Bryan Kohberger’s DNA matches knife sheath found on crime scene

DNA from accused killer Bryan Kohberger is a “statistical match” with DNA collected from a knife sheath found at the off-campus home where four University of Idaho students were killed last fall, according to court documents filed by prosecutors.

Kohberger, a former criminology Ph.D. candidate at Washington State University, was indicted by a grand jury in May on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. He’s accused of killing Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.

Authorities found all four students dead from fatal stab wounds on Nov. 13 inside a Moscow home not far from campus.

In a motion for a protection order filed earlier this month, Idaho prosecutors said investigators carried out an “STR” DNA comparison between Kohberger’s cheek swab and DNA left behind on a sheath found “face down and partially under” one of the four victims. It revealed the DNA was “at least 5.37 octillion times more likely” to belong to Kohberger than an “unrelated individual randomly selected from the general population,” according to prosecutors.

The process relies on technology similar to those used by services like Ancestry.com and 23andMe, according to court documents. Utilizing a technique called investigative genetic genealogy, experts used publicly available genetic data to build out a network of the suspect’s potential relatives.

The DNA match is only the latest in a growing pile of evidence linking Kohberger to the slayings. A white sedan allegedly matching one owned by Kohberger was captured by a surveillance camera repeatedly driving by the scene of the crime around the time of the killings. Investigators said a cellphone belonging to the suspect pinged near the victims’ home on a dozen occasions before the quadruple homicide, though it was seemingly turned off around the time of the early-morning attack.

Authorities also previously said they compared the crime scene evidence to DNA from trash recovered outside the Kohberger family home in Albrightsville, Penn. last year. The recent test confirmed their findings.

Kohberger is being held at the Latah County Jail without bail.