What I'm writing below is all MOO.
A few weeks ago I proposed that LE likely knows where the knife and sheath were purchased from. Let’s look at the available reporting and court filings to understand how I got there.
LE Immediately Focus on 'Ka-bar' Knife as the Likely Murder Weapon
We know that LE had been looking specifically for a ‘Ka-Bar’ since 11/17/22. The Idaho Statesman reported on that day (though there are social media posts from 11/16 pointing to this article) that Scott Butte the General Manager of the Moscow Building Supply said “They were specifically asking whether or not we carry KA-BAR-style knives, which we do not,”
Police investigating the slaughter of four University of Idaho students have asked the manager of a local store owner whether he sold a “Rambo”-style knife known as KA-BAR to anyone.
nypost.com
Note: The only reason I link to the NYPost is to establish the date of this reporting. The Statesman have updated their article (referenced in the post) and not maintained the original timestamp anywhere.
Origins of the 'Rambo Style Knife' and Ensuing Confusion
The media ran with the headline grabbing ‘Rambo Style Knife’. Ashleigh Banfield ran entire segments about ‘Rambo Style Knives’ which seemed to imply that LE did not yet know what they were specifically looking for. I could not find any references to LE specifically referring to the knife by this term. The Rambo Style Knife seems to come directly from a quote in the Idaho Statesman article in which Jutte (the person I cited above) described the Ka-Bar as “similar to the knife Rambo has,”. Those are his words.
The Original Statesman Article with Updated Time Stamp:
https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/crime/article268833397.html
A Reminder That LE Knows More than We Know
For a 2 week span in December (from December 13th until his arrest) a few media organizations were running with the stories that LE's canvassing wasn't effective enough. This was due to growing frustration from families and amongst those who were closely following the case. There was the gas station video criticism in which a gas station was never contacted by LE and the manager had to reach out themselves.
An Idaho gas station clerk says she found a white sedan on surveillance video taken on the night of a quadruple homicide nearby and sent it to police.
www.foxnews.com
And a week later NewsNation ran a similar story. This time related to the knives and Alex Caprariello report in the video make the implications are clear. Owners/operators of knife stores were saying that LE showed very little interest in transactions or surveillance video inside of the store and were mostly concerned with exterior surveillance.
In the first case we now know that LE had plenty of CCTV to determine the likely route of the suspected murderer on that night. Which could be an explanation of why the gas station wasn't canvassed. It's possible that the gas station video will ultimately play a key role but it hasn't yet.
So why weren't the stores that sold knives better canvased? What did LE know that prevented them from spending tehir resources to do so?
The Warrants
Ka-Bar Knives,Inc
On 11/29 after the initial blunder of copying/pasting the eBay warrant and forgetting to change the name and address to Ka-Bar...
LE successfully served a warrant to Ka-Bar Knives, Inc. The first half of the warrant is fairly broad and seems to be targeting the direct-to-customer online retail portion of Ka-Bar's business. It's fairly broad compared to the ones served to eBay and Amazon...which does raise a few specific questions. In the Ka-Bar specific warrant theirs the addition of a host of other models that are all seemingly based off of the 1217. With the distinction being that they are all US Military related commemorative knives. These items are also available on eBay and Amazon. As reported by TMZ, Ka-Bar does not believe that they sold a knife to the suspect under his real name...
The manufacturer of the knife Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger allegedly used to butcher 4 students says cops reached out to them for info ... but the company has no records tying him to any purchase.
www.tmz.com
The second half of the warrant seems to target Ka-Bars supplier business. LE asked them for a list of 6 specific Ka-Bar distributors.
Why were they interested in these 6? Are these the only 6? What prior information did they have leading to these 6 specific distributors? All excellent questions. I have searched the internet high and low...Ka-Bar advertisers their authorized dealers (more on this down below) on their website....BUT to get the U.S. list (international is available online) of distributors who regionally supply those dealers you have to call Ka-Bar directly.
International Distributors:
KA-BAR International Distributors
The last thing that I'll point out about this warrant is what else LE asks of Ka-Bar and the other retailers for. And that's model number
KA1217S. No, that's not a knife. The knife is Ka-Bar 1217 which has the USMC leather sheath included. The 'S' model is the sheath only, available to buy as a standalone accessory.
Full-size Brown Leather USMC Sheath
www.kabar.com
Why would someone want to do this? Maybe they damaged or lost their old sheath, they bought a used knife that didn't come with one, they want to use it with a different knife model etc etc etc. So it makes sense that LE would be interested in sheath only sales.
Blue Ridge Knives,Inc
This is where things get a little more interesting. First, IMO the fact that we know the name of Blue Ridge and not any other distributors on it's own is telling. And the fact that the information they requested would not point directly to someone, but a retailer that Blue Ridge distributes to, is also telling. Also worth mentioning that Blue Ridge is a distributor and like other distributors services the region around them....
IMO this warrant, dated 12/13, stands on it's own for a few reasons
1) it's a few weeks after the other retailers were subpoenaed along with Ka-Bar
2) it is clearly informed by the information that was supplied to them by Ka-Bar Inc. As one of their distributors cited in the previous warrant is listed. And it was signed by a judge 5 days after the court signed off on the information returned in the Ka-Bar warrant.
3) judging by all of the information we have currently available to us the search for the source of the sheath and/or murder weapon origin stopped. 7 days after the courts signed off on the items returned...BK was arrested.
When we look at the warrant the broad strokes that LE painted with in the Ka-Bar warrant is now finely tuned. And for the first time in all warrants related to the knife and sheath LE does not specifically call out the 1217 (Knife+Sheath) model on it's own. But they do '1217s' which is the sheath only. And they seem to know what shipments have the items that they are interested in, and when they were sold to a dealer.
The Warrant to Blue Ridge Knives Requests
- Ka—Bar KA1217S, USMC Fighting Knife Sheath
- Known-purchases and quantities of Blue Ridge Knives from Ka-Bar include
- - On or about 03/08/2022 the purchase of 360 units
- - 0n or about 06/24/2022 the purchase of 480 units
Depending on how you want to interpret the above information from warrant...as if you read it in one specific way, LE may be looking for the purchaser of a sheath only.
But regardless of whatever way you read it.....IMO it's clear that Ka-Bar was able to provide LE with very specific information about which distributor received the sheath suspected as belonging to the murder weapon, and which dealers purchased the sheaths from Blue Ridge Knives (or sheath+knife depending on your interpretation) and put it on their shelves.
Was Ka-Bar able to analyze the leather supplier, clasps, or some variation in manufacturing to help LE narrow down thier search to a specific distributor and batch order numbers?
I don't know the answer of that but it's clear that they narrowed down their hunt to a batch of 840 specific 'units' connected to 1 to 2 possible dealers. IMO There's likely warrants that we have yet to see requesting information from said dealer(s).
rf
I will posit an alternative explanation...that this search by LE hit a dead end. And the reason for the redaction/seal in the Blue Ridge Knives warrant is that they don't want to expose a knife dealer(s) who received said batches to teh gawking of true crime lovers. And that LE has no clue where the sheath came from. But to believe that you'd have to believe that the specific list of 840 meant very little.
Of Note: Blue Ridge's proximity to the southern route and that they likely IMO supply dealers in and around that area. Including many who are less than an hour away from that route.
All MOO.
