Bryan Kohberger claims DNA may have been planted at Idaho murders scene – as alibi deadline looms
Bryan Kohberger has claimed that the DNA evidence tying him to the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students may have been planted at the crime scene – as the deadline for him to give an alibi for the slaying looms. In a recent court filing in Latah County Court, the 28-year-old criminology student suggested that police officers could have somehow placed his DNA on the knife sheath which was left behind by the killer at the college rental home in Moscow, Idaho. “The State’s argument asks this Court and Mr Kohberger to assume – is that the DNA on the sheath was placed there by Mr Kohberger, and not someone else during an investigation that spans hundreds of members of law enforcement and apparently at least one lab the State refuses to name,” Mr Kohberger’s attorneys wrote. Prosecutors fired back at the suggestion that the evidence was “rigged”, writing in a filing that “the State is at a loss as to how that theory supports a claim that the lGG information is material to the preparation of his defense”. Mr Kohberger was tied to the 13 November murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin through a knife sheath left at the scene. The sheath – for a military or Ka-Bar style knife – was found partly under Mogen’s body after she and Goncalves were found stabbed multiple times on Mogen’s bed on the third floor of the home. DNA on the button clasp of the sheath was then found to match that of the 28-year-old accused killer. Mr Kohberger’s attorneys have sought to cast doubts on the strength of this DNA evidence, in particular the use of genetic genealogy. According to the affidavit in the case, the FBI used genetic genealogy databases to try to identify the DNA source. Trash was then collected from the suspect’s parents’ home in the Poconos Mountains and a familial match – from Mr Kohberger’s father – was made to the sheath, according to the criminal affidavit. Following Mr Kohberger’s arrest on 30 December, DNA samples were then taken directly from the suspect and came back as “a statistical match”, say prosecutors. Mr Kohberger’s attempts to cast doubts on the evidence come ahead of a looming deadline for the accused mass killer to offer an alibi for the night of the murders. Under Idaho law, defendants have 10 days to provide a written statement about where they claim to have been at the time of the alleged crime and offering information about any witnesses who can support their claim. On 23 May – one day after he was arraigned on four murder charges – Latah County Prosecutor’s Office put in a demand for Mr Kohberger’s notice of alibi. Back then, Mr Kohberger’s legal team asked Judge John Judge for an extension to this deadline, saying that they needed more time due to the wealth of evidence in the high-profile case. The judge extended the deadline through to 24 July. As of Monday morning, the Idaho cases of interest website – where the latest filings in the case are shared – had gone down. Mr Kohberger is facing the death penalty if convicted of the murders of Goncalves, 21, Mogen, 21, Kernodle, 20, and Chapin, 20. He is scheduled to stand trial on 2 October after being indicted by a grand jury on four counts of first-degree murder and one burglary charge. Mr Kohberger is accused of breaking into an off-campus student home on King Road in the early hours of 13 November and stabbing the four students to death with a large, military-style knife. Two other female roommates lived with the three women at the property and were home at the time of the massacre but survived. One of the survivors – Dylan Mortensen – came face to face with the masked killer, dressed in head-to-toe black and with bushy eyebrows, as he left the home in the aftermath of the murders, according to the criminal affidavit. For more than six weeks, the college town of Moscow was plunged into fear as the accused killer remained at large with no arrests made and no suspects named. Then, on 30 December, law enforcement suddenly swooped on Mr Kohberger’s family home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania and arrested him for the quadruple murders. The motive remains unknown and it is still unclear what connection the WSU PhD student had to the University of Idaho students – if any – prior to the murders. However, the affidavit, released in January, revealed that Mr Kohberger was tied to the killings through his DNA on the knife sheath, surveillance footage showing his white Hyundai Elantra close to the crime scene and cellphone activity. The murder weapon – a fixed-blade knife – has still never been found. As a criminal justice PhD student at WSU, Mr Kohberger lived just 15 minutes from the victims over the Idaho-Washington border in Pullman. He had moved there from Pennsylvania and began his studies there that summer, having just completed his first semester before his arrest. Before this, he studied criminology at DeSales University – first as an undergraduate and then finishing his graduate studies in June 2022. While there, he studied under renowned forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland who interviewed the BTK serial killer and co-wrote the book Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer with him. He also carried out a research project “to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime”. Read More Bryan Kohberger’s criminology professor weighs in on Rex Heuermann’s arrest in Gilgo Beach murders probe Plan to demolish home where four University of Idaho students were murdered is delayed Bryan Kohberger could face the firing squad for the Idaho murders. What would this mean?
1970-01-01 08:00
Al Hilal make world record offer for Kylian Mbappe
Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal, financed by PIF, lodge a world record offer for Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe. But the Frenchman, out of contract next summer, intends to join Real Madrid instead of heading to the Middle East.
1970-01-01 08:00
Key question as Federal Reserve meets: Can the central bank pull off a difficult 'soft landing'?
