Security videos of car helped tie Bryan Kohberger to Idaho student murders

BOISE, Idaho — A newly released trove of security camera footage from the day that four University of Idaho students were killed reveals a white Hyundai Elantra traveling around the King Road neighborhood in Moscow before and after the early morning murders.

The video clips, obtained by the Idaho Statesman through a public records request, show the vehicle — which police investigators later connected to Bryan Kohberger — repeatedly circling the area near 1122 King Road, where the students were found fatally stabbed on Nov. 13, 2022. The expanded footage that prosecutors previously detailed in court filings determined the route they said Kohberger, who admitted to the murders in court, took in and out of the off-campus neighborhood, and back to Pullman, Washington, where he lived.

Residential cameras on Indian Hills Drive in Moscow first recorded the white sedan, followed by security cameras at the Sunset Mart gas station in the 1300 block of Main Street, about a half-mile east of the King Road home. Then, cameras at a Ridge Road apartment and apartment complexes on Linda Lane caught the car — labeled “Suspect Vehicle 1” — headed west before it arrived on King Road for the first time at 3:30 a.m.

In an expansive canvass during the investigation, police acquired footage from more than 17 locations around the community in Moscow and Pullman to piece together the whereabouts of the vehicle the day of the murders, and tie it back to Kohberger. The sources of those videos included area homes and businesses along the path.

The FBI, which helped with the high-profile murder investigation, initially identified the vehicle as a 2011-2013 white Hyundai Elantra. Analysts later revised the model years to 2014-2016. Kohberger owned a 2015 white Hyundai Elantra.

The car in the videos had no front license plate, police reported in a probable cause affidavit. At the time, Kohberger’s Elantra was registered in Pennsylvania, which does not require a front license plate. Five days later, on Nov. 18, 2022, Kohberger registered his car in Washington, which requires front and back plates.

Security footage from a King Road neighbor’s home was released for the first time to the public last month. It played a critical role in helping police identify the vehicle and establish a timeline for the homicides. Based on that footage and other evidence, prosecutors believe the murders occurred in a 13-minute window between 4:07 and 4:20 a.m., when the white sedan is seen speeding away and exiting the neighborhood.

The four U of I student victims were seniors Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, junior Xana Kernodle, 20, and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20. The three women lived in the King Road home with two female roommates who went physically unharmed in the knife attack, and Chapin was Kernodle’s boyfriend and slept over for the night.

Kohberger, then 27 years old, was a a Ph.D. student enrolled in the criminal justice and criminology department at Washington State University in Pullman. He was arrested about seven weeks later on Dec. 30, 2022, in Pennsylvania at his parents’ home while visiting them on holiday break from school.

Kohberger pleaded guilty, sentenced to life in prison

Now 30, Kohberger in July pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in exchange for prosecutors dropping pursuit of the death penalty. He received four consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years and more than $250,000 in fines. As part of the plea agreement, Kohberger has no chance of parole and waived his right to all appeals.

After leaving the King Road neighborhood, the white Hyundai Elantra is next spotted at 5:26 a.m. in security camera footage from the 1300 block of Johnson Avenue in Pullman. The vehicle is captured moments later traveling north in footage from the Sunset Mart gas station on Bishop Boulevard in Pullman.

Police said Kohberger returned to his graduate student apartment on the WSU campus about 2 miles north of the gas station shortly after 5:30 a.m.

Later that morning, Kohberger’s cellphone data showed he visited the area near the King Road neighborhood between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m., according to the affidavit. A white Hyundai Elantra matching the description of “Suspect Vehicle 1” was captured on security cameras at the Moscow Sunset Mart gas station about 9:13 a.m. A King Road neighbor’s security camera did not show the white Elantra again in that time frame, Idaho State Police Lt. Darren Gilbertson previously told the Statesman.

At 12:34 p.m. that same day, Kohberger is recorded in footage walking into the Costco in Clarkston, Washington, with a bottle of water in his hand, but “appears to be denied entry” by the front greeter, court records said. Minutes later, security video from a nearby business showed Kohberger at a drive-thru coffee stand, but it was closed.

At 12:46 p.m., Kohberger arrived in the parking lot of an Albertsons grocery store. He walked inside, store security video showed, went through the self-checkout at 12:56 p.m. and exited at 12:58 p.m. Kohberger bought a single item: a prepackaged Starbucks frappuccino coffee drink, Gilbertson said.

After Kohberger exited the store, the white Hyundai Elantra was recorded driving out of the Albertsons parking lot at 1:04 p.m., the security footage showed.

Investigators never found the suspected murder weapon, a large, fixed-blade brand knife. Kohberger bought a Ka-Bar brand knife and Ka-Bar leather knife sheath on Amazon in March 2022, according to prosecutors. A Ka-Bar leather knife sheath was found at the crime scene with trace DNA that detectives later matched to Kohberger.