Moscow, Idaho – Tawny leather knife sheath found next to two murdered corpses University of Idaho student Forensic experts say it could indicate that the killer targeted them.
Cary Gonsalves and Madison Morgen, 21, were found stabbed to death in their bed on the third floor of their rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13.
Moscow police station Cpl. Brett Payne noticed “what appeared to be a tan leather knife sheath lying on the bed next to Morgen’s right side,” investigators wrote in an affidavit released Thursday.
The document names 28-year-old Brian Coberger, a criminology student at nearby Washington State University, as a suspect in the four murders.
Joseph Scott Morgan, a distinguished scholar of applied forensics at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, told Fox News Digital:[It] Go to progression and go to who the target is. It was probably a specific place he should be heading to. ”
University of Idaho Student Stabbing Timeline
Morgan described the moment the suspect’s murderous riot may have begun. “It’s very dramatic when you think about it,” he said. “He stays near the bed, grabs the handle of his blade, and flips the button on his sheath. [while] His other hand drops the sheath onto the bed after pulling out the knife. ”
Two other victims, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both aged 20, were found stabbed to death on the second floor.
The scabbard was labeled “Ka-Bar” and “USMC” and had the United States Marine Corps insignia stamped on the outside, the affidavit said.
The Idaho Police Department later identified Coberger’s DNA from the snap button on the knife, Payne wrote.
Morgan provided the police with Coberger’s DNA, leaving a “huge blunder” that allowed them to trace the weapon’s provenance.
After Coberger and his father drove over 2,500 miles to the family’s home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, for the winter holidays, investigators retrieved the trash from the home.
A DNA profile made from a piece of litter belonged to the biological father of the DNA profile in the sheath, the affidavit states.
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CeCe Moore, chief geneticist at Parabon Nanolabs and founder of DNA Detectives, said evidence of DNA left on the sheath was likely “touch DNA” from skin cells. increase.
“The defense will probably argue that the DNA could have been transferred,” she explained. “Touch DNA can stay on something for a very long time.”
Coberger could be said to have sold or given away knives with similar scabbards.
“Together with everything else, it’s still strong evidence,” she said.
Police may have much stronger DNA evidence from the crime scene, Moore added, including Coberger’s blood, which he did not disclose in his affidavit.
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Criminal Defense Attorney Mark Geragos said that while the DNA recovered from the sheaths is important, there is still a lot of DNA research that needs to be processed and analyzed.
“The fact that there was a single source of DNA – it looks like a sheath … and the way they tie it to the suspect is that they raked up the Pennsylvania trash and made comparisons and it was It’s finding that it doesn’t rule out fathers — quite a few,” Geragos said.
He also said through records obtained by a search warrant that investigators made great efforts to locate Coberger’s phone and vehicle near the scene of the crime early in the morning of November 13.
Kohberger’s vehicle, a white 2015 Hyundai Elantra, was spotted on surveillance footage near the crime scene between 4:00 a.m. and 4:25 a.m., according to the affidavit.
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His phone rang at Pullman’s home, eight miles from the King Road home, just before 3:00 a.m., and it was dark until 4:48 a.m.
According to the affidavit, his phone rang near the scene of the crime after 9 a.m. on Nov. 13, before police responded to the house.
Police have not disclosed a motive for the mass murder or the relationship between the suspect and the victim.