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Bryan Kohberger can face death penalty if convicted in students’ murders, judge rules
Chanley Painter joins ‘Fox & Friends First’ to discuss judge’s death penalty ruling in Idaho college murder case.
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Officials are now saying Bryan Kohberger, the suspect charged in the quadruple homicide of four Moscow, Idaho students, was investigated in connection with a home invasion that took place before the murders in a neighboring city.
Newly released body camera video, obtained by ABC News, shows police responding to an alleged home invasion, which took place October 2021 in Pullman, Washington – a little over a year before and about 10 miles from where four University of Idaho students were fatally stabbed in their off-campus home.
“I heard my door open and I looked over and someone was wearing a ski mask and had a knife, and so I like kicked the s— out of their stomach and screamed super loud, and they like flew back into my closet then ran out my door and up the stairs,” the woman in the body camera footage told police, adding that the masked intruder entered her bedroom, holding a knife at about 3:30 a.m.
IDAHO PROSECUTORS REJECT BRYAN KOHBERGER’S MANY ATTACKS ON SEARCH WARRANTS
A compilation of mugshots for Idaho student murders suspect Bryan Kohberger, a 29-year-old criminologist accused of sneaking into an off-campus rental home and killing four students with a knife at 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022. (Monroe County, Pennsylvania, Latah County, Idaho)
She said the suspect was silent the whole time, according to the police report, obtained by the outlet. One of her roommates quickly called the police, but officers found no suspect or evidence at the time.
On Nov. 13, 2022, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, their housemate Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, also 20, were stabbed to death at around 4 a.m. in their Moscow, Idaho home. A surviving housemate told detectives she saw a masked man with “bushy eyebrows” after overhearing crying and sounds of a struggle.
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Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at the nearby Washington State University, was arrested weeks later at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. The 28-year-old suspect is facing four first-degree murder charges and a felony burglary charge in connection with the early morning massacre, during which prosecutors allege he snuck into the house near the University of Idaho campus and brutally killed the four innocent students using a large knife.
13 days later, Kohberger was named a person of interest in the Pullman case.
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Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
The details in both the Pullman break-in case and the University of Idaho quadruple homicide case are eerily similar – both suspects had a knife, wore a mask, entered the home in the early morning hours and were silent while leaving.
Kohberger is no longer a person of interest in the break-in case, Pullman police told ABC News.
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Kohberger’s height does not match the female victim’s description in the Pullman case. She told police the suspect was 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-5, while Kohberger is six feet tall, according to the police report. Kohberger was not yet enrolled at Washington State University at the time of the Pullman break-in, the report continues.
The Pullman case is closed and remains unsolved.
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Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for a hearing Friday, Aug. 18, 2023, at the Latah County Courthouse in Moscow, U.S. (August Frank/Pool via REUTERS)
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Investigators replace the plywood over the doors and windows to the home where four University of Idaho students were slain in November last year in Moscow, Idaho on Wednesday, November 1, 2023. The FBI worked to compile documentation to construct visual and audio exhibits and a physical model of the home where Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were killed. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
“My family and I have been frustrated that the case was not investigated more in depth or resolved,” the victim in the break-in case told the outlet.
With Kohberger’s murder trial slated to begin in August 2025, it’s unclear whether the defense will use the break-in case to raise reasonable doubt.
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Kohberger is due back in court on Jan. 23. He is being held without bail and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
Mollie Markowitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Email tips to [email protected]. She joined Fox in 2019 and made her way from producing live news coverage to true-crime documentaries at Fox Nation. She has interviewed Ted Bundy survivors, the children of notorious serial killers, survivor Lisa McVey, members of law enforcement and families impacted by traumatic crime.Currently, she covers national crime stories for Fox News Digital. You can follow Mollie on LinkedIn.