The latest on the Idaho student murders: Live Updates | CNN (2024)

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson, center, stands and speaks during a hearing for Bryan Kohberger, on Thursday, January 5, in Moscow, Idaho.

Court documents – including a probable cause order – in the state case against Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students, werepublicly released on Thursday.

Here’s what they’ve revealed so far:

University of Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department in Washington in the fall of 2022, court documents citing police records reveal.

“These records also showed Kohberger wrote an essay when he applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department in the fall of 2022. Kohberger wrote in his essay he had interest in assisting rural law enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data in public safety operations.”

Phone records indicate Idaho student killings suspect Bryan Kohberger’s phone was near the quadruple murder scene between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m. local time – hours after the students were slain, court documents released Thursday reveal.

Law enforcement review of the records indicate his phone left his residence in Pullman, Washington, “at approximately 9:00 a.m. and traveling to Moscow, ID,” according to an affidavit.

Kohberger’s phone “utilized cellular resources that would provide coverage to the King Road Residence between 9:12 am. and 9:21 am.

Cell phone records show the same phone “traveling back to the area of the Kohberger Residence and arriving to the area at approximately 9:32 a.m.”

Kohberger, left, and his attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, during a hearing in Latah County District Court, Thursday, January 5, in Moscow, Idaho.

University of Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger smiled at his public defender when walked into the courtroom for his initial appearance Thursday morning. He did not appear to make eye contact with anyone else throughout the entire proceeding, including family members of victims who were crying in the first row.

Steve Goncalves — the father of Kaylee Gonclaves, one of the four slain students — was with his wife and other relatives in the front row, according to a CNN team in the courtroom, adding that family members were seen staring at Kohberger throughout the hearing.

A no-contact order for the murder victims’ family members and the surviving roommates for two years was requested by the prosecutor and upheld by the judge.

After Kohberger’s court-appointed attorney Anne Chere Taylor requested a review of bail and prosecutor Bill Thompson argued that no bail should be upheld, the magistrate judge presiding over the case upheld no bail for the alleged murderer.

The suspect in the murders of four Idaho university students, Bryan Kohberger, has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Jan. 12at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET).

In felony cases, if a defendant requests a preliminary hearing, one is set within the time limits prescribed by law, according tothe Idaho Court System.

In Kohberger’s case, one is expected within 14 days, according to the judge who presided over his initial appearance Thursday.

Bryan Kohberger is escorted into a courtroom for a hearing in Latah County District Court on January 5 in Moscow, Idaho.

Phone records indicate Idaho student murders suspect Bryan Kohberger’s phone was near the victims’ residence at least 12 times between June 2022 to the present day, court documents reveal.

“All of these occasions, except for one, occurred in the late evening and early morning hours of their respective days,” according to an affidavit.

Police tape surrounds a home that was the site of a quadruple murder on January 3 in Moscow, Idaho.

One of the surviving roommates of the four slain University of Idaho students told investigators she heard crying in the house the morning of the murders, according to a probable cause affidavit released Thursday.

The student — identified by law enforcement as “D.M.” — also said she heard a voice say, “It’s OK, I’m going to help you,” and then saw a “figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” according to the affidavit.

The document added that D.M. described the figure as a man standing about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, who was “not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows.”

The man walked past D.M. as she stood in a “frozen shock phase,” law enforcement officials wrote.

“The male walked towards the back sliding glass door. D.M. locked herself in her room after seeing the male,” according to the document, adding the roommate did not recognize the man.

The affidavit said that the statements by the surviving witness and other evidence led investigators to believe the homicides occurred between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m. local time (7 a.m. and 7:25 a.m. ET).

AWashington State University officer located a 2015 white Hyundai Elantra registered to suspect Bryan Kohberger in an apartment complex parking lot, and officials were able to zero in on him because hisdriver’slicenseinformation and photographwere consistent withthe roommate’s description.

Trash recovered from the Kohberger family residence by Pennsylvania law enforcement and sent to the Idaho State Lab for DNA testing was used to help investigators narrow down Bryan Kohberger as the suspect in the Idaho student murders, according to court documents released Thursday.

“On December 27, 2022, Pennsylvania Agents recovered the trash from the Kohberger family residence located in Albrightsville, PA. That evidence was sent to the Idaho State Lab for testing,” the document says.

The next day “the Idaho State Lab reported that a DNA profile obtained from the trash” matched a tan leather knife sheath found “laying on the bed” of one of the victims.

“On December 28, 2022, the Idaho State Lab reported that a DNA profile obtained from the trash and the DNA profile obtained from the sheath, identified a male as not being excluded as the biological father of Suspect Profile,” the document says.

“At least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father.”

Court documents – including the probable cause order – in the state case against Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students, have beenpublicly released.

CNN is going through them now.

Bryan Kohberger was stopped twice by law enforcement while driving a white Hyundai Elantra on December 15, authorities said.

Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the stabbing deaths of fourIdahouniversity students, received a new license plate for his white Hyundai Elantra five days after the mid-November murders,Washington state licensing records and court documents reveal.

