A newly surfaced video captures Bryan Kohberger at a Washington Department of Motor Vehicles office, replacing his license plates just days after the tragic murder of four University of Idaho students in 2022.
Kohberger, then 28, is seen in the surveillance footage at a Department of Motor Vehicles building in Pullman on November 18, 2022. YouTube user Christy’s Chaos was the first to obtain the footage, in which Kohberger is heard telling staff that he needed his license plate changed.
During his visit to the DMV, a staff member remarked that the area felt safer than San Francisco, her hometown. “I like how small, quiet, and I would say safe it is. But the whole Moscow thing makes it feel a little less,” she stated, to which Kohberger responded with a nod and a simple, “Yeah.”
In the footage, Kohberger is seen completing paperwork while wearing black gloves. He requested standard license plates and mentioned to the DMV employee that he was pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University.
Kohberger, 30, later accepted a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, confessing to the fatal stabbings of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves on November 13, 2022, at their off-campus residence in Moscow. As part of the agreement, Kohberger was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and waived his right to appeal.
Prior to the plea, Kohberger’s legal team contended that he was not present at the crime scene on the night of the murders, asserting that he was driving alone. They intended to introduce evidence of “alternative perpetrators” during the trial. However, Judge Steven Hippler dismissed this list, and the identities of the potential suspects remain undisclosed to the public.
Before accepting a plea, Kohberger’s attorneys said he was not at the crime scene and was driving around alone the night the four students were fatally stabbed. The defense wanted to present “alternative perpetrators at trial, but Judge Steven Hippler rejected the list, whose names have not been released to the public.
Police claimed Kohberger visited the area 12 times before the slayings and that he turned off his phone on the night in question. Kohberger’s DNA was found on a knife sheath located near Mogen and Goncalves’ bodies, according to prosecutors. The murder weapon has not been found.
Meanwhile, defense attorneys accused prosecutors of withholding evidence about unidentified DNA samples — including DNA on a glove outside the home which also remains unidentified. The judge rejected those contentions as well.
Investigators tested DNA from a trash can outside Kohberger’s family home in Pennsylvania against DNA found on the sheath at the crime scene. Testing determined that “at least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father.”
At the time of the slayings, Kohberger was working on his Ph.D. in criminology from Washington State University, which is located 10 miles from the crime scene. He was arrested in Pennsylvania in December 2022, after taking a cross-country road trip with his father from Washington to Pennsylvania for the holidays.
Despite a plea deal, a motive in the quadruple murder remains undisclosed.
[Feature Photo: YouTube]
