Array
Bryan Kohberger, the criminal psychology graduate accused of murder over the deaths of four University of Idaho students, will appear in a Pennsylvania court on Tuesday ahead of his extradition to Idaho.
Kohberger’s public defender, Jason LaBar, has said his client will not contest his extradition because he is “eager to be exonerated”. Labar has also said that his client “should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise – not tried in the court of public opinion”.
The murders of four students in the home they shared shocked much of America, especially as investigators appeared to struggle for weeks without developing any substantial clues as to who had carried out the brutal slayings or why. The college town of Moscow, Idaho, had been traumatized by the deaths, with reports of many students fleeing and refusing to return to lessons.
In advance of Kohberger appearing in a Moscow, Idaho, court to be formally charged, prosecutors there have been reluctant to release details of how they identified the 28-year-old as a suspect, insisting they must preserve the integrity of the investigation.
But multiple news reports, often citing anonymous police sources, have begun to construct a picture of how investigators zeroed in on Kohberger who is accused of the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, on 13 November.
On Sunday, CNN reported that investigators used a public database to match the Kohberger family to DNA recovered at the crime scene.