The Washington State Department of Licensing provided CNN a redacted copy of a vehicle record on Thursday. It includes a license plate number matching what’s described as the new license plate in court documents.

Victims Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen.

Authorities have yet to release key details such as whether the suspect knew the victims to what his alleged motive might have been and what finally prompted his arrest.

The probable cause affidavit – the legal document used to justify Kohberger’s arrest and obtain a warrant – remains sealed until he is returned to Idaho, where he faces four counts of first-degree murder as well as a felony burglary charge, per Latah County, Idaho, prosecutors.

Here are a few of the key details that remain unknown.

The suspect’s relationship to the victims

Authorities have not said publicly whether Kohberger knew any of the victims. He lived in the area, police indicated. He was a PhD student in the criminal justice program at Washington State University’s campus in Pullman, about a 15-minute drive west of Moscow.

The suspect’s alleged motive

Investigators also have yet to give any indication of why Kohberger allegedly carried out the stabbings.

In the days since his arrest, there has been a heavy focus Kohberger’s study of criminal justice and criminology as a Washington State University student – a detail a former senior FBI profiler called “very interesting.”

“We have had other cases where offenders have been in areas of study that more or less prepare them to commit a crime,” Mary Ellen O’Toole told CNN on Sunday. If he is guilty, Kohberger’s “area of study is not a result of cause and effect,” she stressed, noting studying the criminal mind did not “cause him to do this.”

How the suspect stayed free for 7 weeks

It’s also unclear why Kohberger wasn’t arrested until more than six weeks after the victims were found dead. Police would not reveal when Kohberger came onto law enforcement’s radar, saying details in the case would be released in time.

Kohberger went home to Pennsylvania for the holidays, public defender Jason LaBar told CNN on Saturday, adding the suspect and his father – who accompanied his son on the cross-country drive – arrived around December 17.

The suspect drove the car to his parents’ house, according to another law enforcement source, who told CNN, “Sometime right before Christmas we were zeroing in on him being in or going to Pennsylvania.”

An FBI surveillance team from the Philadelphia field office had been tracking him for four days in the area where he was arrested, according to two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation.

CNN’s Jean Casarez, Lauren DelValle, John Miller, Mark Morales, Pamela Brown, Josh Campbell, Elizabeth Joseph, Stephanie Becker, Veronica Miracle, Paul P. Murphy and Stella Chan contributed to this report.

Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the November murder of four University of Idaho students, will make his initial appearance in court at12:30 p.m. ET (9:30 a.m. PT).

“The initial appearance hearing in State v. Kohberger will take place today at9:30 a.m. PTat the Latah County Courthouse,” an updated court statement said.

Bryan Kohberger leaves after an extradition hearing in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, January 3.

Investigators focused on Bryan Kohberger as a suspect in the killing of four University of Idaho students after tracing ownership of a white Hyundai Elantra, which had been seen in the area of the November killings, according to two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation.

His DNA was also matched to genetic material recovered at the home where the students were killed, the sources said.

The suspect recently finished his first semester as a PhD student in the criminal justice program at Washington State University’s campus in Pullman, about a 15-minute drive west of Moscow.

He drove home to Pennsylvania for the holidays accompanied by his father, according to Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar. The father and son arrived around December 17.

The white Elantraauthorities had been looking forin connection with the killings was found at Kohberger’s parents’ house, LaBar said.

An FBI surveillance team tracked Kohberger for four days before his arrest while law enforcement worked with prosecutors to develop enough probable cause to get a warrant, the two law enforcement sources said.

CNN’s Josh Campbell, Jason Kravarik, Ken Tillis, Taylor Romine and Holly Yan contributed to this report.

Law enforcement personnel stand guard next to a garage entrance at the Latah County Courthouse after Bryan Kohberger arrived in a police motorcade on January 4 in Moscow, Idaho.

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November, has arrived backin Idahoafter waiving extradition from his home state of Pennsylvania.

Law enforcement escorted Kohberger to the Latah County Jail on Wednesday night. He was booked on four counts of murder and one count of burglary, according to jail records.

Earlier Wednesday, an online flight tracker showed that the Pennsylvania state police aircraft believed to have been carrying Kohberger had arrived at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport, just across the border in Washington state. A CNN team at the airport saw Idaho law enforcement vehicles on site.

Kohberger was handed over from Monroe County Correctional Facility to Pennsylvania State Police authorities, jail warden Garry Haidle told CNN. State Police would not comment on any prisoner transport, per its policy.

Kohberger wasarrested Fridayin Pennsylvania, almost seven weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were found fatally stabbed November 13 in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.

Authorities have yet to release key details in the case, such as whether the suspect knew the victims and what the motive may have been.

The probable-cause affidavit, which would contain information to justify the suspect’s arrest, remains sealed until he appears in an Idaho court.

A court order prohibits the prosecution and defense from commenting beyond public records.

CNN’s Josh Campbell, Jason Kravarik, Ken Tillis, Taylor Romine and Holly Yan contributed to this report.