Bryan Christopher Kohberger

[2022-11-13 / 04:00 - 04:25] Kaylee Goncalves (21), Madison Mogen (21), Xana Kernodle (20), and Ethan Chapin (20) were stabbed to death in their sleep at a rental home in Moscow. A leather sheath for the murder weapon (a KA-BAR knife) was recovered from the crime scene.

[2022-11-29] Campus police identified a white Hyundai Elantra, seen circling the crime scene on security footage, as belonging to criminology PhD student Bryan Kohberger.

[2022-12-28] Single-source male touch DNA recovered from the knife sheath matched, at a 99% probability, a familial profile obtained from trash secretly collected from Kohberger's family home in Pennsylvania.

[2022-12-30] Kohberger was arrested in a dawn raid by state police and the FBI at his parents' house in Pennsylvania and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.

[2023-01-04] Waiving his extradition rights in Pennsylvania, Kohberger was flown to Idaho and held without bail at the Latah County Jail.

[2023-05-17] A Latah County Grand Jury bypassed the preliminary hearing and formally indicted Kohberger on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.

[2023-05-22] Arraigned in court, Kohberger elected to "stand silent" when asked for his plea, prompting the judge to automatically enter a "not guilty" plea on his behalf.

[2024-09-09] Citing extensive media saturation and local bias in Latah County, the District Judge granted a change of venue, transferring the case to Ada County (Boise).

[2025-02-19] Judge Steven Hippler denied all defense motions challenging the constitutionality of Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG), upholding the admissibility of the knife sheath DNA evidence.

[2025-07-02] Accepting a prosecution deal to avoid capital punishment, Kohberger formally pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in Ada County District Court.

[2025-07-23] Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Kohberger to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 10 years for the burglary count.

[2026-07-27] In a jailhouse statement to The New York Times and a handwritten petition submitted to the court, Kohberger asserted his innocence and sought a trial, claiming his previous attorneys coerced him into entering a false plea.

[2026-08-27] Kohberger's new attorney, Gregory Rauch, filed a 22-page motion requesting the disqualification of Judge Steven Hippler for loss of impartiality—citing his characterization of the defendant as a "faceless coward"—and demanding the post-conviction proceedings be moved back to Latah County.