Suspect in College Student Killings Is Being Taken to Idaho

Suspect in College The 28-year-old Ph.D. student accused in the killings of four University of Idaho students will face four counts of murder.

STROUDSBURG, Pa. — The criminology student accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in November was in the process of being transferred to Idaho on Wednesday after agreeing to be extradited from Pennsylvania to face murder charges.

The student, Bryan Kohberger, 28, was arrested in Pennsylvania on Friday and charged in the overnight killings of four students at a home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13. Mr. Kohberger had entered a Ph.D. program in criminology and criminal justice at Washington State University last summer and moved to Pullman, Wash., a 20-minute drive across the border from the scene of a crime that horrified and confounded the region.

Bryan Christopher Kohberger, the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students, was removed from a county jail in Pennsylvania and turned over to state police Wednesday, officials said.

“He is no longer in the custody of the Monroe County Correctional Facility; he’s in the custody of the Pennsylvania State Police,” warden Garry Haidle said. “He’s out of my custody.”

It wasn’t immediately clear when Kohberger would be on a plane for Idaho.

“For security reasons, we will not be providing further information or comment on his extradition status,» Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Brent Miller said Wednesday afternoon.

Kohberger, 28, waived extradition Tuesday in a Stroudsburg courtroom, paving the way for his trip to Latah County, Idaho.

That’s where Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson said Kohberger will be charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary, accused of breaking into the Moscow, Idaho, home with the intent to commit a felony.

He «will be evaluated by Jail staff when he arrives, as does every other inmate who enters our facility. Mr. Kohberger’s housing classification will be based on the evaluation given by jail staff,» Latah County Sheriff Richard Skiles said in a statement.

Kohberger was arrested Friday in Albrightsville in northeastern Pennsylvania, about 2,500 miles from Moscow, where the students were killed Nov. 13.

He’s been charged in the slayings of Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho.

The suspect was a doctoral student in the criminal justice and criminology department at Washington State University, 9 miles from Moscow.

Kohberger is “no longer enrolled as a student” at the university, a school representative said Tuesday without elaborating.