Bryan Kohberger Detailed Stabbing In College Paper Before Idaho Murders: Prosecutors

Among the items is a college paper Kohberger allegedly wrote when he was a criminal justice grad student at DeSales University back in 2020.

Four University of Idaho students — Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20 — were found stabbed to death on November 13, 2022. Bryan Kohberger, a former doctoral student at Washington State University, was arrested in December 2022 and charged with their slayings.

Citing court documents, the Seattle Times reports prosecutors hope to include an assignment Kohberger turned in on May 5, 2020 as evidence, “to show Defendant’s knowledge of crime scenes.”

Titled “Crime-scene Scenario Final,” the 12-page document details how Kohberger would process the scene of a crime as a crime scene investigator. In it, he discussed a case involving a woman who was stabbed to death in a trailer park — though it’s unclear whether the case was real or made up for the paper.

“Does she have defense wounds, are there hesitation marks on her related to the knife, or are there multiple stab wounds?” Kohberger wrote in the paper, of processing the scene. “The knife should be examined for latent fingerprints to be logged separately; same with the coat hanger, doorknobs around the house, upended furniture, cell phone, and virtually any physical evidence big enough to grab.”

He also reportedly wrote about collecting evidence, determining suspects and motives, and writing up reports. Prosecutors, according to the Seattle Times, also allegedly said they might point out comparisons between Kohberger’s writings and the Idaho murders — including use of a knife, DNA collection and surveillance videos.

In the new filings, prosecutors also claim records show Kohberger purchasing a black balaclava on January 10, 2022 at Dick’s Sporting Goods — 11 months before the killings. The victims’ surviving roommates said they say someone wearing something “like a ski mask almost” in their home the night of murders.

In previous filings this month, the state also claimed Kohberger purchased a military knife, sheath, and knife sharpener over Amazon before the murders. They also included a selfie the suspect took on the morning of November 13, hours after the killings (above left). In it, he appears to give a thumbs up to the camera, standing in front of the shower in a button-down shirt.

Kohberger has continued to maintain his innocence. His trial is set for mid-August.