Police are reviewing cold case files in the Pennsylvania counties where Bryan Kohberger attended college
Authorities in at least two Pennsylvania counties where murder suspect Bryan Kohberger attended college have been combing through their cold case files to look for links linking the cases to the suspect in the Idaho college murders.
Kohberger, 28, is charged with the murders of Maddie Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 20, at their off-campus home on Kings Road, in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022 .
“Your natural question is to ask, ‘is this man wanted? outside? Has he done anything here in (my) county?”‘
Authorities have said in the past that Kohberger has no criminal record.
However, because Kohberger was a student at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania authorities dug deeper into the records.
Bryan Kohberger enters a courtroom in Moscow, Idaho on Thursday, January 12, 2023 for a status hearing
Lawyers from Bryan Kohberger’s defense team visit 1122 King Road Crime Scene
He may have attended classes at a satellite campus in Monroe County. Using a crime information center, authorities in Northampton County searched records of unsolved cases using Kohberger’s height, weight, working method and other characteristics that could have marked him in an unsolved crime.
Houck said authorities have not found any evidence linking Kohberger to unsolved cases.
“In fact, nothing related to Kohberger has come to fruition so far in our cold case or unsolved investigations, but we are always continuing to investigate and pursue leads,” Houck said.
In neighboring Lehigh County, where Kohberger spent four years studying criminology on the campus of DeSales University, District Attorney Jim Martin asked the same questions.
After Kohberger’s arrest on December 30, 2022, Martin said, “The first thing I did was ask the director of the RIC (Regional Intelligence and Investigation Center) if we were in contact with Mr. Kohberger.”
That database contains six million police reports and related data. It showed only one contact with Kohberger: a 911 call in which his car was locked behind a parked fence on a bike path.
“And there was a response from him thanking the police and apologizing for the inconvenience,” Martin said.
Martin said his office’s investigation found no links to Kohberger and unsolved crimes.
“We have no unsolved homicides that in any way match the modus operandi of this event in Idaho,” Martin said.
Bryan Kohberger lived with his parents in Monroe County for several years and it is the jurisdiction where Kohberger was arrested by a SWAT team in December.
The Criminology student is accused of stabbing the four students as they slept on Nov. 13, causing “devastating injuries” to Maddie and Kaylee.
Kohberger is also accused of having multiple images of one of his alleged female victims on his phone when it was searched by police.
However, they have not determined which of the girls was in the photos and Moscow police have not yet revealed a motive for the brutal crime.
It comes after allegations that Kohberger was fired from his teaching assistant position at WSU after “inappropriate” behavior with female students.
A New York Times report claims he followed at least one student to her car, with friends recalling him as a “creepy” loner.
Kohberger is expected to plead the case on June 26, around the same time as the evidence was presented.
He is charged with four counts of murder and one count of burglary and waived his right to a speedy preliminary hearing in January.
The alleged killer was arrested by a SWAT team at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania on December 30 when they moved to search his apartment at Washington State University.
He has previously stated that he believes he will be ‘exonerated’ as his family is unable to afford his private representation.
A new search warrant, made public on Jan. 17, shows police found several strands of hair, including a suspected animal hair, a black glove, a computer tower and an unnamed item with a collection of “dark red spots.”
They also removed a pillow with a ‘russet stain’ on it and the top and bottom of a mattress cover with ‘multiple stains’.