BOISE, Idaho — Bryan Kohberger, whom police have arrested in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in November, was stopped twice by Indiana law enforcement while he and his father made a cross-country drive from Pullman, Washington, to Pennsylvania in mid-December.
Body-cam and dash-cam footage released this week by the Indiana State Police and the sheriff’s office in Hancock County, located just east of Indianapolis, showed the Kohbergers pulled over along a stretch of eastbound Interstate 70 within a 10-minute span on Dec. 15.
In each traffic stop, law enforcement warned Kohberger for following other vehicles too closely in his white Hyundai Elantra on the trip to the family home in northeastern Pennsylvania. He was not issued any tickets.
In both stops, Kohberger, a 28-year-old Washington State University graduate student, is behind the wheel and identifies the vehicle as his to members of law enforcement. The video footage shows the Elantra with Washington plates.
“We’re going to get some Thai food right now,” Kohberger tells the sheriff’s deputy in one video when asked where they’re headed, before his father interjects that they’re coming from WSU and on their way to Pennsylvania. When prompted, Kohberger tells the deputy that he attends and works at the university.
On Tuesday, Indiana State Police released video footage in response to public records requests, including from the Idaho Statesman. The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office waited until Wednesday to release its body-cam footage, shot by Deputy Nick Ernstes, until the department obtained clearance from Idaho homicide investigators, according to Hancock County Sheriff’s Capt. Robert Harris.
“The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office traffic stop contained more statements from the suspect and his father than did the Indiana State Police traffic stop,” Harris said in an email to the Statesman, declining to answer any further questions. “For this reason, the Hancock County Sheriff’ Office delayed releasing video of the traffic stop until investigating authorities in Idaho could ensure releasing the video would not jeopardize their criminal investigation.”
Kohberger’s father flew to Washington state on a previously scheduled trip to join his son on the 2,500-mile drive back home to Pennsylvania for the holidays, public defender Jason LaBar told CNN last week. LaBar acted as Bryan Kohberger’s attorney for his extradition process from Pennsylvania to Idaho, where he was expected to arrive Wednesday.
“I believe it to be a random coincidence,” LaBar told NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday morning, concerning the two minor traffic stops by police in a short amount of time. “I know there’s no actual evidence that they were stopped in Indiana, but Mr. Kohberger — Michael — had definitely said that they were stopped twice in Indiana, back to back.”
Police began releasing the body-cam footage later that day, confirming the traffic stops. No written documentation of either stop was issued or produced by either law enforcement agency.
“He was stopped and given a verbal warning,” Cynthia Forbes, attorney for the Indiana State Police, told the Statesman in an email.
On Dec. 7, Moscow police asked for the public’s help finding a 2011-2013 white Hyundai Elantra they believed was in the area of the off-campus home where the four students were killed in the early morning hours of Nov. 13. Investigators previously would not identify the relevance of the Elantra, beyond that they thought the driver and any potential occupants could have information critical to the investigation.
The four students killed were U of I seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington. Mogen and Goncalves grew up together and were close friends, while Kernodle and Chapin were dating.
Kohberger’s Elantra is a 2015, according to the vehicle’s registration, obtained by the Statesman through a public records request. Kohberger registered the vehicle in Washington state on Nov. 18 — just five days after the homicides, the document showed.
Investigators have since seized the Elantra, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said in announcing Kohberger’s arrest at a press conference on Friday.
“These murders have shaken our community, and no arrest will ever bring back these young students,” Fry said. “However, we do believe justice will be found through the criminal process.”
On Dec. 7, Moscow police said they identified more than 22,000 vehicles they were reviewing, and using public tips to work their way through the list, but offered no additional details about how they came to that total. The Latah County Prosecutor’s Office last month asked the Idaho Division of Motor Vehicles to deny a Statesman records request for the number of 2011-2013 white Hyundai Elantras registered in Idaho, citing concerns it could jeopardize the investigation.
“As a general rule, information that is gathered as part of an ongoing criminal investigation is typically exempt from public records requests,” Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson told the Statesman in an interview last week. “I can’t speak specifically for why each individual agency made their final decision, but that’s always been the consistent position that we’ve taken when we’ve been asked to advise on that.”
Registration records obtained by the Statesman from Oregon and Washington — and eventually from Idaho — revealed the current number of Hyundai Elantras from the years 2011-2013 at a total of about 21,100 vehicles. Oregon does not track vehicle color and Washington does not require it as part of its registration process, while Idaho’s number of white Elantras from those years amounted to 413 of its 3,119 total Elantras, the records showed.
Moscow police have continued to decline to specify what information they used to establish a white Elantra’s proximity to the home on King Road around the time of the crime. The information is “based on tips and leads gathered throughout this investigation,” Moscow Police Capt. Anthony Dahlinger told the Statesman in an email last week.
An Idaho judge on Tuesday night issued a gag order to prohibit law enforcement and attorneys for the defense and prosecution from publicly commenting any further about the case against Kohberger.
Kohberger was taken into custody at his family’s Monroe County, Pennsylvania, home in the early morning hours last Friday. He faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
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(Idaho Statesman reporters Angela Palermo and Alex Brizee contributed.)
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