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Idaho murders live updates: Bryan Kohberger arrested in Pennsylvania’s Poconos in connection to college student murders
CHESTNUTHILL TWP., Pa. (WPVI) — A 28-year-old man was arrested Friday in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains region on first-degree murder charges in the killings of four University of Idaho students last month.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger appeared before a judge earlier Friday. Court documents show the judge ordered Kohberger’s extradition to Idaho where he will face criminal charges.
Bryan Kohberger
Monroe County Correctional Facility
Sources say that authorities knew who they were looking for and had tracked Kohberger to his parent’s home on the 100 block of Lamsden Drive in Chestnuthill Township, Monroe County.
Law enforcement sources told ABC News police in Idaho identified Kohberger as a suspect, at least in part, by using DNA technology. They tracked him to Pennsylvania through his vehicle.
The FBI had been watching the house for several days before a specialized team of state troopers and federal agents moved in and took him into custody around 2 a.m., sources say.
Authorities are still working to investigate how Kohberger was connected to the victims.
Moscow (Idaho) Police Chief James Fry said they’re still “putting all the pieces together” to determine a motive.
The affidavit for four charges of first-degree murder in Idaho will remain sealed until he is returned. He is also charged with felony burglary in Idaho, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said. An extradition hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Idaho authorities have been looking for a white Hyundai Elantra in connection with the murders.
WATCH | Idaho authorities update public after college murder suspect’s arrest
A neighbor, who did not want to be identified, tells Action News that one was towed from the Kohberger home on Friday morning.
“The tow truck came, they towed the car. We were surprised because we didn’t know what was going on,” she said.
When shown a picture of an Elantra, she said, “Yes, that’s the car.”
“We’ve seen the owner drive that car so many times,” she said.
The neighbor said she didn’t know Kohberger but she had seen him in and out of the house in recent weeks. She said his parents are a “very sweet couple.”
Fry confirmed Friday that an Elantra had been found. However, investigators are still looking for the murder weapon.
Thompson said investigators believe Kohberger broke into the students’ home “with the intent to commit murder.”
The stabbing deaths shook the small town of Moscow, Idaho, a farming community of about 25,000 people – including roughly 11,000 students – tucked in the rolling hills of northern Idaho’s Palouse region.
Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were killed off campus at the University of Idaho.
Obtained by CNN
The victims, Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20; were likely asleep when they were each stabbed multiple times in the early hours of November 13, authorities have said.
Some of the victims had defensive wounds, a coroner has said. There was no sign of sexual assault, police said
The killings happened in the girls’ off-campus house.
Two other roommates — who police said are not suspects — survived and likely slept through the murders, according to officials. The survivors were on the ground floor while the four victims were on the second and third floors.
Goncalves’ family tells ABC they don’t know the suspect but are looking into him. The family says they are “happy, relieved, and thankful.”
Kohberger is a Ph.D. student at Washington State University, which is a short drive across the state line from the University of Idaho.
He graduated from Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania with an associate of arts degree in psychology in 2018, said college spokesperson Mia Rossi-Marino.
Kohberger received his bachelor’s degree in 2020 from DeSales University near Allentown, Pennsylvania, and completed his graduate studies in June 2022. The university is located about 40 miles south of where he was arrested.
“As a Catholic, Salesian community, we are devastated by this senseless tragedy,” the university said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims’ families during this difficult time.”
According to ABC News, a user on Reddit identifying themselves as Bryan Kohberger and a criminology student at DeSales University posted multiple times several months ago recruiting “research participants” for a university study.
In the posts, which were made starting in May 2022, the user asked for information to help a “research project that seeks to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime.” The posts linked to a survey that asked detailed questions about committing crimes.
A source tells ABC News that law enforcement is aware of the Reddit posts.
RELATED: A timeline of the killings of 4 University of Idaho students
Police said they have received about 20,000 tips through more than 9,025 emails, 4,575 phone calls, and 6,050 digital media submissions, while having conducted over 300 interviews in the case of the four students slain in an off-campus home.
Fears of a repeat attack prompted nearly half of the University of Idaho students to switch to online classes for the remainder of the semester, abandoning dorms and apartments in the normally bucolic town for the perceived safety of their hometowns.
