A Q-tip and spotless car were key evidence linking Bryan Kohberger to
murders of 4 Idaho students
[July 03, 2025]
By JESSE BEDAYN
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The lead prosecutor tasked with finding justice for
four University of Idaho students killed in a grisly quadruple stabbing
more than two years ago laid out his key evidence Wednesday at a court
hearing for Bryan Kohberger, who agreed to plead guilty earlier this
week to avoid the death penalty.
The evidentiary summary — recited by lead prosecutor Bill Thompson
before Kohberger entered his pleas — spun a dramatic tale that included
a DNA-laden Q-tip plucked from the garbage in the dead of the night, a
getaway car stripped so clean of evidence that it was “essentially
disassembled inside" and a fateful early-morning Door Dash order that
may have put one of the victims in Kohberger's path.
These details offered new insights into how the crime unfolded on Nov.
13, 2022, and how investigators ultimately solved the case using
surveillance footage, cell phone tracking and DNA matching. But the
synopsis leaves hanging key questions that could have been answered at
trial — including a motive for the stabbings and why Kohberger picked
that house, and those victims, all apparent strangers to him.
The small farming community of Moscow, in the northern Idaho panhandle,
had not had a homicide in about five years when Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan
Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were found dead at a rental home
near campus.
Kohberger, now 30, had begun a doctoral degree in criminal justice at
nearby Washington State University — across the state line from Moscow,
Idaho — months before the crimes.
“The defendant has studied crime,” Thompson said, as the victims' family
members dabbed at their tears. “In fact, he did a detailed paper on
crime scene processing when he was working on his Ph.D., and he had that
knowledge skillset.”
What we learned from the hearing
Kohberger's cell phone began connecting with cell towers in the area of
the crime more than four months before the stabbings, Thompson said, and
pinged on those towers 23 times between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m.
in that time period.
A compilation of surveillance videos from neighbors and businesses also
placed Kohberger's vehicle — known to investigators because of a routine
traffic stop by police in August — in the area.
On the night of the killings, Kohberger parked behind the house and
entered through a sliding door to the kitchen at the back of the house
shortly after 4 a.m., Thompson said. He moved to the third floor, where
Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were sleeping.
After killing both of them with a knife, Kohberger left a knife sheath
next to Mogen's body. Both victims' blood was later found on the sheath,
along with DNA from a single male that ultimately helped investigators
pinpoint Kohberger as the only suspect.
On the floor below, another student was still awake. Xana Kernodle had
ordered Door Dash not long before, and as Kohberger was leaving, he
crossed paths with her and killed her with a large knife, Thompson said.
He then killed her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, who was sleeping in
Kernodle's bedroom.
Kohberger left two others in the house alive, including one roommate who
was expected to testify at trial that sometime before 4:19 a.m. she saw
an intruder there with “bushy eyebrows,” wearing black clothing and a
ski mask.
Roughly five minutes later, the car could be seen on the next-door
neighbor’s surveillance camera. speeding away so fast “the car almost
loses control as it makes the corner,” Thompson said.
What did Kohberger do next?
After Kohberger fled the scene, Thompson said, his cover-up was
elaborate.
Prosecutors believe he drove backroads to his apartment in Pullman,
Washington, to avoid surveillance cameras on the major roads and didn't
turn his cell phone back on until 4:48 a.m. By 5:26 a.m., he was back in
Pullman, Thompson said.
Later, Kohberger changed his car registration from Pennsylvania to
Washington State — significant for investigators who were combing
through surveillance camera footage because Pennsylvania law doesn't
require a front license plate, making it harder to identify the vehicle.
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Brian Kohberger, charged in the murders of four University of Idaho
students, appears at the Ada County Courthouse, Wednesday, July 2,
2025, in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool)
And by the time investigators did catch up with him weeks later, his
apartment and office in nearby Pullman were scrubbed clean.
“Spartan would be a kind characterization. There was nothing there,
nothing of evidentiary value was found,” Thompson said of
Kohberger’s apartment.
The car, too, “had been essentially disassembled inside," he added.
“It was spotless. The defendant’s car had been meticulously cleaned
inside.”
The Q-tip that broke the case
Investigators had honed in on Kohberger, but they needed to prove he
was their suspect.
With the DNA of a single mystery male on the knife sheath, they
worked with the FBI and the local sanitation department to secretly
retrieve garbage from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger's parents,
seeking a DNA match to their suspect.
“They conducted what’s called a trash pull during the nighttime
hours,” Thompson said, and “took trash that had been set out on the
street for collection” and sent it to Idaho's forensics lab.
The pile of garbage yielded investigative gold: A Q-tip that
contained DNA identified “as coming from the father of the person
whose DNA was found on the knife sheath that was found by Madison
Mogen’s body on the bed,” he said.
With that, Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in
Pennsylvania, where he had gone for the holidays, and ultimately was
extradited to Idaho for prosecution.
The mysteries that remain
Even while prosecutors detailed that night, a key question remains:
Why did Kohberger target that house and those victims? Did he know
them? And what was his motive?
“We do not have evidence that the defendant had direct contact with
1122 or with residents in 1122, but we can put his phone in the area
on those times,” Thompson said, referring to the house number where
the murders took place.
Some of that evidence may have come out at trial, and may yet be
contained in documents related to the case that have been sealed by
the court until after a July 23 sentencing hearing. A gag order in
place for all attorneys in the case is still in effect as well.
Those documents include witness lists, a list of exhibits, an
analysis of the evidence, requests for additional discovery, filings
about mitigating factors and various unsuccessful defense motions
that sought to introduce alternative suspects, among other things.
The families of the victims are split over the plea deal
With the case solved, families remain divided over its resolution.
The deal stipulates that Kohberger will be spared execution in
exchange for four consecutive life sentences. He also waived his
right to appeal and to challenge the sentence.
Chapin's and Mogen's families support the deal.
“We now embark on a new path. We embark on a path of hope and
healing,” Mogen's family said in a statement.
The family of Kaylee Goncalves publicly denounced the plea deal
ahead of Wednesday's hearing and her father refused to attend the
proceedings.
Goncalves 18-year-old sister, Aubrie Goncalves, said in a Facebook
post that “Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would
still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world."
“Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever," she wrote.
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