The suspect in the Idaho murders, Bryan Kohberger, had a spotlessly clean record, despite a past drug problem, and maintained a disciplined diet and exercise routine while pursuing advanced degrees in criminal justice and criminology.
But his arrest in a quadruple stabbing near the University of Idaho has sparked the interest of cold case investigators across the country and in his home state of Pennsylvania.
“One thing about cold cases is you’re always looking to see if your case is related to other cases, and the reason behind that is that a lot of times those cases will have leads for each one,” said Joseph Giacalone, a former New York City police sergeant. York who was the commanding officer of the Bronx Cold Case Squad from 2007 to 2009. “If you can put them all together, you can put together the complete package.”
Now, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, he said not all cases show links, because not all offenders are serial offenders.
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Bryan Kohberger, left, accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, looks at his attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, right, during a hearing in Latah County District Court , on Thursday, January 5, 2023, in Moscow. , Idaho. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, Pool)
But if they are, investigators can spot patterns in different crimes in areas with ties to the suspect, he said.
“Anytime you have a suspect that you think there might be coworker cases, you look at every place they lived, every place they worked,” he added.
Referencing Kohberger’s 2,500-mile cross-country road trip home with his father a month after the murders, he noted that there are also many unsolved cases that occurred along interstate highways.
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Kaylee Goncalves, one of the University of Idaho students murdered on November 13, dances with her dog Murphy (TikTok./Kayleegoncalves0)
Kohberger, who is from the Poconos region of Pennsylvania, had a master’s degree in criminal justice from DeSales University in Lehigh County and was attending Washington State University pursuing a Ph.D. at the time of the murders.
He is accused of breaking into a house near the nearby University of Idaho campus and killing four young women: Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, 21, along with their housemate Xana Kernodle and her visiting boyfriend Ethan Chapin, both 20. .
All four suffered fatal knife wounds in a 4 a.m. ambush attack, according to investigators, who said they recovered a USMC-stamped Ka-Bar knife sheath near Mogen’s body that had Kohberger’s DNA on it. A surviving witness also told investigators that he saw a masked man wearing all-black clothing with “bush eyebrows” leaving an unlocked sliding door outside.
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University of Idaho student and stabbing victim Xana Kernodle in an undated photo. (Instagram @xanakernodle)
Investigators in several neighboring counties have said they were looking into possible similarities in open cases.
Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin told Seattle-based KING-TV that the first thing he did after learning of Kohberger’s arrest was to check a regional crime database. The only thing he returned, however, was a 911 call that Kohberger reportedly made after leaving his car parked behind a gate that was later closed.
Northampton County District Attorney Terence Houck also told the station that his office had looked into possible connections.
“Nothing has come up regarding Kohberger in our open case or cold case investigations up to this point, but we are always continuing to investigate and look for leads,” he told the station.
SCHEDULE OF STABBLINGS OF UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO STUDENTS
Senior photographs of Madison Mogen two days before she and three friends were killed in a stabbing ambush at their home in Moscow, Idaho. (Photo by Jessie Frost)
With the FBI’s involvement, investigators will also have access to the federal Violent Offender Apprehension Program, or ViCap, Giacalone said.
“We understand what happened in Idaho, to a degree of course, so they will look for patterns,” he said. “They already have the FBI on board on this case, so they have ViCap, which is designed to do just that, identify cases based on similarity, based on MO, based on signature, and a variety of things. What put in a database, and it becomes searchable.”
In this photo provided by Stacy Chapin, Ethan Chapin surfs at Priest Lake in northern Idaho in this July 2022 family snapshot. Chapin was one of four University of Idaho students who were stabbed to death at a home near the Moscow, Idaho campus on Sunday. November 13, 2022. (Stacy Chapin via AP)
In Idaho, reports of a dog being skinned across town by the quadruple stabbing shocked the public, but police quickly ruled out a connection.
And a trio of unsolved bedtime stabbings in the region also led investigators to look for possible connections, but authorities in the Pacific Northwest eventually ruled that out, too.
Map showing a series of murders in the Washington-Idaho-Oregon region. Investigators have ruled out a connection between the unsolved murders and the Idaho stabbings, though the attacks shared similarities, including some of the victims being attacked in their beds in the early hours of the morning. (Fox Digital News)
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Kohberger had a troubled past, according to acquaintances who spoke to Fox News Digital, including a prior heroin addiction, but he doesn’t appear to have a significant criminal history aside from a few traffic stops.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, is accused of killing Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen. (Latah County Sheriff’s Office)
Court records in his home county show just one case: his recent arrest and extradition in the Idaho student murders. In Philadelphia, the district attorney’s office said it has no prior cases involving Kohberger, and police said they were not aware of any related cases.
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Fox News Digital has contacted several investigators in other jurisdictions in the region for more information.
Kohberger faces four counts of first degree murder and one felony count of robbery.
He could face the death penalty if convicted. He is being held without bail and is due back in court on June 26.
Judge Megan Marshall issued the initial gag order on January 3, shortly after Kohberger’s arrest, restricting comment from prosecutors, defense, law enforcement and other officials.
