TRANSCRIPTION OF PRESS CONFERENCE
30TH DECEMBER.
Chief - Thank you for coming today. Last night in conjunction with the Pennsylvania State Police, Federal Bureau of Investigation, detectives arrested 28 yr. old Bryan Christopher Kohberger in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, on a warrant for murder of Ethan, Xana, Madison and Kaylee. I want to personally thank these agencies for their assistance in this case. Kohberger resides in Pullman, Washington and is a graduate student at Washington State University.
We'll provide as much information as we can about the extradition to Idaho and the criminal process. However, due to Idaho State law, we are limited in what information we can release today until Kohberger has had his initial appearance in Idaho Court.
I want to express my appreciation to our local community, the people of Idaho, and those throughout our nation who provided information to help us investigate these murders has been very impressive. We've received over 19,000 tips and we've conducted over 300 interviews.
To recap this case - On the evening of November 12th., Kaylee and Madison arrived home at about 1:56 am., after visiting a local bar and street food vendor. Ethan and Xana were at the Sigma Chi house, before arriving home around 1:45 am. The two surviving roommates had also been in the community, but returned around 1:00 am. On the morning of November 13th., a 911 call was made at 11:58 am., reporting an unconscious person at the residence. The call came from inside the home, from one of the surviving roommate's cell phones. Moscow police responded and found two victims on the second floor and two victims on the third floor. On November 17th., autopsies were conducted and the Latah County Coroner confirmed the identity of the four victims. Cause and manner of death was homicide by stabbing. Some had defensive wounds and each had been stabbed multiple times.
These murders have shaken our community and no arrest will ever bring back these young students. However, we do believe justice will be found through the criminal process. This was a very complex and extensive case. We developed a clear picture over time. We stand assured that the work.. be assured the work is not done. This is just getting started. Since November, we have remained laser focused on pursuing every lead in our pursuit of justice for the victims and their families. I recognise the frustration with the lack of information that's been released. However, providing any details in this criminal investigation might have tainted the upcoming criminal prosecution or alerted the suspect of our progress. We will continue to provide as much information as we can, as the process moves forward.
Today, I want to specifically thank our dedicated Moscow Police Department detectives, patrol officers, the Idaho State detectives, the Idaho state troopers and their crime lab technicians and scientists and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the resources and personnel to conduct this massive investigation. It was the dedication of them and the persistence and the numerous hours that led to an arrest. Fortunately, these highly skilled people worked together as a cohesive team to solve this case. I also want to thank our community and the nation. Over the past six weeks, I've been continually reminded of how much our community cares. Locally, public support has been exceptional with kind words, food for investigators and letters of support. You will never know how much your words of encouragement helped us through these trying times. I appreciate each of you and each of your kindness. Agencies and individuals from across the nation have reached out to us to express their support to this department. I'm reminded how our Moscow community, our families and the nation, has been impacted by this, daily. Finally, I do want to thank our media partners for the help. You kept this in the news. You helped us with tips, you kept things going and we truly appreciate that. And you are the product of those 19,000 tips that we received, which is an impressive number. I would like to invite Bill Thompson, the County Prosecutor up, at this time.
Prosecutor - Good afternoon, folks. My name's Bill Thompson, I'm the Latah County Prosecutor. Sad to be here, but happy to be here at the same time. As Chief Fry indicated, a criminal complaint was filed yesterday, here in Latah County, charging the defendant, Mr Kohberger, with four counts of 1st degree murder, in addition to felony burglary, which involves entering the residence with the intent to commit the crime of murder.
Let me preface - There is a pending case now in court and I and my office and the investigators have to live with the restrictions that our Supreme Court places on pre-trial publicity. That said, I promise you, we will share with you, through the court process or otherwise, whatever we are allowed to. I just appreciate your patience on that. The factual basis for the charges are summarised in what's called a probable cause affidavit. That is on file with the court. According to the rules of the Idaho Supreme Court, that is sealed until Mr Kohberger is physically back in Latah County and has been served with the Idaho arrest warrant. At that time, we expect that that affidavit will be available to you, so you can share the true facts with all of your readers and watchers and your listeners and all the people who are interested and really need to know what's going on. So please have patience with us on that. We hope to get that to you as soon as we can. As far as Mr. Kohberger, I can share with you that he is a graduate student at Washington State University and has an apartment residence over in Pullman. He has had an initial appearance in front of a judge in Pennsylvania. He is being held without bond and the warrant from our Magistrate Judge here, also provides for no bond. We understand that he's scheduled to be back in court in Pennsylvania next Tuesday afternoon and that a public defender has been appointed for him there. The process, at this point is, since he was arrested in another state, he has the opportunity to either waive extradition and return voluntarily to the State of Idaho, or if he prefers not to waive extradition, then we will initiate extradition proceedings through our Governors Office. If we do that, it can take a while for him to get here. So again, I'm asking for your patience and understand that's just the way the system works. Once he gets here, he'll have an initial appearance with our magistrate. They'll deal with issues such as making sure counsel is competent, and counsel is representing him and the case will be scheduled for further hearings.
