CCTV footage shows WA DOL worker mention Idaho murders to Bryan Kohberger days after killings

A recently released video shows Bryan Kohberger, the man who killed four University of Idaho students, speaking to a Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) worker just days after the killings.

The video, shown by KIRO 7, captures Kohberger trying to get new license plates five days after the murders.

He makes small talk with the DOL employee, who tells Kohberger she moved from the Bay Area but would rather live in Washington, according to KIRO 7. She then makes a comment mentioning the murders.

“I really like it, though. I like how small, quiet — I would say safe, but the whole Moscow thing kinda makes it feel a little less,” she said.

Law enforcement was searching for a suspect at the time.

Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty to killing Idaho students to avoid death penalty

In July, Kohberger pleaded guilty to stabbing to death Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty.

Kohberger killed the four students in their rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022. Autopsies showed the four were all likely asleep when they were attacked, some had defensive wounds, and each was stabbed multiple times.

At the time, Kohberger was a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University (WSU), about nine miles (14.5 kilometers) west of the University of Idaho. He was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.

No motive has emerged for the killings, nor is it clear why Kohberger spared two roommates who were in the home. Authorities have said cellphone data and surveillance video show that Kohberger visited the victims’ neighborhood at least a dozen times before the killings.

The murders shocked the small farming community of about 25,000 people, which hadn’t had a homicide in about five years, and prompted a massive hunt for the perpetrator. That included an elaborate effort to track down a white sedan that was seen on surveillance cameras repeatedly driving by the rental home, to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect through the use of genetic genealogy, and to pinpoint his movements the night of the killings through cellphone data.

In a court filing, Kohberger’s lawyers said he was on a long drive by himself around the time the four were killed.

In the letter to families, obtained by ABC News, prosecutors said Kohberger’s lawyers approached them seeking to reach a plea deal. The defense team had previously made unsuccessful efforts to have the death penalty stricken as a possible punishment, including arguing that Kohberger’s autism diagnosis made him less culpable.

The prosecutors said they met with available family members before deciding to make Kohberger an offer.

Contributing: Julia Dallas, MyNorthwest; KIRO 7; The Associated Press

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