Ph.D. student in criminology accused of savagely killing 4 University of Idaho students.

Authorities said Friday that a suspect has been detained in connection with the gruesome killings of four University of Idaho students. More than six weeks had passed since Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and fellow student Ethan Chapin were discovered dead from stab wounds in their Moscow, Idaho, home.

According to Moscow Police, the suspect, 28-year-old Bryan Christopher Kohberger, was taken into custody in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, on Friday. According to Bill Thompson, the prosecutor for Latah County, he is accused of felony burglary and four charges of first-degree murder.

Kohberger was apprehended, according to Pennsylvania State Police, on a warrant for a fugitive from justice. According to investigators, he is being held at the Monroe County Correctional Facility pending extradition to Idaho.

The probable cause statement, which contains information about the investigation, is sealed by state law until Kohberger has been in court in Idaho, according to officials, who said that this limits the amount of information they can provide. According to Thompson, he was scheduled to appear in court once more in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

In the days before Kohberger’s arrest, FBI agents monitored him in Pennsylvania, according to law enforcement sources who spoke to CBS News.

The days leading up to everything we were doing were “pretty sleepless for a lot of law enforcement,” Moscow Police Chief James Fry said on Friday. “I have faith in the FBI, our agents, and all of the other agencies operating across the country, and I believe they did a tremendous job. There were occasions when we worried constantly, even throughout the day.”

According to the prosecution, Kohlberger is a graduate student at Washington State University. On Friday, Kohlberger was identified as a Ph.D. candidate in the criminal justice and criminology department at Washington State University’s Pullman, Washington, campus, though his name was afterward removed. Moscow, Idaho is a 15-minute drive from Pullman.

Kohberger graduated from DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, with a bachelor’s degree in 2020, and he completed his graduate work there in June 2022, according to the university.

On Sunday, Nov. 13, at around noon, the four victims were discovered after a 911 caller reported an incapacitated person. The murder weapon had previously been identified by officials as a big fixed-blade knife. Authorities stated on Friday that police are still searching for the weapon.

Law enforcement officials informed CBS News that investigators allegedly used forensic evidence to connect Kohberger to the crime scene.

In their senior year of college, Mogen and Goncalves, both 21 years old, were close friends. The two had visited a food truck after leaving The Corner Club, a downtown club, that evening.

20-year-old junior Kernodle was seeing 20-year-old freshman Ethan Chapin. The two had previously attended a party at the Sigma Chi home on campus, where Chapin was a member.

In a statement, the Mogen family said, “Today we are remembering our Maddie’s and her buddy Kaylee with comfort knowing that she can now be properly laid to rest.” Friday at 3 p.m. local time in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, a “celebration of life” for Goncalves and Mogen will be held, according to a Facebook post made earlier this month by Goncalves’ family.

Following the arrest, University of Idaho President Scott Green wrote in an email to students and employees, “This is the news we have been waiting for and a relief for our community and most especially, the families of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.” We appreciate the efforts made by law enforcement to safeguard our neighborhood and uphold the law.

He said that there are no apparent records of Kohberger at the university.

Police reported that they have received 19,000 tips about the killings during the course of the inquiry, analyzed more than 113 pieces of physical evidence from the property, taken “about 4,000 images” and “multiple” 3-D scans, and interviewed more than 300 people. Three dumpsters and five automobiles had initially been taken from the crime site, but early this month it was revealed that they would begin giving some of the victims’ possessions back to their families.

According to Moscow Police Chief James Fry, the court stopped the house’s remediation, which was scheduled to start on Friday.

“In our pursuit of justice, detectives have been laser-focused on following every lead since November. It required a lot of work to provide a clear picture of what happened in this complicated case, ” he said. Police refused to reveal if a motive had been found or if they were looking at any further suspects.

Authorities had found a white Hyundai Elantra, according to Fry’s statement on Friday. In conjunction with the inquiry, police had earlier this month stated they were on the lookout for a white 2011–2013 Elantra.

Police had first stated that they did not think the friends who had called 911 or the roommate who was still alive were responsible for the killings. Additionally, they claimed to have exonerated a former sixth roommate who had left the residence at the start of the academic year as well as a few other individuals who had come into contact with some of the students the previous evening, like the person who drove Goncalves and Mogen home at the conclusion of the event.

Social media and TikTok have been used to spread rumors and conjecture about the case, which law enforcement has described as “a massive diversion.”

“For investigators, tracking down and dispelling rumors about specific people or events that may or may not have occurred is a major distraction that frequently results from social media proliferation. Investigators also struggle to keep on task and find it extremely frustrating “Capt. Roger Lanier of the Moscow Police stated last week.