Accused killer Bryan Kohberger’s defense team hired a “veteran Washington state crime scene reconstruction expert” who was spotted at the crime scene this week, New York Post reports.
Forensic expert Matthew Noedel, who owns Noedel Scientific, spent numerous hours inside a King Street residence in Moscow Wednesday, where four University of Idaho students were killed.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, 28-year-old Kohberger allegedly killed Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, on November 13. The victims were all stabbed to death inside the off-campus rental home near the school.
Along with Noedel, Kohberger’s defense lawyer Anne Taylor was also at the residence, according to what Moscow police told the Post. Noedel reportedly wore white gloves and surgical shoe covers as he entered the home.
Noedel, who specializes, in part, in the “evaluation and examination of bloodstains at crime scenes,” has been an expert witness during previous murder trials, including the high-profile trial of convicted mass murderer Christopher Vaughn, who killed his wife and three children in 2007.
Police arrested Kohberger On December 10 at his parents’ house in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, more than 2,000 miles from the murder scene.
Kohberger is a first-year Ph.D. student at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, a short drive across the state border from Moscow. He was reportedly studying criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University.
Investigators said the killer used a sharp-edged weapon to stab the sleeping victims, and a coroner said at least one of the victims had defensive wounds.
“It reminds me of BTK killer, Dennis Rader,” CrimeOnline’s Nancy Grace told Fox News Digital this week. “[He] would spy on his victims, affect an entry, and then take his time killing them.”
Kohberger waived his extradition Tuesday in Pennsylvania and arrived by private plane in Idaho on Wednesday, where he’ll face murder and burglary charges.
On Wednesday, Magistrate Judge Megan E. Marshall barred “investigators, law enforcement personnel, attorneys, and agents of the prosecuting attorney or defense attorney” from making any statements outside the court “other than a quotation from or reference to, without comment, the public records of the case.”
Check back for updates.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: A private security officer sits in a vehicle, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, in front of the house in Moscow, Idaho where four University of Idaho students were killed in November 2022. Authorities said Wednesday, Jan. 4, that Bryan Kohberger, the man accused in the killings, has left a Pennsylvania jail in the custody of state police. The move means Kohberger could be headed to Idaho to face first-degree murder charges. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)]
