Records reveal knife-wielding intruder incident before Idaho stabbings

Newly released records revealed Bryan Kohberger, the man who admitted to killing four University of Idaho students nearly three years ago, was investigated in a separate knife-related break-in more than a year earlier.

Last month, Kohberger pleaded guilty to the 2022 quadruple murder in Moscow, Idaho, but was not charged in the earlier incident in Pullman.

Investigation into knife incident starts in 2021

That investigation started in 2021, after a home invasion at a home where a group of female college students lived. Records obtained from the Pullman Police Department, including documents and redacted body-camera video from officers, showed authorities briefly considered whether Kohberger could have been connected.

According to police and an officer’s body camera recording, a woman reported waking up around 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 10, 2021, to find a masked intruder opening her bedroom door. She told an officer the person wore a burgundy ski mask, held a knife, and approached her bed.

“I was asleep, and then I woke up … and my door was closed,” the woman told the responding officer. “I heard my door open, and I looked over and someone was wearing a ski mask and had a knife like this, OK? And so I like kicked the s*** out of their stomach and screamed super loud, and they like flew back into my closet and then ran out my door and up the stairs.”

That officer then asked the victim if she would like police to search the home before she went back inside.

“So, I’m assuming that you would like us to go through your place and make sure no one’s there. So what I’d like you guys to do is stay in the vehicle and keep the doors locked until we come back to you,” the officer said.

At the time, Pullman detectives could not identify any suspects, and the case was closed. Pullman police reopened the case after eerie similarities surfaced at the scene of the University of Idaho murders — including reports of a masked man, holding a knife, breaking into a home where several female college students lived.

Idaho students killed month later

Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were killed exactly a year and one month later, about 10 miles away, in Moscow. All four were University of Idaho students. Goncalves, Mogen, and Kernodle lived in the house. Chapin was visiting Kernodle, his girlfriend, at the time.

Kohberger, 30, moved to Pullman in June 2022 to begin a doctoral program in criminology at Washington State University. Following his arrest in December of that year for the Idaho killings, investigators reviewed the earlier break-in to see if he could have been in town at the time. However, the department found no evidence that Kohberger had attended any recruitment events or visited the area before enrolling.

Pullman officers never arrested Kohberger, and no charges were ever filed against him in the Pullman case. However, now that Kohberger was sentenced to serve the rest of his life in jail without the possibility of parole, they decided to make the majority of their evidence and documents related to the 2021 break-in public.

This story was originally published on August 14, 2025. It has been updated and republished since then.

Follow Luke Duecy on X. Read more of his stories here. Submit news tips here.