What to Know
- Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the murders of four University of Idaho students, was pulled over by both a Sheriff's Deputy and a State Trooper in Indiana on December 15 for driving too closely to another vehicle but was let go both times with a warning. NBC10 obtained body cam footage of both traffic stops.
- At the time of the traffic stops, there was no information available to the trooper and Deputy that would have identified Kohberger as a suspect in the Idaho killings, both agencies said.
- Kohberger's father was sitting in the passenger's seat during both stops.
The suspect in the November murders of four University of Idaho students was pulled over twice while driving in Indiana and let go with a warning by both a Sheriff’s Deputy and a State Trooper more than two weeks before his arrest in Pennsylvania.
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On Dec. 15, around 10:40 a.m. EST, a Deputy with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office pulled over a white Hyundai Elantra on I-70 in Indiana. Officials said the Hyundai was pulled over just east of the rest park near the 107 mile marker.
The Sheriff’s Office said two men were inside the Elantra and they identified the driver as 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger and the passenger as his father, Michael Kohberger. The father and son were then let go with a warning for following another car too closely.
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“At the time of the traffic stop, there was no information available on a suspect for the crimes in Idaho, to include identifying information or any specific information related to the license plate state or number of the white Hyundai Elantra which was being reported in the media to have been seen in an(d) around where the crime occurred,” a spokesperson for the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office wrote.
Body camera footage captured the encounter. The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office initially said they would not release it due to it being part of a criminal investigation. They later released the footage after confirming with police that it would not damage the case against Kohberger.
In the video, Kohberger and his father answer the Deputy's questions and tell him about a reported shootout between police and a gunman near the campus of Washington State University where Kohberger was a doctoral student and teaching assistant.
Kohberger and his father told the Deputy the incident delayed them in leaving the campus and they were heading to the Pocono Mountains together.
"We're slightly punchy because we've been driving for hours," Kohberger's father says in the video.
Only a few minutes after being let go by the Deputy, Kohberger was pulled over again around 10:50 a.m. on I-70, this time by an Indiana State Trooper, in an exchange that was also captured by a body camera. Officials said Kohberger was once again following a vehicle too closely.
After speaking with the men for a few minutes, the trooper also let them go with a verbal warning, having learned they had been stopped minutes before by the Deputy.
“At the time of this stop, there was no information available on a suspect for the crime in Idaho, to include identifying information or any specific information related to the license plate state or number of the white Hyundai Elantra which was being reported in the media to have been seen in or around where the crime occurred,” an Indiana State Police spokesperson wrote.
The Dec. 15 traffic stops occurred more than a month after Kohberger allegedly murdered four University of Idaho students.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington, were stabbed to death at a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, sometime in the early morning hours of Nov. 13. They were close friends and members of the university's Greek system.
Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle lived in the three-story rental home with two other roommates. Kernodle and Chapin were dating, and he had been visiting the house that night.
DNA evidence played a key role in identifying Kohberger as the suspect, and officials were able to match his DNA to genetic material recovered during the investigation, a law enforcement official said last week. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation.
Investigators have said they are still looking for a murder weapon and a motive for the killings.
Kohberger was arrested early Friday by state police at his parents' home in eastern Pennsylvania, authorities said.
Kohberger agreed Tuesday to be extradited from Pennsylvania to face charges in Idaho. He left Pennsylvania to fly to Idaho on Wednesday.
Wearing a red jumpsuit with his hands shackled in front of him, Kohberger showed little emotion during Tuesday's brief hearing in a Pennsylvania courtroom in which he acknowledged facing four counts of first-degree murder and a burglary charge.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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