Home where Moscow murders took place will remain a crime scene until February
MOSCOW, Idaho – The home where four University of Idaho students were murdered will remain taped off as a crime scene at least until February 1st.
Newly unsealed records show a judge signed off on that order on December 30th, the same day Bryan Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania.
Kohberger is accused of killing Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin at a home on King Road early on the morning of November 13th.
The home has remained a crime scene ever since, guarded by police and then private security.
On December 30th, a private company was to begin cleaning the home.
That cleaning stopped abruptly, just as news broke about Kohberger’s arrest more than 3,000 miles away.
The cleaning was stopped because public defender Anne Taylor filed a motion to preserve the crime scene and evidence.
“The motion is made so that Defense Counsel may take a view of the scene in order to effectively and constitutionally represent Mr. Kohberger,” she wrote.
Investigative teams have been seen at the home in the days following that order.
The order to preserve the crime scene was signed the same day.
Judge Megan Marshall wrote that the state did not object.
“The crime scene located at 1122 King Road, Moscow, Idaho including the home and outbuildings, trailers, vehicles and curtilage shall be preserved,” the order states. “[Which means] the house will be locked, crime tape will remain, on-site police presence is not required.”
The order will stay in place until February 1, 2023 “or until further order of the court.
The order also states that all evidence, samples, bodily fluids, etc. will be held and preserved by the State for the Defense.
The spring semester begins Wednesday and the University of Idaho says security measures and counseling will remain in place.
RELATED STORY: ‘Frozen Shock’; Surviving roommate saw killer in home the morning of the Moscow murders
Kohberger made his first court appearance in Idaho Thursday, where heard the charges against him.
Judge Marshall ordered that he be held without bail.
Court documents unsealed upon Kohberger’s arrival reveal what led police to their suspect.
The information includes a knife sheath left the crime scene that contained DNA, later matching Kohberger’s family.
It also revealed that one of two surviving roommates heard some commotion in the home that morning and saw a man dressed in black and wearing a mask leaving the home.
Those documents redacted information about what the autopsy revealed.
We also still don’t know why police believe Kohberger targeted this home and these victims.
At the time of the murders, Kohberger was a PhD student studying criminology at nearby Washington State University.
Police used the roommate’s account of seeing the killer in the home to narrow down a time frame.
Video from near the home at the time of the murders had police key in on a white Hyundai Elantra, which was later connected to Kohberger.
Kohberger has no known criminal history anywhere in the United States.
WATCH: What’s next for Bryan Kohberger in Idaho?
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