Your primary source of factual information is going to be the court record, because that's what the Supreme Court says we need to refer you to. So please, pay attention to what's going on in court and have people there to watch and hear what's being said. As an attorney, myself and my office, we are limited on what we are allowed, by the courts, to say outside of the courtroom. So please, just work with us.
Finally, as the chief indicated, this is not the end of this investigation. In fact, this is a new beginning. We all now know the name of the person who's been charged with these offences. Please get that information out there. Please ask the public, anyone who knows about this individual, to come forward, call the tip line, report anything you know about him to help the investigators and eventually our office and the court system understand fully everything there is to know about, not only the individual, but what happened and why. Next I'll introduce Colonel Kedrick Wills from Idaho State Police. Thank you.
ISP Director - Well, good afternoon. My name is Kedrick Wills, I serve as a director of the Idaho State Police and certainly want to express our appreciation for your attendance here today. These tragic murders took four young, vibrant lives from our community. Nothing we do can bring them back. The only thing that we can do, in law enforcement, to honour their memories, that we know of, is to bring this to a successful conclusion.
This has been a very difficult time for the families, the University, the community and the State of Idaho. However, it is also proven, that communities come together in tough times. Certainly appreciate the support of the local community and our national audience that has been following us as our investigators have worked through this case. I'm thankful also to you, the media partners, who have helped keep this case in the forefront that generates the tips and continues, what we hope will continue, to generate information that will help us to a conclusion of this proceeding. I'd like to express our appreciation on behalf of the Idaho State Police, to Chief Fry, his leadership and the entire Moscow Police Department, for the way that they handled this from the very beginning. He directed the right people to the right positions that led us to this conclusion today. I've had the utmost confidence in this investigation and in Chief Fry, as well as in Mr. Bill Thompson and the Latah County Prosecutor's office, who's been a great partner throughout this.
Nothing has deterred the commitment of the investigators who have worked on this case, regardless of the organisation they represent. It's been very trying and very difficult, as we know, as you know, that it has been, on those investigators as they do the tedious work that they're so good at doing. The partnerships is what's led here as well. The partnerships between Moscow Police Department, I'd like to express our appreciation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, specifically the special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City Division, Dennis Rice, and also the work that happened in the last 24 hrs. in Pennsylvania with the arrest, with the Pennsylvania State Police and Colonel Evan (?) with the Pennsylvania State Police. We appreciate what they've done, across the nation, to help us as well.
As Bill shared, this investigation is far from over. In fact, I appreciate what he shared that this is not an ending but rather a new beginning. The difference now is, as he shared, that we are dictated what information we can share by the court process and by laws in our State of Idaho and so we will share as he shared. Mr. Thompson is absolutely committed to share everything he can share through the court process. We've got to make sure that we don't get in front of that process and we really appreciate, deeply appreciate everybody's support here. The relationships that were forged here and the partnerships that were forged have led to this and based on that is why we're here today. And we continue to believe that the best way we can honour these four lives that have been taken is to make sure that we have a successful outcome here. One of the partnerships that's been forged throughout this is the partnership with the University of Idaho, and on that I'd like to introduce the President of the University of Idaho, Mr. Scott Green.
University President - Thank you. Good afternoon. Scott Green, President, University of Idaho. Today's news and arrest is a welcome one. It's a relief to our University, our community and our extended Vandal family. The outpouring of support over the past six weeks helped sustain us during the most trying time. It provided the strength. It helped us navigate the international scrutiny visited on our students and employees. We are truly thankful for the compassion and acts of kindness shown to our community. Kindness is contagious and it provided the light that reclaimed ground lost to evil and darkness.
We first want to acknowledge and thank Governor Little for the early promise of financial support that enabled the university to secure our campus and focus on helping our students and our employees, in the wake of the crimes. We also appreciate the Idaho State Police and the highly visible security presence that brought comfort and calm to a community shocked and confused by the senseless crimes. We never lost faith that this case would be solved and are grateful for the hard work of the Moscow Police Department and their law enforcement partners. The vast and committed FBI resources brought important expertise to this complex case. Across the board, dedicated, highly competent personnel worked this case to arrest.
This crime has nevertheless left a mark on our university, our community and our state. While we cannot bring back Maddie, Kaylee, Xana and Ethan, we can thoughtfully and purposefully carry their legacy forward in the work that we do. Our students come first and that was proven each and everyday of this investigation. We are committed to safely delivering the college town atmosphere, campus experience and high touch quality education, for which the University of Idaho is known. With time we will heal. We will move forward together and we will remain Vandal strong. With that, I'd like to turn it back over to Chief Fry.
Chief - So now we will open the floor to questions, however, I want to remind everyone, as prosecutor Bill Thompson explained, any factual information regarding the arrest of Kohberger is currently sealed per Idaho law and will not be released until he has appeared in an Idaho court. Please formulate your questions accordingly. I recognise there are a lot of questions and I will try to answer as many of them as I can.
Reporter - I realise the records are sealed. I guess I'm not too familiar with how it works. But can you tell us what tip, what lead, what piece of evidence really led you all the way from Idaho to the suspect in Pennsylvania?.
