Bryan Kohberger, the criminology Ph.D. student accused of the home invasion murders of four University of Idaho undergrads, has been indicted by a grand jury in Latah County, Idaho, authorities have confirmed.
The superseding indictment means the accused quadruple murderer will not have a chance to attack the evidence used to arrest him at a preliminary hearing that had been scheduled for the week of June 26. A new arraignment has been scheduled for Monday at 9 a.m.
It also spares the two surviving housemates and other potential witnesses from having to testify under cross-examination prior to trial.
The move was not unexpected. Prominent Boise defense attorney Edwina Elcox said in January that it could be announced at any moment once a grand jury had been empaneled behind closed doors and convinced that the charges should stand.
At least some of them were sleeping at the start of the ambush, according to Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt.
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Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, looks toward his attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, during a hearing in Latah County District Court in Moscow, Idaho, on Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, Pool)
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Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin all received posthumous honors at the university’s commencement ceremony over the weekend.
Police found DNA evidence on a Ka-Bar knife sheath left near Mogen’s body and said that they pieced together the movements of Kohberger’s cellphone and white Hyundai Elantra, according to a probable cause affidavit unsealed in January after his arrest on four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary.
He allegedly visited the victims’ house at least a dozen times before the murders and returned one last time hours after the slayings but before 911 had been called.
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According to past acquaintances, Kohberger became addicted to opioids in his late teens but sobered up to pursue a career in criminal justice. He earned a master’s degree from DeSales University in Pennsylvania and then entering a Ph.D. program at Washington State University, less than 10 miles from the Idaho crime scene.
Kohberger arrives at the Monroe County Courthouse in Pennsylvania in advance of a highly anticipated extradition hearing. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
While at DeSales, Kohberger studied under an expert on serial killers, Dr. Katherine Ramsland, who co-wrote a book with the BTK Killer, Dennis Rader. Rader killed 10 people between 1974 and 1991.
Although some of Ramsland’s students have reached out to Rader over the years, the killer told Fox News Digital earlier this year that he had never spoken with Kohberger. However, he said he could relate to him in terms of pretrial detention.