Safety concerns also had the university hiring an additional security firm to escort students across campus and the Idaho State Police sending troopers to help patrol the city’s streets.
WHO WERE THE IDAHO MURDER VICTIMS?
All four were friends and members of the university’s Greek system. Xana Kernodle, 20, was a junior studying marketing. She was from Post Falls, Idaho, and joined the Pi Beta Phi sorority on campus. She lived at the rental home with the other two women who were stabbed, and she was dating Ethan Chapin, who was visiting the night of the killings.
Chapin, also 20, was from Conway, Washington, and was a triplet. His brother and sister also attend UI, and both Chapin and his brother were members of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen were both 21 and friends who grew up together in northern Idaho. Mogen worked with Kernodle at a Greek restaurant in Moscow. She was also a member of Pi Beta Phi.
Goncalves was a senior majoring in general studies, a member of the Alpha Phi sorority and was planning a trip to Europe next year.
WHAT HAPPENED THE NIGHT AND MORNING OF THE ATTACK?
Goncalves and Mogen went to a bar, stopped at a food truck and then caught a ride home around 2 a.m. on Nov. 13, according to a police timeline of the evening.
Chapin and Kernodle were at the Sigma Chi house just a short walk away and returned to Kernodle’s house around 1:45 a.m., police said.
Two other roommates who live in the home were also out that evening, but returned home by 1 a.m., police said. They didn’t wake up until later that morning.
After they woke up, they called friends to come to the house because they believed one of the victims found on the second floor had passed out and wasn’t waking up. At 11:58 a.m., someone inside the home called 911, using a roommate’s cell phone. Multiple people talked with the dispatcher before police arrived.
Police found two of the victims on the second floor of the three-story home, and two on the third floor. A dog was also at the home, unharmed.
Autopsies showed the four were all likely asleep when they were attacked, some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times. There was no sign of sexual assault, police said.
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ABC News, the Associated Press and the CNN Wire contributed to this report
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Thousands of turkeys affected after bird flu hits Pennsylvania’s popular Jaindl Farms
NORTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pennsylvania (WPVI) — A popular Lehigh Valley turkey farm had to destroy thousands of turkeys after the bird flu disease was detected in a flock.
David Jaindl of Jaindl Farms in Orefield, Pa. says 14,000 turkeys were affected.
According to the USDA, the agency that tracks the cases, 21 commercial flocks have been affected in Pennsylvania.
Similar outbreaks are happening across the country.
Prior to the impact, Jaindl sat down for an interview where he spoke about the flu and inflation.
“It’s tough because the product is limited across the country so you’re going to see higher prices this year,” Jaindl said.
Authorities are setting up a control area and surveillance zone around the farm to hopefully prevent the flu from spreading.
Many of the Jaindl turkeys intended for Thanksgiving were processed before the outbreak, Jaindl said.
Jaindl has supplied turkeys to the White House in the past.
“We are confident that we will have an adequate supply of turkeys for the Thanksgiving holiday,” Jaindl said.
Jaindl says bird flu issues have reached 46 states and have affected 50 million birds across the country since February.
The bird flu and inflation are hiking the costs of turkeys across the country.
Data from the USDA shows a dramatic increase in the cost of fresh turkey after the 2015 bird flu outbreak — and an even higher jump after this year’s outbreaks.
Pennsylvania poultry operations continue to experience threats from highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The disease is highly contagious to birds and almost always fatal, according to the state Department of Agriculture.
According to the CDC, there are no reports of any human cases of the avian flu in the United States.
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Monkeypox in Philadelphia: CDC testing confirms virus in city resident, marking Pennsylvania’s first case
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The Philadelphia Department of Public Health said Friday a suspected case of monkeypox in a city resident is now confirmed.
The probable case was first announced on Thursday afternoon, but CDC testing has since confirmed it.
The health department said the monkeypox virus has a much longer incubation period, which helps with contact tracing and containment.
RELATED: What is monkeypox? What to know about virus, symptoms, spread
“Typically, someone will develop symptoms between five and 21 days from the time that they are exposed,” said Dana Perella, Acute Communicable disease manager with the Philadelphia Health Department.
Perella said there is currently a vaccine to lessen the severity of illness and antiviral treatment for patients with monkeypox.
