNA found on the sheath to Kohberger’s by comparing it to his father’s DNA – which was a 99.9998 percent match.

The white Hyundai Elantra is one of the things that helped cops track down the alleged killer, as well as obtaining his phone records.  

A SWAT team then moved in as soon as a warrant was obtained, breaking down the doors and windows in what the source said was a ‘dynamic entry’. 

They added that it was a rare tactic that was only used in cases where this suspect is considered ‘high risk’. 

He yesterday appeared in court charged with the four murders as well as a felony burglary after being extradited to Idaho.

Kohberger previously insisted that he would be ‘exonerated’ to his lawyer in Pennsylvania.

The criminal justice graduate only spoke to confirm his name and that he had representation during a hearing in Moscow, Idaho, on Thursday.

Kaylee Goncalves’ parents have now publicly said that they back the death penalty in the case, as they feel it is the only way to get justice.  

An unsealed probable cause affidavit yesterday revealed how cops painstakingly tracked down the alleged killer.

The timeline issued by police indicates that Kohberger managed to break into the house and kill al four victims within a 15-minute period, before his car was seen speeding off in surveillance footage.  

Phone records show that Kohberger went close to the property just five hours after the murders were committed – with his phone being turned off during the time of the murders.

He is also accused of stalking the students and visiting the property or the area at least 12 times before the slayings on November 13.

The papers included details on how Kohberger’s DNA was found on a knife sheath close to the bodies of Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves.

FBI agents matched the DNA to Kohberger after getting a DNA sample taken from the trash at his house in Pennsylvania.

Documents also detail how a surviving roommate, Dylan Mortensen, came face-to-face with a masked man believed to be Kohbegrer in the hallway of their shared home around the time of the killings, shortly after 4am.

Mortensen heard what she believed to be her roommate crying, left her room and saw a man in a black mask with bushy eyebrows.

She froze with fear, and watched as he walked past, then waited six hours before calling cops.

The document also reveals that a shoe print was found in the mud outside the murders house, just outside the sliding door that Mortensen said was used by the killer to escape.

Police studied that shoe print and found a ‘diamond pattern’ which is consistent with the sole of a Vans shoe.

It’s unclear if Kohberger owns Vans – the affidavit does not confirm the discovery of any shoe that has a sole print similar the one found at the scene.

The affidavit also reveals how Kohberger turned his phone off on the night of the murders in an attempt to cover his tracks before the murders.

Police zeroed in on Kohberger by linking his white Hyundai Elantra to the scene, and then using his phone number to track his movements.

He even returned to the scene of the crime at 9am on November 13 – just hours after he allegedly committed the quadruple murders.

Officials have not revealed the exact dates that he canvassed the three-story property but confirmed that in August, he was pulled over just two minutes after leaving the area covered by the cell phone tower closest to the home.

A Latah County Sheriff’s deputy pulled him over on August 21 at 11.37pm as part of a traffic stop – in which he provided his number.

Because of the series of traffic stops, officers were able to link both the car and the phone number to Kohberger – and look up each time his device pinged the tower closest to the property.

Kohberger remains behind bars in Idaho awaiting his January 12 status hearing, after his bail was refused on Thursday. 

Killer clue by killer clue: How Idaho cops linked Bryan Kohberger to crime scene where four students were murdered – and revealed he repeatedly stalked their home in the dead of night 

By Claudia Aoraha

The killer clues which led to the arrest of Bryan Kohberger – 47 days after four University of Idaho students were murdered in the dead of night – have now been revealed. 

While the local community and country waited with baited breath for cops to arrest the killer, authorities worked to track Kohberger’s AT&T cell phone and carefully matched it with his suspicious movements on November 13.

Damning evidence from a newly-unsealed affidavit now shows how police were able to link him to the crime scene – after he ‘stalked’ the college home twelve times before the murders, and also returned to the crime scene five hours later. 

PhD student Kohberger, 28, lived eight miles from the murder scene in Moscow, Idaho, and drove the white Hyundai Elantra cops were looking to trace. 

And with the help of genetic genealogy, cell phone data, CCTV footage, and evidence left at the crime scene, they were able to hunt down their suspect and charge him with the quadruple murder. 

The affidavit recounts the moments Moscow Police Officer Brett Payne entered the home on Kings Street and found the four college students brutally stabbed to death. 

If convicted, Kohberger is facing the death penalty for the murders of Idaho students Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20, and best friends Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21.

Retracing his movements – MONTHS before the murders    

Police have only revealed details of one instance where Kohberger allegedly stalked the murder house – but cell data from his phone number, ending 8458, shows that he was nearby the property a total of 12 times before the murders.

The one time they confirmed he was in the vicinity was 84 days before Goncalves, Mogen, Chapin and Kernodle were killed. 

On August 21, 2022, Kohberger’s cell phone was pinged as being near the murder residence between 10:34pm and 11:35pm.

Cops have not outlined dates, times, or details of the other 11 instances when they think Kohberger stalked the Idaho students and their college home.

However police did confirm that all of the 12 ‘stalking’ instances – bar one – took place late in the evening, or in the early hours of the morning. 

