Kohberger returns to Idaho to face murder charges in UI killings

Bright red lights flashed around Bryan Kohberger as he walked down the steps of a small private plane at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport Wednesday night, returning to the Palouse for the first time since he was arrested for the slayings of four University of Idaho students.

The Washington State University criminology graduate took a cross-country extradition flight Wednesday back to Moscow from Pennsylvania. He is scheduled to make his first appearance Thursday in Latah County Magistrate Court.

Kohberger, 28, arrived around 6:20 p.m. at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport in a 2015 Pilatus PC-12 turboprop airplane. He wore a dark buttoned-up coat with a gray hoodie extending past the jacket’s collar. His hands were cuffed in front of him as he exited the plane.

Members of the press stood with cameras along Pullman Airport Road and outside a fence at Inter-State Aviation, which is about a quarter mile down the road from the airport terminal, to capture Kohberger’s arrival. Pullman police vehicles and other law enforcement agencies parked outside the airport complex awaiting Kohberger’s arrival.

Authorities then escorted Kohberger 7 miles to the Latah County Jail in Moscow.

Lights from the numerous news media awaiting Kohberger’s arrival flashed as a convoy of police vehicles arrived at the Latah County Jail and rapidly pulled into a large garage style door connected to the jail.

Along with dozens of members of the local and national media, area residents gathered to watch Kohberger’s arrival. A slew of cars pulled in following the convoy and out climbed college students wrapped in blankets hoping to catch a glimpse of the accused killer.

Kaitlynn Stevens, 20, and her boyfriend, WSU sophomore Theodosy Berry, heard that Kohberger’s flight was arriving while eating dinner at their Pullman apartment. They hopped in their car and drove to the airport to watch him arrive.

Stevens, who works at an area preschool, said she had been terrified to be home alone since the homicides. Last Friday she was driving home from work to her empty apartment, with her boyfriend and roommate out of town, when she passed a slew of caution tape and police officers, just up the block from her complex.

It was the police searching Kohberger’s apartment.

“I was so terrified the whole time,” Stevens said of the past seven weeks. “I threw up when I found out where he lived.”

Stevens bought a taser, pepper spray, and a door jam in the weeks following the killings in hopes of protecting herself. Despite her fears, Stevens said she suspected the killer must have fled the area and she definitely did not expect him to be living up the block.

“The funny thing is we’re like, ‘Oh, we want to see him, we want to see him’ ” Stevens said. “We’ve probably seen him at Safeway, on campus, at restaurants. We’ve probably seen him before.”

Stevens said she has closely followed the case, especially since Kohberger’s arrest.

“I just want to know … I want to know why he did what he did,” she said.

According to a Latah County Sheriff’s Office news release, Kohberger was to be evaluated when he arrived at the jail, which is in the same building as the courthouse. His housing classification will be determined by the evaluation, the sheriff’s office said. Kohberger showed up on the county’s jail roster at 6:44 p.m.

Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.

UI seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington, were stabbed to death Nov. 13 at a rental home just off the UI campus in Moscow. The three female victims lived in the rental house with two other women who police said were unharmed and not involved in the crime.

Nearly seven weeks after the stabbings, Kohberger was arrested Friday at his parents’ home in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. He appeared Tuesday in a Pennsylvania court where he agreed to be extradited to Idaho.

Jason LaBar, chief public defender of Monroe County and Kohberger’s attorney, told NBC’s “Today Show” that his client believes he will be exonerated. Anne Taylor, chief public defender of Kootenai County, will represent Kohberger in Idaho.

Police have remained tight-lipped about details of the fatal stabbings. A motive or whether Kohberger knew the victims have not been disclosed.

Indiana police released a second body camera video of Kohberger and his father after they were stopped while traveling in Kohberger’s white Hyundai Elantra. The two were driving from Pullman to Pennsylvania before Christmas, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Police searched the Elantra, which Moscow Police said had been spotted near the home where the attack occurred. They have asked the public for tips about the car. Kohberger registered the Elantra in Washington on Nov. 18, just five days after the homicides, according to public records obtained by the Statesman.

The car had previously been registered in Pennsylvania, where Kohberger grew up and attended college.

Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall issued a nondissemination order, also known as a gag order, Tuesday that prohibits police and attorneys from providing information on the case.

A probable cause affidavit is expected to be unsealed Thursday after Kohberger makes his court appearance. The affidavit is expected to provide at least some evidence police gathered as they build their murder case against Kohberger.