Bryan Kohberger has identified a different person as a suspect that he believes is the true perpetrator behind the deaths of four students from the University of Idaho. This revelation comes just before his upcoming trial where he will be defending himself.
Facing accusations of committing four murders, Kohberger appeared in an Ada County courtroom on Thursday. During this appearance, Judge Steven Hippler presided over proceedings that are crucial in determining the direction of the impending capital murder trial this upcoming summer.
As a last-minute effort to avoid facing a lethal punishment, the 30-year-old murder suspect’s defense team made a drastic move by pointing to another individual as a potential suspect in the case.
Who this suspect is and what evidence the defense has that could tie them to the brutal murders remains a mystery.
The judge ordered that the defense filing remains under seal, keeping it cloaked in secrecy until trial.
The defense for the criminology PhD student has previously revealed plans to argue he was framed and that two killers must have committed the shocking crime.
Judge Hippler gave Kohberger’s defense a deadline of May 23 to hand him ‘whatever actual evidence you have that supports those allegations other than just allegations.’
He also ordered the defense to ‘provide for me how it is you believe that what you’re offering is admissible’ at trial.
The state will then have until June 6 to respond to the defense claims, before the two sides battle it out in a hearing later in the month. The judge will then rule whether or not the jury can hear about this alternate suspect at trial.
The explosive move from Kohberger’s team comes less than a week after bombshell new details emerged in the case, including his phone calls to a family member after the murders, his chilling porn choices and disturbing online searches about serial killer Ted Bundy.
Kohberger is facing the death penalty if convicted of the brutal murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
Bryan Kohberger appears in court on Thursday May 15 for one of the final hearings before his murder trial
Young couple Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle (left) were found dead on the second floor of the home. Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen (right) were killed on the third floor
The four University of Idaho students were all slaughtered in a horror knife attack in the early hours of November 13, 2022, inside the off-campus student home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, that the three women shared with two other roommates.
The two roommates – Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen – survived, with Mortensen coming face-to-face with the masked killer inside the home that haunting night.
On December 30, 2022 – around six weeks on from the massacre – Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, and charged with the murders.
He stood silent at his arraignment and a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.
Now, after more than two years of delays and legal wrangling – including the trial being moved to another county – the suspected killer who struck terror into the heart of a safe, tight-knit college town is finally heading to trial.
Jury selection is slated to begin July 30, with the trial getting underway on August 11.
During Thursday’s hearing, the judge began by laying out how the trial will take shape – and warning both sides that he doesn’t want evidence issues to crop up and cause delays to the trial once it is underway.
‘I am not a fan of surprises, as you may have figured out by now,’ he warned.
The judge outlined the jury selection process, revealing he plans to have eight alternates – as opposed to the typical number of six – taking the full panel up to 20.
Left to right: Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee’s shoulders) Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke
He said he would not go into specific details about the jury questionnaires and instructions during the hearing, so as not to impact potential panelists ahead of the trial.
However, what potential jurors know about the case, their views on the death penalty and any media bias they have will be key questions in selecting the jury.
The jury selection process will not be livestreamed, but the rest of the trial will be.
The judge warned both sides that if they bump into any members of the jury outside court during the trial, to ‘run the other way’ and report it.
Prosecutor Bill Thompson asked the judge for the video of livestream to be turned off for a number of the witnesses – such as the surviving roommates as well as members of law enforcement whose identities should remain secret.
The judge agreed that, as victims, Mortensen and Funke can have their faces shielded during their testimony if they wish.
Seating will also be reserved for the two survivors, as well as the victims’ families and Kohberger’s immediate family members.
As part of the hearing, the judge could determine what final pieces of evidence jurors will be able to see in order to decide the fate of the accused killer.
Among the final pieces of evidence still at play is Kohberger’s eerie criminology research paper intricately detailing a fictional crime scene about a woman being stabbed to death at a trailer park.
Judge Steven Hippler (left) laid down the groundwork for the trial as Bryan Kohberger (right) looked on
Phone records and bank transactions for both the accused killer and some of his alleged victims as well as surveillance footage from locations close to the crime scene are also likely to be discussed.
The high-profile trial is expected to last around three months, barring the sentencing phase.
If convicted, Kohberger faces the death penalty and, following recent changes in Idaho state law, he may even face the firing squad.
To date, 13 separate defense efforts to take the death penalty off the table have been denied by the judge – including one where they cited his autism diagnosis as a reason to block capital punishment from the case.
The judge has also dealt a series of other blows to Kohberger’s defense strategy in recent weeks, ruling that jurors can hear the harrowing 911 call made by the victims’ surviving roommates and see their panicked texts after Mortensen saw the masked killer inside their home.
