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BOMBSHELL new evidence has been revealed in the Idaho murders case as Bryan Kohberger’s defense team fights for him to walk free.
Blood from two still-unidentified men was found at the crime scene where four college students were brutally murdered, Kohberger’s attorneys said at a recent hearing.
Kohberger, 30, is accused of killing University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022.
The suspect pleaded not guilty ahead of his trial, which is set to begin in August in Boise, Idaho.
At a pre-trial hearing last month, his attorneys revealed detectives found blood at the gruesome crime scene that doesn’t belong to Kohberger.
An unknown person’s blood DNA was discovered on a handrail in the home, Kohberger’s lead defense attorney, Anne Taylor, told the court.
Investigators found another unidentified blood sample on a glove right outside the home.
Kohberger’s defense brought the mysterious evidence to court to argue for his arrest warrants to be thrown out.
Taylor said the mystery DNA proves Kohberger might not be related to the crime at all.
Prosecutors didn’t dispute the DNA findings, meaning Kohberger’s defense will likely bring it up again at his trial in August.
Taylor slammed cops for not disclosing the unidentified blood when they obtained a search warrant for Kohberger’s arrest in December 2022.
Cops recovered knives, masks, black clothes, gloves, computers, and a phone in a raid of Kohberger’s parents’ home.
Taylor claimed the omission should disqualify some evidence obtained in the warrant from trial.
She argued the probable cause for the warrants was determined because detectives intentionally left out the conflicting information.
However, the judge determined probable cause for the warrant based on a crucial item from the violent scene.
KEY EVIDENCE
A key piece of evidence in the murder case is a leather sheath for a knife that was found in the bed of one of the four victims.
DNA on the sheath directly matched Kohberger’s, cops and prosecutors said.
However, Kohberger’s defense argued in a filing from June 2023 that the sheath DNA is from touch instead of blood.
I mean, that’s the ultimate question that will be before a jury. What does a knife sheath at a scene mean?”
Anne Taylor
Prosecutors didn’t dispute Taylor’s claim that detectives omitted information in court last month.
However, they insisted the detectives’ alleged error didn’t discount the probable cause from Kohberger’s DNA on the sheath.
“How does that, even if disclosed, preclude a finding of probable cause when there’s a DNA match between the DNA on the sheath and Mr. Kohberger?” Ada County District Judge Steven Hippler fired back at Taylor, according to the Idaho Statesman.
“Isn’t that probable cause every day and twice on Sunday?”
University of Idaho murders timeline
On November 13, 2022, a brutal home invasion claimed the lives of four University of Idaho students.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in their Moscow, Idaho, off-campus home.
A six-week manhunt ensued as cops searched for a suspect.
On December 28, 2022, Bryan Kohberger, 29, was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania – 2,500 miles away from the crime scene.
He was taken into custody and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University, has been linked to the crime scene through phone records, his car’s location, and DNA evidence found at the home where the murders took place.
The house was demolished in December 2023 despite backlash from the victims’ families.
Kohberger is being held at Latah County Jail while he awaits trial.
On September 9, 2024, an Idaho judge ruled to move the upcoming murder trial out of Moscow after Kohberger’s lawyer argued that the town was prejudiced against him.
The state Supreme Court will decide the new venue and judge for the trial, which is expected to start in June 2025.
Taylor said cops found “absolutely no connection” between Kohberger and any of the stabbing victims in the search of his apartment and car.
“There’s no blood in his car,” she insisted.
“He wasn’t connected to that house, to the people in the house.”
‘THE ULTIMATE QUESTION’
Kohberger faces the death penalty if he’s found guilty in August.
While his team fights for him to walk free as an innocent man following his not guilty plea, Taylor still admitted there were lingering questions about his DNA found on the knife’s sheath.
“I mean, that’s the ultimate question that will be before a jury,” Taylor said in court.
“What does a knife sheath at a scene mean?”
Hippler fired back, “If you’re killed with a knife, that probably means a lot.”
The house where the murders took place was demolished in December 2023.
Kohberger’s trial is scheduled to start on August 11, 2025.
