Did Bryan Kohberger Take Memento from Murder Scene?...

Bryan Kohberger was seen by one of the surviving roommates leaving the home with a 'container' after stabbing four people to death

By Chris Spargo

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said in court that Bryan Kohberger left the Moscow home where he murdered four University of Idaho students with a "container"
That information came from an interview police conducted with one of the two surviving roommates, who is the lone eyewitness to have seen Kohberger exit the home on Nov. 13, 2022
Thompson did not say what was in the container but it could have been a memento from the crime scene or the food delivery victim Xana Kernodle received just before she was murdered
Bryan Kohberger did not leave the home where he murdered four University of Idaho students empty handed, according to one of the surviving roommates.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson shared this new information in court just moments after Kohberger confessed to those murders, and said that it came from the eyewitness who found herself just inches away from the man who stabbed her friends to death as he exited their off-campus home in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022.

He did not reveal what Kohberger was carrying, other than that it was a "container," but his decision to include this detail in his brief remarks outlining the crime suggest it is relevant to the case prosecutors were building against the convicted murderer before he suddenly agreed to a plea deal earlier this month.

That container could also be, in part, why prosecutors were able to get Kohberger to plead guilty to a burglary charge, though by Idaho law he also committed that crime by entering a home with the intent to commit a felony.

Bryan Kohberger, Court
Bryan Kohberger with defense attorneys Anne Taylor (left) and Elisa Massoth (right).
Idaho Fourth District Court
“There were two other roommates in the house, and they were already asleep during the course of [the murders] and one of those roommates awoke,” Thompson said in court.

He continued: “She looked out her door, not knowing what was going on, and saw the defendant, who was dressed in black with a back balaclava on, holding some sort of container in his hand.”

That roommate told police she then watched Kohberger exit the house through a sliding glass door in the kitchen, the same way prosecutors suspect he entered the residence.

Officers investigate a homicide at an apartment complex south of the University of Idaho campus on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022. Four people were found dead on King Road near the campus, according to a city of Moscow news release issued Sunday afternoon. (Zach Wilkinson/Moscow-Pullman Daily News via AP)
The door prosecutors believe Kohberger used to enter and exit the home.
Zach Wilkinson/Moscow-Pullman Daily News/ap
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A non-dissemination order restricting access to court files and prohibiting those involved in the case from speaking to the media makes it impossible to know for certain what was in that container.

There are, however, a few possibilities that can be gleaned from the very limited information that has been released to the public.

4 Idaho students who were murdered on Sunday
Xana Kernodle.
Xana Kernodle/instagram
The most likely explanation is that Kohberger had the DoorDash order Xana Kernodle received just moments before her death in his hands.

This would explain why Thompson suggested in court that Kohberger likely had not planned to kill Kernodle and boyfriend Ethan Chapin, and only did so after accidentally running into Kernodle as he tried to exit the home from the third floor after stabbing Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen to death.

Kernodle received a DoorDash delivery at the home around approximately 4 a.m. that morning, according to a copy of the probable cause affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.

The affidavit also said that Kernodle was on TikTok at 4:12 a.m. but her phone showed no activity after that time.

Five minutes later, a neighbor's security camera located less than 50 feet from the wall of Kernodle's room "picked up distorted audio of what sounded like voices or a whimper followed by a loud thud," according to the affidavit.

Ethan Chapin, 20 Chapin was a freshman from Mount Vernon, Washington, a city in Skagit County north of Seattle. Credit: Courtesy Chapin Family
Ethan Chapin.
Courtesy Chapin Family
Kohberger could have also been removing a piece of evidence that contained his DNA or using the container to stash away the murder weapon and avoid leaving behind DNA.

That second possibility would explain why the eyewitness did not see him holding the murder weapon, which he had just used to kill four people.

It would also explain why Kohberger left the sheath to his KA-BAR knife behind, if he had always planned to stash the weapon in a container and, as a result, forgot the sheath in which he used to bring the weapon into the house.

Kohberger could have also taken a memento.

It is unlikely that the former criminology student would have arrived at the murder scene with a container given his plan to stab his victims to death, which means that the container had to be something he was taking from the home.

Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves.
Kaylee Goncalves Instagram
There is no way to know for sure what Kohberger had in his hands, but the answer to this question could be forthcoming.

Judge Steven Hippler will hear arguments on July 17 after multiple media outlets filed a motion requesting a termination of the non-dissemination order in the case and the unsealing of all court documents.

One week later, on July 23, Kohberger will learn his fate at his sentencing hearing, where prosecutors are recommending a punishment of four fixed life sentences.

Kohberger signed off on that recommendation after Thompson said prosecutors would no longer seek the death penalty in the case.

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