The judge has also ruled against Kohberger in allowing Mortensen to describe the man inside her home using the term ‘bushy eyebrows.’
Jurors will also be able to see Kohberger’s Amazon shopping history, which prosecutors say reveals he bought a Ka-Bar knife, sheath and sharpener from Amazon back in March 2022.
A matching sheath was found next to Mogen’s body, with DNA on the sheath being traced back to Kohberger.
The murder weapon has never been found.
Since the last court hearing in April, it has come to light that Kohberger placed a series of phone calls to his dad Michael Kohberger just two hours after the horror stabbing spree.
The 30-year-old criminology PhD student called his dad three times on the morning of November 13, 2022, according to explosive cell phone records obtained by NBC’s Dateline.
A selfie taken by Bryan Kohberger days before his arrest for the murders and obtained by Dateline
The calls began at 6.17am – just two hours after Kohberger is accused of murdering the four students at around 4am – and each lasted up to 54 minutes.
What exactly the father and son spoke about remains a mystery.
It is also unclear if this was typical behavior for Kohberger to call his father at that time. Kohberger’s parents live in Pennsylvania, which is three hours ahead of Pullman – making the first call around 9am for Michael.
Following those calls to his father, Kohberger allegedly returned to the scene of the murders, with his phone pinging off a cell tower close to 1122 King Road at 9.12am.
Just one hour after that – at around 10.31am – the quadruple homicide suspect was back at his Pullman, Washington, apartment, where he snapped a creepy selfie posing with his thumbs up and an eerie smile as he stood in front of his shower.
Over another hour passed before the bloodbath was discovered at 1122 King Road and the now-haunting 911 call was placed just before midday.
The shocking revelation of the call records comes after prosecutors revealed they plan to call some of Kohberger’s own family members to testify against him at his trial.
Which family members will testify for the prosecution and why remain a closely-guarded secret.
The off-campus student home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, where the murders took place (seen in December 2023)
In the two-plus-years since his arrest, the Kohberger family has kept a low profile.
The only public comments ever made by the family was a statement released immediately after his arrest where they said they ‘care deeply for the four families who have lost their precious children’, that they were cooperating fully with the investigation and that ‘as a family we will love and support our son and brother.’
In the April court hearing, Kohberger’s lawyers revealed that the family continues to support him and has ‘no interest in helping’ the prosecution in its case.
New details have also emerged about Kohberger’s online activity and behaviors around the time of the murders, including creepy selfies and disturbing porn and serial killer searches.
According to Dateline, Kohberger made several searches around serial killer Ted Bundy – who was put to death for a string of murders including the killings of female students in a sorority house in Florida.
On August 16, 2022 – three months before the murders – Kohberger allegedly Googled ‘ted h7ndy’ and one of his professors, including a paper she had written about Bundy.
In the days after the murders, Kohberger – on multiple occasions – then also allegedly watched shows about the serial killer.
On December 28, 2022 – just three days before his arrest – Kohberger then also allegedly watched a YouTube show named ‘Ted Bundy: Essence of a Psychopath.’
Bryan Kohberger seen in January 2023 following his arrest for the brutal murders
After watching that, Kohberger snapped a series of other selfies.
These haunting images show the man soon to be charged with a brutal quadruple homicide dressed in a black hoody and staring into the camera.
The photo, Dateline reveals, appears to impersonate the hooded image of Bundy on the show he had watched that day.
He also searched and listened to the Britney Spears’ song Criminal.
Other online searches after the murders show the suspect was researching the killings – as well as his own name, the show reported.
Kohberger had also searched for pornography that included the words ‘sleeping’ and ‘drugged.’
He also had a trove of images of female students from WSU and UI, many of them in bikinis.
The images, Dateline reported, appeared to have been taken from social media accounts of students who followed or were friends with either Kernodle, Goncalves or Mogen.
Sources close to the investigation told Dateline that the intended target of the attack is believed to be Mogen – based in part on the path the killer allegedly took after entering the home, going straight up to her room on the third floor.
It has now emerged that a sixth young woman was also supposed to be staying in the home that night – but a last-minute decision saved her life.
Ashlin Couch’s mom Angela Navejas told DailyMail.com that Couch was best friends with Mogen and was the sixth roommate still on the lease at 1122 King Road at the time of the murders.
Couch had moved out of the home in the summer of 2022 after graduating early.
But she would often return to Moscow to spend weekends with her friends and would stay with Mogen when she did.
She had planned to visit that weekend but her mom was on vacation in Florida and Hurricane Nicole had hit the Sunshine State – derailing her journey home.
Navejas asked her daughter to stay at home and look after their dogs, and so the senior canceled her plans to join her friends.
This last-minute cancellation may have saved her life.
