The man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students drove back home to Pennsylvania for the holidays with his father, who had flown out to see his son in a trip planned months earlier, and was pulled over twice during the drive, according to reports.
On Friday, authorities arrested Bryan Christopher Kohberger at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, more than 2,000 miles away from the crime scene.
Kohberger’s lawyer, Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, told Law&Crime correspondent Angenette Levy on Sunday that the trip had been scheduled before the fall semester started.
“LaBar said [Bryan Kohberger’s] father flew out to WA to drive back . . . to PA with him for Christmas break. However, LaBar said that was planned before BK went to WA for fall semester that dad would fly out and drive back with BK. Believes this happened between Dec. 13-16,” Levy tweeted.
LaBar told KTVB that Bryan Kohberger and his father were pulled over twice in Indiana.
“I just know that they were pulled over in Indiana almost back to back. I believe once for speeding and once for falling too closely to a car in front of them,” LaBar said.
Law enforcement reportedly began tracking Kohberger while he and his father were on the road, although authorities have not released precisely where the two were located when the tracking began. Authorities in Pennsylvania seized a white Hyundai Elantra, which is the same kind of vehicle investigators said was spotted near the crime scene around the time of the killings.
Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in connection with the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were found stabbed to death inside an off-campus residence on November 13 in Moscow, Idaho.
Kohberger is a first-year Ph.D. student at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, in the school’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. Pullman is located about 9 miles across the Washington-Idaho state line from Moscow.
LaBar told CNN that his client is “eager to be exonerated” and has agreed to waive extradition to Idaho.
Also Sunday, Kohberger’s family issued a statement in which they expressed sorrow for the victims’ families and said they were fully cooperating with police, WPVI-TV reports.
“First and foremost we care deeply for the four families who have lost their precious children. There are no words that can adequately express the sadness we feel, and we pray each day for them. We will continue to let the legal process unfold and as a family we will love and support our son and brother. We have fully cooperated with law enforcement agencies in an attempt to seek the truth and promote his presumption of innocence rather than judge unknown facts and make erroneous assumptions. We respect privacy in this matter as our family and the families suffering loss can move forward through the legal process,” the statement reads.
Authorities have detained Kohberger in the Monroe County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania, where he is scheduled to appear at a court hearing on Tuesday.
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[Featured image: Bryan Kohberger/Monroe County Correctional Facility]
