double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs vietnamese seafood double-skinned crabs mud crab exporter double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs seamorny seamorny seamorny seamorny
US News

Bryan Kohberger has ‘no connection’ to University of Idaho murder victims, defense claims

By
Olivia Land
Published June 27, 2023
Updated June 27, 2023, 12:58 p.m. ET

University of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger has “no connection” to the victims, his defense team insisted in court documents filed ahead of the former graduate student’s hearing on Tuesday.

Investigators in the high-profile case failed to disclose the precise means by which they identified Kohberger, 28, as the primary suspect in the Nov. 13 stabbing spree that killed Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, Kohberger’s defense alleges in the June 22 filing, according to Fox News Digital.

“It remains unclear what the police first relied on in focusing their investigation on Mr. Kohberger,” the argument states.

“There is no connection between Mr. Kohberger and the victims.”

Shortly after Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania on Dec. 30, a probable cause affidavit indicated that police linked him to the grisly crime using DNA from a knife sheath found at the scene, as well as cellphone data that placed his vehicle in the Moscow neighborhood several times in the months leading up to the killings.

Kohberger's defense team claims 'there is no connection between Mr. Kohberger and the victims.'
Kohberger’s defense team claims “there is no connection between Mr. Kohberger and the victims.” AP

Within weeks of his arrest, rumors swirled that Kohberger also had photos of one of the victims on his phone, and that he had allegedly messaged one of the women who was killed in the weeks before the murders.

Kohberger’s attorneys, however, insist that the prosecution’s case “has provided precious little” to definitively link him to the quadruple stabbing, including how they apparently knew to zero in on a white Hyundai Elantra.

Last week, the prosecution detailed how investigators used genetic ancestry DNA to tie Kohberger to the genetic material that was found on the Ka-Bar knife sheath discovered near Madison Mogen’s body.

The police confirmed their initial findings after receiving a familial match from DNA taken from Kohberger’s parents’ trash ahead of his arrest, the June 21 filing explained.

After his arrest, a buccal swab allegedly confirmed that Kohberger was a strong statistical match to the sheath DNA.

The defense, however, claimed that prosecutors are intentionally withholding details of how the initial genetic genealogy was developed.

There was DNA from three other men, in addition to Kohberger, found at the crime scene.
DNA from three other men, in addition to Kohberger, was found at the crime scene. via REUTERS

“Presumably, the Defense is expected to accept at face value that the sheath had touch DNA just waiting for testing by all the FBI’s myriad resources,” the filing scoffs.

“In essence, through the lack of disclosure and their motion to protect the genetic genealogy investigation, the State is hiding its entire case.”

The defense’s argument also points out several perceived gaps in the prosecution’s case, including the “total lack of DNA evidence from the victims” in the suspect’s apartment and car, as well as the genetic material of three additional unknown males that was found at the murder scene.

One of the additional DNA profiles was found on a glove outside the scene at 1122 King Road one week after the murders, the document states.

“The State appears to be trying to hide its original domino such that [Kohberger] cannot discover why,” the June 22 filing says of the prosecution’s case.

A judge is set to hear more from the defense’s argument at Kohberger’s hearing around 4:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, Fox News Digital explained.

At the time of his arrest, Kohberger was a doctoral student in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, about 15 minutes from the scene of the killings.

He was indicted last month on four counts of first-degree murder, and his trial is set to begin on Oct. 2.

Latah County prosecutors announced that they would seek the death penalty in the case in a new filing on Monday.

In his scathing take-down, state attorney Bill Thompson said Kohberger’s alleged actions were “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity.”