Ph.D. Student Arrested For Killing Idaho University Students

A suspect arrested in connection with the slayings of four University of Idaho students plans to waive an extradition hearing so he can be quickly brought to Idaho to face murder charges, his defense attorney said Saturday.

Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old Ph.D. student and teaching assistant in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, was taken into custody early Friday morning by the Pennsylvania State Police at his parents' home in Chestnuthill Township, authorities said.

“We believe we've got our man,” Moscow Police Department Captain Anthony Dahlinger told The Associated Press on Saturday. “He's the one that we believe is responsible for all four of the murders," he said.

The arrest in the disturbing case brought a sense of relief to the small northern Idaho college town after weeks passed with little information released by police. But it has also raised questions about whether the suspect knew the victims, what he has been doing in the weeks since the killings and how authorities tracked him down in Pennsylvania.

Kohberger's attorney, chief public defender Jason LaBar, said Kohberger is eager to be exonerated and plans to tell a judge in Monroe County, Pennsylvania on Tuesday that he will waive his extradition hearing so he can be quickly brought to Idaho. When the arrest was announced, investigators asked that anyone that knows Kohberger call a tip line to share information. The response was immediate.

As a recall, Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were found dead on Sunday, November 13th, 2022 off campus at the University of Idaho.

All four victims were stabbed to death, Latah County Coroner Catherine Mabbutt confirmed in a release shared by the Moscow Police Department on Facebook Thursday. Their deaths were officially ruled homicides.