Unraveling the Idaho Student Murders: What We Know So Far

A plea deal is on the table for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in 2022. The hearing is set for Wednesday in Boise, and it's expected to be straightforward. Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. The plea deal would take the death penalty off the table, but it's not clear if Kohberger will share details of the crime. The victims were Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, and Madison Mogen. They were all students at the University of Idaho, and three of them lived together in a house near campus. The night they were killed, they had gone out in Moscow and returned late to their shared home. The next day, police found them slaughtered inside the home, with no signs of forced entry or damage. There is no clear motive for the killings. Kohberger's defense argues there is no connection between him and the victims, and no DNA evidence linking him to the crime scene. However, Kohberger's now-deleted Instagram account followed the accounts of three of the victims, and he allegedly contacted one of the female victims repeatedly in the weeks before the killings. Two roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were home at the time of the murders but were spared. Mortensen told investigators she heard crying in the house the morning of the killings and saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask walking towards her. She described the figure as 5'10" or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows. Mortensen couldn't definitively say whether Kohberger was the man she saw in her home around the time of the killings. An "edged weapon such as a knife" was used in the killings, but only a knife sheath was found at the crime scene. Kohberger had purchased a military-style knife, a sheath, and a knife sharpener on Amazon in the months before the killings. A selfie Kohberger is believed to have taken on the morning of November 13, 2022, only hours after the murders, is also among case documents. Kohberger was arrested for the killings on December 30, 2022, in his home state of Pennsylvania. The investigation into the killings is ongoing, and many questions remain unanswered.