Person linked to University of Idaho student stabbings in custody: report
An individual linked to the brutal stabbing murders of four University of Idaho students found dead in their beds at their off-campus house last month was reportedly taken into custody Friday.
The Moscow Police Department said in a statement that it would be holding a news conference at 1 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET) to “give an update of the ongoing investigation.”
“We are not confirming anything at this point,” Moscow Police Department spokesman Capt. Anthony Dahlinger told the Daily News. The department is “going media dark” until the news conference, he added.
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NBC News initially reported the possible break in the case, citing four unnamed law enforcement officials. The person was taken into custody in Monroe County in northeastern Pennsylvania, law enforcement sources told NBC.
According to arrest paperwork filed in Monroe County Court, Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was being held and awaiting extradition to Idaho for first degree murder, The Associated Press reported. Kohlberger is a graduate student in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., located less than a 10-minute drive from the University of Idaho’s Moscow campus.
The University of Idaho community has been on edge since Nov. 13 when the bodies of housemates Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and houseguest Ethan Chapin were discovered butchered in their beds with what authorities said were knife wounds.
An investigation that turned up no suspects, motive or murder weapon added to the frustration as one of the victims’ parents postponed holding a burial service out of fear that whoever killed their daughter might show up at the service. Police battled to address a wave of disinformation , especially on social media, as they looked for clues.
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Authorities said early in their investigation they believed the killings were targeted. The four victims had all been out earlier that night. Kernodle and Chapin were in one bed while Mogen and Gongcalves — longtime best friends — were in a second bed in another room the morning of the slayings. Two other women in the home were uninjured.
Goncalves’ sister said her sibling phoned her boyfriend Jack DuCoeur more than a half-dozen times in the early morning hours of her death. The couple was said to have recently ended their romance. DuCoeur said he did not answer those calls because he was asleep. He was ruled out as a suspect early in the investigation.
Cops said they were unable to substantiate tips about Goncalves possibly having a stalker.
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Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, the women at the crime scene who were not attacked during the quadruple killing, were considered suspects in the slayings.
With Tim Balk
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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