“I believe that residents and visitors should feel safe to do all the fun things Philadelphia has to offer, with the proper precautions,” she said.
City officials are working with the CDC to investigate how the person was exposed and if they may have exposed anyone else since they became infectious.
The current outbreak was first confirmed in a British resident on May 6. Since then, cases have been confirmed in 29 other non-endemic countries, including the United States. The CDC reports that there are 23 confirmed cases in 11 states. Worldwide, there has only been one death associated with this outbreak.
Officials strongly recommend that anyone who is experiencing symptoms of an unexplained rash on their face, palms, arms, legs, genitals, or the perianal region that may be accompanied by flu-like illness should contact their regular healthcare provider as soon as possible.
Monkeypox is spread through close, personal contact. Initial symptoms usually include fever, fatigue, headache, and enlarged lymph nodes. A rash often starts on the face and then appears on the palms, arms, legs, and other parts of the body. Some recent cases began with a rash on the genitals or perianal region only with no other initial symptoms.
Over a week or two, the rash changes from small, flat spots to tiny blisters that are similar to chicken pox, and then to larger blisters. These can take several weeks to scab over. Once the scabs fall off, the person is no longer contagious.
RELATED: Monkeypox won’t turn into pandemic, but there are many unknowns
Monkeypox is a viral disease that is usually found in Central and West Africa. Monkeypox was first discovered in laboratory monkeys in 1958. Blood tests of animals in Africa later found evidence of Monkeypox infection in several African rodents. In 1970, Monkeypox was reported in humans for the first time.
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Doctor: Pennsylvania’s Fetterman also has cardiomyopathy
The cardiologist for John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania who is recovering from a stroke, disclosed Friday that the candidate also has cardiomyopathy, in which the heart muscle becomes weakened and enlarged.
The acknowledgment was the first public comment by a doctor for Fetterman since the candidate first took to social media on May 15 to disclose the stroke.
In a statement released through the campaign, Fetterman’s cardiologist, Dr. Ramesh Chandra, said Fetterman will be fine if he eats healthy foods, takes prescribed medication and exercises.
Cardiomyopathy can impede blood flow and potentially cause heartbeats so irregular they can be fatal.
Fetterman, 52, easily won the Democratic nomination while in the hospital two days later, just hours after undergoing surgery to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator.
The fall general election is expected to be of the nation’s premier Senate contests this fall.
Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, has said that his stroke was caused by a heart condition called atrial fibrillation and that doctors implanted the pacemaker May 17 to manage it.
However, questions have swirled about what effects Fetterman continues to suffer from the stroke and why doctors implanted a defibrillator along with a pacemaker.
Chandra said the defibrillator, which delivers corrective shocks when it senses life-threatening irregular rhythms, was implanted because of Fetterman’s cardiomyopathy.
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Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ap_politics. Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timelywriter.
PA Primary: Mehmet Oz, Dave McCormick neck and neck in Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate contest ; Kathy Barnette trails by 76,000 votes
NEWTOWN, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — The night’s most closely watched race in Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate contest is still too close to call.
Election Results: Live updates on Pennsylvania primary races
Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund executive Dave McCormick are neck and neck. Political commentator Kathy Barnette trails behind by more than 76,000 votes.
As of 11 p.m. with 99% of the estimated vote counted, McCormick led by 337,797 votes while Oz held 335,314 votes. Barnette had 261,299 total votes.
The auto recount trigger in Pennsylvania for a statewide race is a margin of
The winner will face Democratic challenger John Fetterman who won his party’s nomination days after suffering a stroke.
“We’re not gonna have a result tonight,” Oz said shortly before midnight, before vowing to Trump, “I will make you proud.”
Oz had been locked in an expensive battle with McCormick. But Barnette, who has drawn the support of Trump backers suspicious of Oz’s ideological shifts, stunned the political world with a late surge that upended the race in the final weeks as she tries to become the first Black Republican woman elected to the Senate.
Barnette, who voted in Huntingdon Valley on Tuesday morning, has repeated false claims the 2020 election was stolen.
In recent days, pictures have emerged of Barnette apparently marching near members of the Proud Boys on January 6, 2021. ABC News has verified the images that were first shared by an independent researcher.
She denied any connection to the Proud Boys to another network.
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