A young man suspected of killing four college students in a small western US college town was arrested on Friday and charged with “murder”, local authorities said.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, was arrested in Pennsylvania, more than 4000 kilometers from the small town of Moscow in Idaho, the scene on November 13 of this crime which has aroused much speculation.
A graduate of Washington State University, the suspect owns accommodation in Pullman, a ten-minute drive from Moscow, local police chief James Fry said at a press conference.
According to the university’s website, Bryan Kohberger is a doctoral student in criminology and criminal law.
He was charged with “murder” and “trespassing to commit a felony”, but the criminal record remains under seal pending his transfer to Idaho, said prosecutor Bill Thompson.
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.
Seven weeks ago, four stabbed bodies were discovered in a residence in the small university town of Moscow.
These were those of four students without history: Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen – both 21 years old -, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – 20 years old each and as 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.
On Friday, the police chief acknowledged that this may have generated “frustration”. But giving too much detail “could have alerted the suspect to our progress”, he added.