Idaho murders: Former FBI agent says suspect Bryan Kohberger 'may not be first-time offender'
This article is based on sources and MEAWW cannot verify this information independently.
MOSCOW, IDAHO: Bryan Kohberger, 28, has been arrested and charged with the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students. Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21. The four students were found stabbed to death on November 13 in their off-campus rental home on King Road. Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in eastern Pennsylvania, more than 2,500 miles away from the town of Moscow, nearly seven weeks after the murders took place on December 30.
In a recent interview, Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI agent, said she believes there is "very strong evidence" linking Kohberger to the murders and it was "highly plausible" that the murder of the four students was not committed by a "first-time offender." Before his arrest, Kohberger was completing his PhD program in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at the Washington State University, where he also worked as a teaching assistant. His attorney, Jason LaBar, said he would not be fighting extradition at a hearing in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and was “looking forward to being exonerated.”
RELATED ARTICLES
Coffindaffer told the Newsweek that she believes the investigators must have "very strong evidence" tying Kohberger to the murders. "We obviously know they have at least that threshold of probable cause met because a judge has signed off," she said. "But I think beyond that, they have very strong evidence.", the former FBI agent added.
The case has been "very highly publicized," she said, and law enforcement would not have made an arrest and charged someone if they were not "completely in belief that this was the person who committed this crime."
Coffindaffer also told the Newsweek that it's "very plausible" that the murder of the four students wasn't committed by a first-time offender. "I do think it would be rare that he would try to commit four murders and maybe possibly even was thinking about committing six," she said, noting that two roommates in the house survived the attack that night.
"If this was his first time to kill four people, that would be very unusual in the trends of... a fledgling serial killer," she said. She further added that law enforcement agencies in places that Kohberger has lived will be "meticulously" looking into whether he could be linked to unsolved crimes and cold cases in those areas.
"I would believe that law enforcement is going to be searching the areas in and around where he lived, so we're talking Pennsylvania now," she said. According to her, law enforcement "should be looking at all cold cases with a similar modus operandi" to the slaying of the students — crimes where a knife was used, where the offender entered a house late at night and where the victims were women. "That would be his modus operandi. That is seldom changed," said Coffindaffer, signing off.