Computer, Glove, Hair Seized From Suspect’s Apartment
New search-warrant records detail investigators’ efforts to link the suspect, Bryan Kohberger, to the crime scene. No weapons were seized in the search.
Shortly after arresting a student from a nearby university in connection with the gruesome slaying of four University of Idaho students, investigators seized a number of items from the suspect’s apartment, including a computer tower, possible hair strands, a disposable glove, and items that had red or brown stains, according to records released Wednesday.
In the search warrant documents, the authorities said one item was a “collection of dark red” spotting, while a pillow had a “reddish/brown stain.” Investigators also collected receipts, mattress covers and the dust container of a vacuum cleaner.
The search warrant application said that the rental house near campus where the four victims were found in November had a significant amount of blood from the victims, “including spatter and castoff” blood, which results when blood flies from a moving object. Investigators said they believed it was likely that any killer at the scene would have had blood evidence on his body or his clothing. They said they hoped to find trace evidence in the suspect’s apartment. They did not describe the results of any testing in the documents.
Investigators said in their search warrant application that they had hoped to find hair strands that could link the suspect, Bryan Kohberger, to the scene of the crime, either through the victims or through a dog that was present at the house where the killings occurred. Police said one of the items collected from Mr. Kohberger’s apartment was a “possible animal hair strand.”
The documents say the police also searched Mr. Kohberger’s office at Washington State University, where he was a graduate student and teaching assistant, but did not seize anything in that search.
One key item in the case that did not appear in the documents was a weapon. Investigators have been searching for a long knife that they believe was used in the attack. A knife sheath was found at the scene of the crime, and a DNA sample was recovered from it that investigators believed to be Mr. Kohberger’s DNA.
Shortly after Mr. Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30, the police chief in Moscow, Idaho, said that investigators had not yet found a murder weapon.