The implication is that Kohberger may have been stalking the victims for months before the killings – under the guise of darkness. 

The day of the quadruple killings

In the early hours of November 13, Kohberger’s 8458 phone was picked up by a cell tower near his home – 1630 Northeast Valley Road in Pullman, Washington – at 2:42am.

Then at 2:47am, his phone pinged again – indicating that it had begun to travel south through Pullman. 

But moments later, the phone stopped pinging, suggesting that it had been put on airplane mode, turned off, or dropped off the network. It’s believed he may have turned the phone off to avoid detection. 

Idaho Police say that the killer left a tan, leather sheath at the scene. It was found lying next to the stabbed corpses of Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves on the bed in the college house. 

The knife cover – which had a United States Marine Corps eagle globe and anchor insignia on it – had male DNA left on the snap button. 

It was not until December 27, when the FBI recovered trash from Kohberger’s family house in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, that they matched the DNA to Kohberger. 

At 4.17am, a surveillance camera from a nearby house heard picked up faint sounds of ‘cries’ and a dog barking. The dog is the animal Kaylee Goncalves’ shared with her ex-boyfriend, which was found unharmed the next day.

Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen was awake at the time of the killings – around 4.20am – and that she saw a man in a black mask in the house. She described him as having bushy eyebrows. 

During the second sweeping of the crime scene, police found a shoe print outside Mortensen’s bedroom door. They said it was a ‘diamond pattern’ which is consistent with the sole of a Vans shoe – and its direction of travel matched with Mortensen’s witness statement. 

It was around this time, after 4.20am, that a white Hyundai Elantra was observed on surveillance cameras leaving the vicinity of the crime – but the absence of a front license plate made it harder for police to track down its owner.

According to police, there are generally ‘a very limited number of vehicles’ that enter and exit this residential neighborhood in the early hours of the morning. But the white sedan was one of them spotted past the house four times. 

They said it was traveling at ‘high speed.’  

At 4:48am – approximately 28 minutes after the slayings are believed to have ended -Kohberger’s phone comes alive again after being shut off for two hours. 

It pinged again on Idaho State Highway 95, south of Moscow. 

Within the next 30 minutes, his phone pinged to show it traveling south on ID95 to Genessee, Idaho, them west towards Uniontown, Idaho, and back north into Pullman, Washington.

It is at 5:30am – one hour after the students were slaughtered in Moscow – that Kohberger’s phone pings again at 1630 Northeast Valley Road, indicating that he’d arrived back home.

Police were then able to corroborate this cell phone data – as the Elantra is caught on camera driving north on Stadium Drive at 5.27am. 

The hours after the brutal killings 

Despite arriving home at 5:30am on November 13, Kohberger’s phone is pinged at 9am – suggesting he is on the move again.

Perhaps most shocking is the evidence – collected by the cell phone pings – showing he returned to the quadruple murder scene the next morning.

He traveled back to the vicinity of the King Road murder house. His phone’s pinging was picked up by a cellphone tower between 9:12am and 9:21am.

And by 9:32am, Kohberger’s phone indicates that he arrived back home in Pullman again.

At 12.36pm – eight hours after the students were killed – analysis shows that Kohberger stopped at Kate’s Cup of Joe coffee stand Port Drive, Clartston, in Washington – right on the border to Idaho. 

His white Elantra was spotted on camera at the same time – according to store CCTV footage adjacent to the coffee shop. 

Minutes after at 12:46pm, cellular data shows he went into Albertson’s grocery store. CCTV shows him leaving the white car, walking through the store, buying unknown items, then leaving the store at 1:04pm.   

That evening, between 5:32pm and 5:36pm, the 8458 phone cellular pinged coverage to Johnson, Idaho. 

His phone then turned off again until 8.30pm. His phone has remained off or not connected to the network since November 14. 

How they nailed Kohberger – six weeks after the murders 

For weeks after the killings, police and FBI kept tight-lipped about the evidence they accrued. But following his arrest and appearance in court, cops have revealed the steps they took to track down the suspect.   

After the November 13 murders, Kohberger and his father, Michael, drove 2,500 miles in a white Hyundai Elantra from Idaho to Pennsylvania. 

On November 29, police obtained surveillance footage from the parking lot of Kohberger’s apartment building, some 10 miles from the murder scene, in Pullman, Washington State.

Moscow Police officers visited the parking lot to obtain a license plate for the vehicle – as it matched the description of the car they saw on footage the night the students were killed.

They ran a search, and found multiple incidents in which the car and its owner – Bryan Kohberger – had been pulled over multiple times in the past.

With Kohberger’s name, police honed in on him and reviewed historic surveillance camera footage, along with phone records, going back several months.

Then following their initial suspicions, Kohberger was pulled over over twice as he passed through Indiana on December 15 – once for speeding and the other for following a car ahead too closely. 

It’s believed that he was actually pulled over at the request of an FBI surveillance team tailing him to see if he had any injuries on his hands after brutal slayings. 

Kohberger, 28, was arrested by the Pennsylvania State Police at a home in Albrightsville, a small town in the heart of the Poconos Mountains on December 30 -more than 2,000 miles from where the gruesome killings took place.