A 28-year-old man has been arrested as part of an investigation into the murder of four University of Idaho students. The Idaho murders occurred at the students’ off-campus share house in November while they were asleep in their beds.
The arrest was made in the eastern US state of Pennsylvania across the other side of the country from where the alleged murders took place.
The man has since been identified as Bryan Christopher Kohberger, a PhD student in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at the neighbouring Washington State University per the Associated Press.
“Bryan C Kohberger was taken into custody… based upon an active arrest warrant for murder in the first degree,” said a probable cause affidavit.
According to The Guardian, Kohberger is awaiting extradition to Idaho where he will face the first-degree murder charge.
The deaths sent shockwaves through the university’s community with approximately half of the 11,000 students choosing to leave the college town of Moscow (USA) and resume online classes.
In late November, vigils were held for the four students Ethan Chapin (20), Kaylee Goncalves (21), Xana Kernodle (20), and Madison Mogen (21).
“Our triplets enrolled here together because of the small-town feel, the beautiful campus and the Greek system,” Ethan Chapin’s mother Stacy told attendees as per the BBC.
Kaylee’s father Steve said she and housemate Madison had been long-time friends prior to the Idaho murders.
“They started looking at colleges and came here together … and in the end they died together, in the same room and in the same bed.”
In the month following the killings, conspiracy theories began to develop online.
One theory resulted in a University of Idaho history professor Rebecca Scofield suing a self-proclaimed psychic, Ashley Guillard, for accusing her on TikTok of being involved in the Idaho murders.
You can read our full explainer on that absolutely bizarre story here.
More to come.
