United States. A young man arrested and charged for the murder of four students

On November 13, four bodies of students, lacerated with knives, were discovered in a residence in the small university town of Moscow in the American state of Idaho. After weeks of speculation, a suspect was arrested on Friday in Pennsylvania, more than 4,000 kilometers from the scene of the crime.

This suspect, Bryan Kohberger, 28, a graduate of Washington State University, has a home in Pullman, about ten minutes by car from Moscow, said local police chief James Fry. According to the university’s website, Bryan Kohberger is a doctoral candidate in criminology and criminal law. He was charged with « murder » and « trespassing to commit a felony, » but the court case remains under seal pending his transfer to Idaho, prosecutor Bill Thompson said.

For this reason, the two men refused to evoke a possible motive and to explain how the investigators had gone up to him. James Fry said only that a car spotted at the crime scene and searched for several weeks had been located. According to American media, the police managed to link Bryan Kohberger to this vehicle and found traces of his DNA at the crime scene.

Killed in their sleep

The four students killed were uneventful: Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen – both 21 – Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – 20 each and a couple. They appeared to have been killed in their sleep, without waking up their two other roommates.

The investigation, very followed in the media and on social networks, has long seemed to be at a standstill, the police delivering their information to the dropper. This Friday, the police chief acknowledged that this could have generated “frustration”. But giving too much detail « could have alerted the suspect to our progress », he added.