The family of Idaho murder victim Kaylee Goncalves say they are “relieved” that a suspect in the brutal slayings has finally been arrested.
Goncalves, 21, was stabbed to death at an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, along with Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, in the early hours of 13 November.
Authorities arrested PHD student Bryan Christopher Kohberger at a property in Pennslyvania in the early hours of Friday and he now faces extradition to Idaho.
Mr Kohberger was charged with four counts of murder in connection with the killings.
“Of course we’re relieved,” Cheryl Goncalves, grandmother of victim Kaylee Goncalves, told The New York Post. “This is what we wanted,” she continued. “We wanted him caught and now we want justice.”
Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI arrested the 28-year-old suspect in the Scranton area in the early hours of Friday morning and found a white Hyundai Elantra at the scene, NBC New York reported.
Mr Kohberger is a PHD criminology student at Washington State University, which is around 10 miles from the scene of the crime.
He is the first person to be arrested in connection with the murders and is being held at the Monroe County Prison in Pennsylvania pending his extradition to Idaho, which a judge ordered on Friday.
Police appear to have ruled out a second suspect in the killings.
“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.
The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found at their rental house opposite the University of Idaho in the city of Moscow on 13 November.
The families of the victims had grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress in the case, while investigators insisted the trail had not grown cold.
The Moscow Police Department says it had more than 13,000 tips in the case as well as thousands of digital media submissions to comb through.
