Idaho murders: Lead defendant Bryan Kohberger presents alibi to court

Bryan Kohberger, charged in the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students, will file a brief in court to prove his alibi. Kohberger's defense asserts that his client was in a different location at the times the deaths occurred.

To prove this, the defense of the former criminology student intends to submit a report prepared by independent experts. The documents will apparently prove that Kohberger's phone received the signal from phone towers far away from the crime scene.

"Mr. Kohberger was out driving in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars. He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho," Kohberger's lead attorney, Anne Taylor, said in the document filed with the court Wednesday.

Kohberger's location not matching that of the murder is an alibi the defense previously presented last summer. However, they had not said what evidence they would use to support that theory until now. Kohberger decided to remain silent and has yet to plead guilty or not guilty.

Pullman, Wash., is located about a 40-minute drive from the scene. With information from cell phone towers, the defense intends to prove that Kohberger's white Hyundai Elantra is not the one captured by Moscow security camera footage and linked to the crime by police.

Prosecution requests the death penalty

However, the defense is not alone in seeking to use Kohberger's cell phone data in this case. The prosecution also provided evidence about the location indicated defendant's cell phone signal. Police reports place Kohberger's phone near the home the victims were renting off the University of Idaho campus in Moscow.

Kohbeger was arrested in May 2023 at his home residence in Monroe County, Pa. He is charged with the murders of the four University of Idaho students, as well as an additional charge of breaking and entering. The prosecution is seeking the death penalty for Kohberger, if convicted.

A case with many unknowns

The murder of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen on Nov. 13, 2022, remains a mystery to the public. The deaths of the four students deeply scarred the University of Idaho campus. There had been no murders in the rural Idaho town of Moscow since 2015, and fears of a serial killer on campus grew in the community.

On the night of the events, Chapin and Kernodle, who were a couple, returned to the house that Kernodle shared with five other students at the university. So did Goncalves and Mogen, who were at a bar until about 1 a.m.

Phone activity and a food delivery prove that all the victims were still alive at around 4 a.m. Someone allegedly entered the house without picking the locks and killed all four victims with a knife. The two other girls who occupied the house and were in their room and did not suffer any attempted attack. One of them believes she saw the killer when she heard noises and peeked through her door. Police received only one initial emergency call at 11:58 a.m.