Idaho police rule out other suspects in college killings: ‘I do believe our community is safe’

Support truly
independent journalism

Support Now

Find out moreClose

Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.

Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.

Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.

Louise Thomas

Editor

Idaho police have ruled out any other suspect in the killings of four university students as they addressed the arrest of suspect Bryan Kohberger for the first time.

Authorities captured the 28-year-old PhD students at a property in Albrightsville, Pennslyvania, in the early hours of Friday and he now faces extradition to Idaho to face four murder charges.

“We have an individual in custody who committed these horrible crimes and I do believe our community is safe, but we still need to be vigilant,” said Moscow police chief James Fry on Friday.

Mr Kohberger is a graduate criminology student at Washington State University, which is around 10 miles from the scene of the crime.

He is the first person to be arrested in connection with the murders and is being held without bond at the Monroe County Prison in Pennsylvania pending his extradition to Idaho.

The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found at their rental house opposite the University of Idaho in the city of Moscow on 13 November.

Chief Fry told reporters in Idaho that he was limited by the state’s legal system in what details of the investigation he could make public until the suspect was back in his jurisdiction.

He admitted that investigators had not yet found the murder weapon but said that they had found a white Hyundai Elantra they have been looking for.

“We are still looking for all pieces of evidence, we are still looking for the weapon and I can say that we have found an Elantra,” he told the press conference in Moscow.

He also defended his department against the criticism it faced during the six weeks leading up to the arrest.

“I will 100 per cent stand behind the way we handled this investigation...keeping information that was pertinent to this case very very tight. We want to have a situation where when this goes to trial, there is no doubt that we’ve done everything right.”

Chief Fry admitted that investigators had endured a “fairly sleepless couple of days” running up to the arrest and said he was “always concerned” until the suspect was taken into custody.