Newly released documents detail search of Bryan Kohberger's home, office hours after arrest

ByJean Casarez, CNN, CNNWire

Friday, May 5, 2023

Knives, gun among items seized from Idaho murder suspect's Pa. home

Additional documents have been unsealed revealing a lengthy list of items seized from the Pennsylvania home of Bryan Kohberger.

MOSCOW, Idaho -- Chemical tests for blood were done on over 60 reddish brown stains at Bryan Kohberger's apartment in Pullman, Washington, on December 30, hours after he was arrested in northeastern Pennsylvania, according to newly released legal documents, CNN reported.

Documents show a reddish/brown stain on an "uncased pillow " as well as a "brown irregular drip" found on the mattress cover both came back as preliminarily positive for blood.

The video in the player above is from a previous report.

Those samples from the apartment rented by Kohberger -- charged in the November killings of four University of Idaho students -- were collected for further testing at the Idaho State Crime Lab.

Another "dark red spot" on the kitchen counter near the sink was unable to be tested at the scene but was collected for further analysis.

The vast majority were negative for any possibility of being blood.

Documents also show the Washington State University Police Department was advised at 10:38 pm PST on Dec. 29 that Kohberger had been arrested at his parents' Pennsylvania home and a law enforcement team from Idaho was on its way to "sit" at Kohberger's apartment near WSU and at his office on the WSU campus until search warrants of those locations were served by University police.

At approximately 7:15 am the next day, Kohberger's apartment was searched by law enforcement.

Documents say they cleared each room of the residence and noticed the apartment was "sparsely furnished, and fairly empty of belongings, including no shower curtain in the bathroom, and the trash cans appeared empty."

Video documentation of the apartment was also conducted.

Kohberger, 28, is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, at a home just outside the University of Idaho's main campus in Moscow.

Authorities found a "round padlock in the entryway closet" of Kohberger's apartment that law enforcement recognized as being used for storage facilities. A key to the lock was located on the TV stand.

Kohberger had a storage closet at the apartment complex assigned to him they found. The door to the closet was ajar and appeared to be empty.

Law enforcement waited for a search warrant to be amended to include the storage unit before they searched it for "possible trace evidence and possible DNA evidence."

Authorities then went to Kohberger's office on the WSU campus where he had just completed his first semester as a PhD student in the school's criminal justice program. While executing the search warrant, they found Kohberger's desk was empty. "Nothing was seized from the office," reads the police report detailing the search.

On January 10, 2023, Kohberger's defense team showed WSU law enforcement a piece of paper signed by Kohberger, "granting (his attorneys) permission to enter his apartment to remove the WSU office keys that had been sitting on the TV stand."

Defense attorneys also found and took a receipt from a cupboard in the bathroom as well as paperwork items from the living room.

On January 19, Kohberger's defense team again asked to go to his apartment with a signed letter by Kohberger asking them to "gather some of his belongings."

The defense removed "a flat screen TV, a computer monitor, a small box of miscellaneous papers and receipts, a laundry basket that was full of books, and a medium sized box," whose contents police couldn't see.

Kohberger has yet to enter a plea and is being held without bail in the Latah County Jail in Idaho.

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