In the morning hours of November 13, 2022, four students from the University of Idaho were stabbed to death in an off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho. On December 30, Bryan Christopher Kohberger was arrested in Monroe County, Pennsylvania and charged with four counts of First-Degree Murder and one count of Felony Burglary.

Prosecutors confirmed they will be seeking the death penalty in the event that Kohberger is convicted at trial. The jury trial is tentatively scheduled to begin on August 11, 2025 in Boise, Idaho.

The violent killings claimed the lives of 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, and 21-year-old Madison Mogen. All four were deemed homicides by stabbing. Police say the victims were not tied or gagged and there were no signs of sexual assault.

A surviving roommate reportedly saw the suspect and described him as a male stranger around 5 feet 10 inches with “busy eyebrows”. At one point, Moscow Police said authorities had received tips indicating that Goncalves allegedly had a stalker.

Police eventually zoned in on a white or light-colored Hyundai Elantra caught on camera passing by the victims’ residence three times around 3:29 a.m. At 4:04 a.m., the vehicle returned to the home for a fourth time. At 4:20 a.m., it was seen speeding away from the neighborhood.

In neighboring Pullman, Washington, investigators began eyeballing a white Elantra belonging to PhD candidate and teaching assistant, 28-year-old Bryan Christopher Kohberger. Kohberger had driven the vehicle with his father to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania for the holidays.

However, Kohberger’s vehicle was a year later than the original police description. Kohberger was pulled over twice within a nearly five-mile radius by Indiana State Police outside Greenfield for allegedly tailgating. The FBI has denied allegations that they directed ISP to make the stops.

Authorities claim that cell phone data shows Kohberger’s phone used a cell tower near the victims’ residence around 9 a.m. on November 13 roughly five hours after the killings. Police also claim that data indicated Kohberger’s phone pinged from the cell tower closest to the residence at least twelve times between June 2022 and November 13.

Investigators also say they obtained three unidentified male DNA samples from the crime scene, including DNA found on a tan leather knife sheath from Mogen’s bed. Police say they used a public genealogy database to identify a partial match to an individual with a familial connection to Kohberger.

Investigators also alleged trash recovered from outside Kohberger’s family home in Pennsylvania had DNA consistent with being the source of the DNA from the sheath. Before arresting the suspect, authorities monitored Kohberger outside his parents’ residence in Pennsylvania.

He was allegedly seen wearing surgical gloves at multiple points and putting trash bags inside of the garbage can belonging to a neighbor. Authorities also claim Kohberger “cleaned his car, inside and out, not missing an inch [of area].”

A search of the home led to the discovery of a knife, a pistol, and a black face mask, according to authorities. Police also claim to have found ID cards inside a glove inside a box. Kohberger was finally taken into custody on December 30.

When he was apprehended, he was allegedly found in the kitchen dressed in a shirt and shorts while wearing examination gloves and putting trash into separate zip-lock baggies. Kohberger was appointed a public defender. Kohberger’s lead attorney, Anne Taylor, was also assigned the North Idaho capital murder case of Skylar Meade.

Meade is accused of killing a Juliaetta man in Nez Perce County after escaping from correctional officers at a hospital in Boise during a shootout. 32-year-old Meade will also face the death penalty if he’s found guilty.

During the most recent court hearing, Anna Taylor and Judge Steven Hippler argued about whether Idaho has the legal means to execute an inmate. Judge Hippler pointed out two options, lethal injection and firing squad. The judge also noted that it may be more than a decade before any execution would be carried out.

In the United States, only Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah use the firing squad for the death penalty. One of the most publicized firing squad deaths was that of Gary Gilmore in 1977. Gilmore demanded the death sentence for two murders and became the subject of Norman Mailer’s novel, The Executioner’s Song, and the 1982 TV film starring Tommy Lee Jones as Gilmore.

The last execution by firing squad occurred on June 18, 2010 at Utah State Prison. Ronnie Lee Gardner sat in a chair with sandbags around him and a target pinned over his heart. Gardner was executed for killing an attorney during a courthouse escape attempt.

In the United States, a prisoner will remain on death row for twenty years on average before they are executed, resentenced, or exonerated. Kohberger’s trial is scheduled to begin on August 11, 2025.