When Chair Jerome Powell and other Federal Reserve officials gather this week for their latest decision on interest rates, they will do so on the cusp of achieving an elusive “soft landing” — the feat of curbing inflation without causing a deep recession
1970-01-01 08:00
How Max Verstappen and record-breaking Red Bull compare to Formula One greats
Max Verstappen’s Hungarian Grand Prix victory gave his Red Bull team a record 12th successive Formula One race win. Here, the PA news agency looks at how the dominant Dutchman and his team compare to the greats of the grid. Prost and Senna’s record falls Verstappen has won nine of this season’s 11 races, with team-mate Sergio Perez taking the other two. Verstappen also won last season’s final race and not since the great McLaren pairing of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in 1988 has a single team dominated to such an extent. That season began in Brazil and while Senna was disqualified from his home race for an illegal car change, Prost took the chequered flag. Senna won in San Marino and he and Prost shared the next four races equally before Prost recorded a home win in the French Grand Prix. Four straight victories for Senna followed before Ferrari’s Gerhard Berger broke the streak in Italy, the only race all season not won by McLaren as they and Senna won a championship double with Prost close behind in second in the drivers’ standings. That is the case for Verstappen and Perez this season as well, albeit with Verstappen over 100 points clear of his team-mate. Verstappen added Bahrain and Australia to last season’s success in Abu Dhabi, alternating at the start of the season with Perez’s wins in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan before taking sole control. Mercedes had three separate runs of 10 successive wins during Lewis Hamilton’s period of dominance, with Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari team also hitting double figures in 2002. Magnificent seven Since the start of May, Verstappen has won the Miami, Monaco, Spanish, Canadian, Austrian, British and now Hungarian Grands Prix to equal the second-longest winning run for an individual driver. Only Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine straight wins in 2013 remains for him to chase – victory in the next two races would see him equal that mark in front of his adoring home fans at August 27’s Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort. Alberto Ascari has a claim to matching Vettel. The Italian won the last six races of the 1952 season and the Argentine Grand Prix at the start of 1953 before not entering the Indianapolis 500, which at the time was part of the drivers’ championship. He went on to win the Dutch and Belgian GPs on his next two starts. Michael Schumacher won seven in a row in 2004, as did Nico Rosberg at the end of 2015 and the start of his 2016 title-winning season. Schumacher also had a run of six across the 2000 and 2001 seasons while Hamilton’s longest run is five wins, as was Verstappen’s before his current streak. He is on track to be the first driver ever to win over 80 per cent of races in a season – beating Ascari’s 75 per cent in 1952, when there were only eight races in total – while he has won over 93 per cent of the maximum points available with 281 of a possible 302 so far. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Max Verstappen making Red Bull rivals look like Formula Two cars – Toto Wolff I held my breath – Lewis Hamilton enjoys ‘extraordinary’ run to pole in Budapest Max Verstappen gives hope to rivals after coming 11th in Hungarian GP practice
1970-01-01 08:00
Saudi Arabian soccer team Al-Hilal makes record $332 million bid for France striker Kylian Mbappe
Saudi Arabian soccer team Al-Hilal has made a record $332 million bid for France striker Kylian Mbappe after missing out on Lionel Messi
1970-01-01 08:00
China Holds Off on Major Stimulus as It Signals Property Easing
China’s top leaders signaled more support for the troubled real estate sector alongside pledges to boost consumption and
1970-01-01 08:00
SoftBank Ups Stake In Symbotic in Joint Venture Deal
SoftBank Group Corp. is setting up an artificial intelligence-oriented warehousing joint venture with Symbotic Inc. and buying more
1970-01-01 08:00
Channel 4 just gave Elon Musk a hilarious reality check over Twitter rebrand
Twitter users are still reeling from the platform’s abrupt branding change to "X". The social media app changed its branding on Monday morning after scarcely a day’s notice, with many mocking the new look of the platform. Channel 4 got in there early by reminding Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, of the time they tried to launch a major rebrand – and it didn’t quite stick. The broadcaster’s social media account posted: “People still call our streaming service 4OD so good luck”. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Channel 4’s 4OD was one of the first major on-demand TV services in the UK, where many people rediscovered classic shows such as Friends, Gogglebox and How I Met Your Mother. Eventually, however, network executives decided it was time to fix something that definitely was not broken, rebranding the service as All 4. The moniker clearly didn’t stick. Twitter executives will hope they have a little more success with their change. Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk has already faced significant criticism for the way he has handled the company since taking it over last year. He fired 80 per cent of the tech company’s staff last year, many finding out in brutal circumstances by opening their laptops and discovering they no longer had a job when the machine would not log them in anymore. The result, many commentators have agreed, is a degraded product, with major glitches including all links to external websites temporarily failing, and day-long caps on how many tweets users can look at. Musk has also restored the accounts of thousands of previously suspended users, including neo-Nazi and QAnon accounts. He also tried to restore former President Donald Trump’s account – but Trump wasn’t having any of it, preferring to stick with his own app, Truth Social. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00
Spence vs Crawford time: When does fight start in UK and US this weekend?
Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford will square off in Las Vegas this weekend, in one of the biggest fights of this generation. Fans have waited for this bout for years, and finally it has materialised, with the unbeaten Americans clashing on Saturday to crown an undisputed welterweight champion. Spence, 33, is the WBC, WBA and IBF champion, while Crawford, 35, holds the WBO title. Spence will carry a professional record of 28-0 (22 knockouts) into the T-Mobile Arena, while Crawford is 39-0 (30 KOs). Spence has not fought since April 2022, when he stopped Yordenis Ugas to collect the WBA belt, while Crawford most recently competed in December, retaining his title with a knockout of David Avanesyan. Here’s all you need to know about one of the most-anticipated fights in years. When is it? Spence vs Crawford will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday 29 July. The main card is due to begin at 1am BST on Sunday 30 July (5pm PT, 7pm CT, 8pm ET on Saturday), with ring walks for the main event expected at 4am BST (8pm PT, 10pm CT, 11pm ET on Saturday). How can I watch it? In the UK, the event will air live on TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) pay-per-view, at a cost of £19.95. In the US, the card will be on Showtime pay-per-view, priced at $84.99. Odds Spence – 29/20 Crawford – 13/20 Draw – 12/1 Via Betway. Full card (subject to change) Errol Spence (WBC, WBA, IBF champion) vs Terence Crawford (WBO champion) (welterweight) Isaac Cruz vs Giovanni Cabrera (lightweight) Nonito Donaire vs Alexandro Santiago (vacant WBC bantamweight title) Yoenis Tellez vs Sergio Garcia (super-welterweight) Steven Nelson vs Rowdy Montgomery (super-middleweight) Jose Salas Reyes vs Aston Palicte (super-bantamweight) Jabin Chollet vs Michael Portales (lightweight) Justin Viloria vs Pedro Borgaro (super-featherweight) Demler Zamora vs Nikolai Buzolin (lightweight) Kevin Ventura vs DeShawn Prather (welterweight) Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More UFC 291 time: When does Poirier vs Gaethje start in UK and US this weekend? Another boxing robbery: Maxi Hughes deserves justice for heist that shames the sport George Kambosos reacts to ‘robbery’ claims after controversial win over Maxi Hughes How to watch Spence vs Crawford online and on TV this weekend The Independent’s pound-for-pound boxing rankings George Kambosos reacts to ‘robbery’ claims after controversial win over Maxi Hughes
1970-01-01 08:00
Max Verstappen making Red Bull rivals look like Formula Two cars – Toto Wolff
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes Max Verstappen’s dominance of the sport is so one-sided that he is making the rest of the grid look like they are racing in a junior category. Verstappen took his ninth win of the season, extending Red Bull’s unbeaten streak to 11 from 11 this year with just one race remaining before the summer break. The Dutchman, now a staggering 110 points clear in the championship, finished more than half-a-minute clear of his rivals following another supreme showing in his supreme Red Bull machine. McLaren’s Lando Norris was runner-up – scoring consecutive podium finishes for the first time in his career – with pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton only fourth and his Mercedes team-mate George Russell sixth. “It was like a bunch of Formula Two cars against a Formula One car,” said Wolff. “In the F2 gang, our car was quick. The F1 car won by 33 seconds. “We had the second quickest car today, and obviously we can talk it up and say we could have been second, but that’s irrelevant because you have a car that finished 39 seconds ahead [of Hamilton], and was probably cruising a lot of the time. “We are going to fight back and win races and championships, but we saw the pace Max had, and that’s the bitter reality. “But it’s a meritocracy, and as long as you’re moving within the regulations, then we need to acknowledge Red Bull has just done a better job.” Hamilton has now gone 34 appearances without a victory – the longest streak of his career – while Verstappen has triumphed 24 times during the same period, moving him to 44 career wins. Verstappen’s Red Bull set a new record of 12 consecutive wins on Sunday, with Mercedes’ unprecedented 19 victories in a single campaign under threat. At the midway stage of this 22-round campaign, the world champions also remain on course to become the first team to complete the perfect season. However, speaking ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps – which includes a sprint race and the possibility of rain – Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was keen to guard against complacency. Horner said: “How long can we keep this winning run going? Who knows? “We’ve got another challenge next weekend, a sprint race, with the variable conditions of Spa. Anything can happen, so we’re really just taking it pretty much one event at a time.”
1970-01-01 08:00
Election leaves Spain in political disarray with no party having an easy path to form a government
Spain is in political disarray after elections left no party with a clear path to forming a government
1970-01-01 08:00
Ruthless Germany hit six, Italy down Argentina late on at World Cup
Alexandra Popp scored twice as Germany thrashed Morocco 6-0 to launch their Women's World Cup title bid in style Monday, while Italy triumphed in a feisty encounter with...
1970-01-01 08:00
