More than six weeks after four University
of Idaho students were murdered in their
apartment just blocks away from campus,
police say they have arrested a suspect.
28 year old Brian Koberger was arrested
in northeastern Pennsylvania and is
awaiting extradition to Idaho on a
warrant for fugitive from justice.
During a news conference today,
Moscow Police Chief James Fry said that
Coburger is facing 4 murder charges and
we've got team coverage for you here tonight.
Brian Holmes is live in Moscow. ID.
With the latest on today's arrest and
Alexandra Duggan breaks down everything we
know so far about the suspects background,
but we'll start with Brian Holmes
live in Moscow. Good evening, Brian.
Good evening, Joe.
Yeah, there's not a whole lot of
information we gathered from that
news conference from today because
the chief of police has James Fry,
the chief of police here in Moscow,
mentioned as dope.
So did Bill Thompson,
the Latah County prosecutor,
who said they can't really say a whole
lot about the case and the investigation
up to this point because that suspect,
Brian Koberger,
is still in Pennsylvania
awaiting extradition.
That is happening on Tuesday.
And until he gets back into Idaho,
they can't really say much.
So they don't jeopardize the case.
State law says they can't do that,
but we do know is they kind of broke.
Down how this happened and how we
got to this point and what we do
know is November 13th there was a
call to that house off of King Rd.
where there were there was somebody
unconscious and they soon found
out that there were four murdered
U of I students inside that house.
There was a vigil after they sent most
students home who wanted to go home,
who feared because,
well that suspect was still in
the loose and for weeks they
didn't have a suspect in mind.
When they came back to school on
November 30th they had a vigil.
Then the biggest break in the case
possibly came on December 7th
when Moscow police said they were
looking for a white Hyundai Elantra.
In 2011 to 2013,
the Make and model of that car
was seen near that house off of
Kings Road and if anybody had seen
that to let them know.
And they received thousands and thousands
of tips when it comes to that car.
But that is kind of what led
them to Pennsylvania.
Near 40, alright,
should say thousands of
miles across the country.
That's where they found
Brian Christopher Kolberger,
the 28 year old whose connection
to the Palouse here and to this
area seems to be that he's a
criminology program student.
He's a graduate student,
the criminology program at
Washington State University.
You know,
there wasn't a whole lot of information,
as I said, because of that.
But there's a lot of things we do not know.
Like when did Koger Koberger
become a suspect?
How long have they been tracking him?
What made this arrest possible today?
And there were even questions of a motive.
But again,
none of that information was provided today.
When asked if there was anyone else
possibly involved in this case,
Chief Fry said we have an individual in
custody who committed these horrible crimes.
As you remember,
this has been 6 long weeks and it's terrible.
Terrible it has been for this community,
waiting with bated breath for any
sort of break in the case like this.
The police, the FBI,
the Sheriff's Office here and even
Idaho State police have been fully
involved in this investigation and
it's stressful and is difficult.
The last six weeks have been
Chief Fry mentioned today
that those emotion Pete the past
couple of days while they're
waiting for this arrest to happen
on the other side of the country.
I can tell you for a lot of law enforcement,
it was a fairly sleepless couple
days with as we were leading up
to everything that we were doing.
But what I can tell you is I have faith
in those agencies across the nation.
I have faith in our officers,
I have faith in the FBI.
And they did a great job.
But sure, there was a sometimes even
throughout the day that we were.
I'm always concerned.
That was something that
Chief Fry was adamant about,
that he was confident they were
gonna find a suspect in this case.
And as you heard him say, yeah,
there were a couple moments last couple
of days that things got a little tense
and now they have somebody in custody.
One of the people that were at
that news conference today was
University of President Scott Green,
and he said it's a relief to our university,
our community and our extended Vandal family.
With time, we will heal from this.
We will move forward together
and we will remain Vandal strong.
So there's still a whole lot of
information we do not know other than his.
Connection here to this area to the police
being 10 minutes away or 10 miles away,
I should say at the university or at
the Washington State University and
being in the criminology program.
Joe,
that's Brian Holmes reporting
for us tonight at 5.
Brian will be up in Moscow
reporting for the latest.
We'll have another report from
him this evening. Thank you, Brian.
Ethan Chapman's family released a statement
this afternoon thanking the Moscow
Police Department for their diligent work.
They say in part quote,
we are relieved this chapter is over
because it provides a form of closure.
However, it doesn't alter the
outcome or alleviate the pain.
We miss Ethan and our
family is forever changed.
Over the last seven weeks we stood
by the Moscow Police Department,
FBI and Idaho State police confident
they would solve this crime.
So when we received the
phone call last night,
we congratulated them for their
diligent work in service.
According to a statement from
Washington State University,
Coburger had completed his
first semester as a PhD
student in WSU's criminal justice
program earlier this month.
The university says this morning,
campus police assisted
Idaho law enforcement officials in
the execution of search warrants at
Coburg's apartment and office, which are
both located on the WSU Pullman campus.
This according to a university official,
and they said this in a statement.
Quote on behalf of the WSU Pullman community,
I want to offer my sincere thanks to.
All of the law enforcement
agencies that have been working
tirelessly to solve this crime,
this horrific deck has shaken
everyone in the Palouse region.