Chief - As I've said in the past that's part of our investigation and we won't be releasing at this time. We will have those answers. We will have them as soon as we can make those available to you.
Reporter - Is our community safe or is law enforcement still on the search for other suspects who might be involved in this attack?.
Chief - What I can tell you is, we have a individual in custody who committed these horrible crimes and I do believe our community is safe, but we still need to be vigilant, right?. We still have talked about this in the past. We always need to be aware of our surroundings and make sure that we're aware of what's going on.
Reporter - How soon into the investigation did police and law enforcement begin to spot Mr. Kohberger as a potential suspect?. And a follow up - How many tips, if you can say, were specifically related to Mr. Kohberger?.
Chief - To the tip part - honestly I can't answer that question, so I'm not even going to speculate on that. On the other part - that's part of our investigation and it will come out.
Reporter - Can you confirm that Kohberger asked whether or not anyone else had been arrested when he was in custody?.
Chief - I cannot confirm that or.. I'm not sure of that information, but that would still be a part of our investigation.
Reporter - Did CODIS initially return any hits on this guy?.
Chief - That's still part of our investigation and that will come out.
Reporter - Is there any message to the online sleuths who slandered and harassed people who they believed were responsible?.
Chief - There was a lot of speculation going on and we've always said from the very beginning that we're the official message that comes out and to pay attention to what we were putting out there to the press.
Reporter - We were over at the house this morning and you told us that the remediation would begin today. It was suddenly stopped. Can you tell us why?.
Chief - Yes. The house clean up has been halted and that came by a legal request from the court.
Reporter - Have you identified a motive?.
Chief - That's part of the investigation and that will come out as we continue the investigation. But what we still ask is, is for people to continually send us things in the tip line. We are still looking for more information. We're still trying to build that picture, just like we have stated all along, were putting all the pieces together and that will help.
Reporter - Any indication that the suspect knew the victims?.
Chief - That's part of the investigation as well. It won't be something that will come out, at this point in time, but as we continue the investigation and as this case goes to trial that will be brought forth.
Reporter - Have you spoken to the families?. Can you tell us what they've told you today?.
Chief - Yeah, we have reached out to the victim's family, as we always do, and we've done that daily and we've continued to have contact with them.
Reporter - You mentioned earlier that you're still seeing tips about Bryan and that people should still share information they have. Can you speak at all about what specifically people should be reaching out for, like if they know something?.
Chief - I would say anything and everything. As we've said all along, we know what tips we're looking for. We will take those tips and we will have professionals look at those and decide which pieces of those we need to use for our case, so we ask that everybody would do that.
Reporter - Your department and other investigators on the case took a lot of flak for keeping information close to your chest. Are you glad that you did that and were you worried about tipping the suspect off?.
Chief - I will 100% stand behind the way that we handled this investigation and this all started from day one with our patrol officers arriving on scene, locking down the scene, us calling in the Idaho State Police, us calling in the FBI and keeping information that was pertinent to this case very, very tight. We want to have a situation where, when this goes to trial, there is no doubt that we've done everything right and we've slowed down and we've continued to slow down and will continue to do that.
Reporter - Have you guys found the murder weapon or the Hyundai Elantra?.
Chief - So we are still looking for all pieces of evidence, but we are still looking for the weapon and I will say that we have found an Elantra.
Reporter - Can you tell what it was like when you got the phone call, when the police told you that they had your suspect?.
Chief - I can tell you, for a lot of law enforcement, it was a fairly sleepless couple of days as we were leading up to everything that we were doing. But what I can tell you is, I have faith in those agencies across the nation. I have faith in our officers. I have faith in the FBI, and they did a great job. But sure, there was sometimes, even throughout the day, that we were always concerned.
Reporter - Can you talk a little bit more about the suspects connection to Pennsylvania?.
Chief - All I know is is that he lives in Pennsylvania.
Reporter - More about the Elantra. We saw reports that you mentioned that you recovered an Elantra, but can you specify where that was found?. And we know that that was one of the biggest pieces of information you were asking from the public, to tip. Were you able to provide information on whether those tips led to this seizure of an Elantra?.
Chief - That's still part of the investigation that will come out in the future.
Reporter - The additional police presence in town and on campus - semesters coming, is that going to continue?.
Chief - You will continue to see state troopers in the area. We're talking to Latah County as well. You will see a presence of us that we always have up on campus, that we have assigned officers to that. So you will continue to see a law enforcement presence.
Reporter - Can you tell us if you eventually had a license plate number to the Elantra and how you tracked it to Pullman?.
Chief - That's still part of the investigation that will come out.
Reporter - I want to ask about Mr. Kohberger as a graduate student at WSU. Are you aware of if he returned to campus after November 13th. and have you had any communication with departments on the WSU campus about his attendance?.
Chief - So some of that is going to be followed up, as we continue our investigation. We'll be asking some of those questions, but that will come out in the near future.
So what I do want to do is, I want to thank you all. You really have been the national voice for us. You've given us the opportunity to get many, many tips. And I do appreciate everything you've done and we'll continue to look forward to working with you in the future on this. So I'd like to thank you for that and thank you for your time.
