Suspect Arrested in Murder of 4 Idaho Students

This summary has been updated with new information.

Police have made an arrest in the slaying of four University of Idaho students, reports the AP and CNN. Arrest paperwork filed by Pennsylvania State Police said Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was being held for extradition based on an arrest warrant for first-degree murder issued by the Moscow Police Department and Latah County Prosecutor's Office in Idaho. The students—Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin—were stabbed to death at a rental home near campus sometime in the early morning hours of Nov. 13.

A Ph.D. student by the name of Bryan Kohberger is listed in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, which is a short drive across the state line from the University of Idaho. Messages seeking more information were left for officials at WSU, but the Idaho Statesman reports that the suspect is indeed a grad student there. DeSales University in Pennsylvania confirmed that a student by that name received a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and completed graduate studies in June 2022. Kohberger was arrested at a home in northeastern Pennsylvania's Monroe County.

The slayings initially mystified law enforcement, with investigators unable to name a suspect or locate a murder weapon for weeks. But the case broke open after law enforcement asked the public for help finding a white Hyundai Elantra seen near the home around the time of the killings. The Moscow Police Department made the request Dec. 7, and by the next day had to direct tips to a special FBI call center because so many were coming in. NBC News reports that an Elantra was taken from the suspect's home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania. (A history professor at the Idaho school sued a tarot card reader for implicating her.)