The family of one of the University of Idaho students brutally stabbed in an off-campus rental house in 2022 slammed a new alibi statement from the accused killer in a scathing statement provided to HuffPost Thursday.
Bryan Kohberger, 29, claimed in a new court filing that he was on one of his customary nighttime drives “to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars” — miles away from the off-campus rental house where Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were staying when they were killed on Nov. 13, 2022.
Kohberger’s attorney said a cellphone data expert will testify that her client’s “mobile device did not travel” where the four students were staying, and therefore it could not have been in the car captured on security video that authorities believe was driven by the killer.
There’s a major flaw in this argument, Goncalves’ family said: According to police records, Kohberger’s phone was turned off in the crucial hours before and after the killings.
The alibi is “in direct conflict” with the-arrest affidavit, the family said, which states that Kohberger’s phone was turned off between 2:47 a.m. and 4:48 a.m. Investigators believe the killings took place between about 4:15 and 4:30 that morning.
“So if the Defendant was driving around and there is cell phone information that he was in a different place it would be either before or after the times of the murders. Hence not really an alibi,” the family wrote in the statement.
At the time of the killings, Kohberger was a Ph.D. student in criminology at Washington State University’s Pullman campus near the Idaho border, and lived just 10 miles from the victims’ house.
In a previous alibi statement — a document required by state statute in Idaho if the defense plans to present alibi evidence at trial — Kohberger’s attorney said that he had gone for a long drive the night of the killings. The court found the account too vague, however, and ordered Kohberger to provide a more detailed account of his whereabouts. Wednesday was Kohberger’s deadline to submit the supplemental documents.
“We believe that If this alibi had any weight it would have been submitted months ago,” the Goncalves family said.
The family also expressed frustration with the case’s slow pace.
“We have been waiting on this information for months and it has finally arrived. It is so hard not knowing anything about the case and you find you have to cling to dates, motions and hearings in order to figure out anything. A big part of this has been waiting on the Alibi information.”
But Kohberger’s revised alibi makes the Goncalveses “feel even more confident in the prosecution,” they said.
“The Defense’s claim is that the Defendant was driving late at night hiking/running and stargazing. We are not sure why it has taken over a year for this to come out as those don’t seem to be complicated activities.”
No trial date has been set in the case. A judge previously said it was unlikely to take place before the summer of 2025. Kohberger could face the death penalty if he is convicted.
