A suspect arrested for murders of four University of Idaho students allegedly asked police if anyone else had been taken into custody.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested at 3am on Friday morning near the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania by an FBI SWAT team and police, a criminal complaint obtained by The Independent showed.
After being booked into Monroe County Jail, the Washington State University criminology student allegedly asked police whether anyone else had been arrested, NewsNation correspondent Brian Entin reported.
Mr Entin said officers noticed the suspect’s “quiet, blank stare.”
The 28-year-old was charged with four counts of murder in connection to the Idaho killings.
Mr Kohberger is yet to be arraigned or have the chance to enter a plea to the charges.
However, social media sleuths who have pored over every detail of the 13 November murders of four University of Idaho students speculated about what the alleged admission could mean.
“Interesting that the multiple killer theory could ring true, multiple past killers said how exhausting stabbing was for them,” said one Twitter user.
“This guy was a PhD criminal justice candidate. He had to have been playing different scenarios for the possibility of being arrested,” another wrote.
“I wonder if there is an accomplice or if this is planned deflection. He might just be playing mind chess with law enforcement.”
Mr Kohberger is being held for extradition on a first degree murder complaint issued by the Moscow Police Department and Latah County Prosecutor’s Office.
The arrest is first significant breakthrough in the murders of Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, and 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, in an off-campus student home in Moscow, Idaho, on 13 November.
Police appear to have ruled out a second suspect in the slayings.
“We have an individual in custody who committed these horrible crimes and I do believe our community is safe, but we still need to be vigilant,” Moscow police chief James Fry said during a press conference on Friday.
