Bryan Kohberger was investigated in a break-in involving a masked intruder in Washington
The man who admitted to having fatally stabbed four students from the Idaho University almost three years ago was the subject of an investigation in the context of a previous break -in which involved a knife intruder carrying a ski mask, according to the files.
The burglary in 2021 was in a house in Pullman, Washington, just opposite the state line of Moscow, Idaho, where Kaylee Gcalcalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found stabbed to death in a house outside campus on November 13, 2022, according to files obtained from the Pullman police department.
No one was injured during the break -in and a witness told the authorities that the person had fled after hitting them in the stomach, according to the files.
Bryan Kohberger, who pleaded guilty to the murders of the Idaho University last month and purge for life without the possibility of parole, was not accused in the break -in, and it is not clear if there have been arrests.
The files show that the authorities investigated a neighbor but had no probable cause to take it into police custody. The Pullman police chief did not respond to a request for comments on Tuesday.
The Pullman authorities began to investigate Kohberger, 30, after his arrest in the quadruple homicide in December 2022, according to the files.
He moved to Pullman as a doctoral student on the Washington State University criminology program in June 2022, less than a year after October 10, 2021, break -in.
Even if Kohberger has not yet lived in Pullman, the files show that the police chief – then a commander – instructed a sergeant to find out if Kohberger could have been in the region at the time for an event on the campus for future graduate students.
The sergeant noted in an additional report that in the case of the University of Idaho, the killer used a knife and would have wore a ski mask inside the house outside campus.
According to an affidavit in support of a search warrant in the Pullman case, the authorities arrived at home just before 3:30 am, a woman told the police that she had woken up to a person wearing a Bordeaux ski mask opening the door of her room. The person was holding a knife and approached his bed.
She kicked the intruder in the stomach, according to the affidavit, and the person fell back, then fled.
Affidavit does not identify the sex of the intruder, and the woman described the height of the person between 5 feet, 3 inches and 5 feet, 5 inches. In the case of the University of Idaho, a surviving roommate who saw the masked intruder later identified as Kohberger said that the man she had seen seemed to measure 5 feet, 10 inches high, according to an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant in this case.
In Pullman, the sergeant judged that the “inactive” affair after a coordinator of the school’s criminology department told him that there was no recruitment event at the time of break -in and that the school was not aware of any visit to Kohberger.
