(NewsNation) — The man suspected of killing four University of Idaho students allegedly broke into a female colleague’s home, apparently in hopes that she’d respond by asking his help in installing security cameras.
Initially reported by NewsNation last month, “Dateline NBC” reported the information Friday night about Bryan Kohberger, who has been charged with four counts of murder in the November slayings of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves.
According to Dateline and NewsNation sources, Kohberger befriended a woman at Washington State University, which he attended and worked at, and broke into her property months before the killings, moving things around but not stealing anything. The woman, who was not identified, then allegedly asked Kohberger to come over to assist her, and that’s when he suggested she get security cameras.
Reports say he offered to install them, to which she agreed. Authorities believe he could have accessed the footage remotely because he knew her Wi-Fi password.
Kohberger was arraigned Monday after a grand jury indicted him on four counts of murder and one count of burglary in connection with the University of Idaho students’ killings. Prosecutors allege he stabbed them all to death in the early morning hours of Nov. 13.
Information in an arrest affidavit says cellphone tower data shows him in the area of the house where they were killed multiple times in the days and weeks leading up to the killings. Prosecutors also allege that a period of inactivity on his cellphone shows an attempt to conceal his movements at the time of the killings.
Prosecutors allege Kohberger’s DNA was found on a knife sheath left at the crime scene.
According to Dateline, Kohberger reportedly bought a KA-BAR knife and sheath in April 2022 from Amazon before he moved to Pullman, Washington, to attend university.
Kohberger was arrested some six weeks after killings at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania. Police seized items including clothing, medical gloves and a cheek swab for DNA collection. The warrant also shows Kohberger was being surveilled while in Pennsylvania and was tracked using his cellphone.
According to Dateline, one of Kohberger’s sisters found it odd he was wearing latex gloves at home, and at one point noted that Kohberger lived near the scene of the killings and drove a white Hyundai Elantra, the same type of car for which police were said to be searching.
