CHESTNUTHILL TWP., Pa. — A 28-year-old man was arrested Friday in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains region in connection with the murders of four University of Idaho students, law enforcement sources tell ABC News.
Bryan Kohberger appeared before a judge in Pennsylvania earlier Friday.
Bryan Kohberger
Monroe County Correctional Facility
Sources say that authorities knew who they were looking for and had tracked Kohberger to Chestnuthill Township, Pa.
According to a criminal complaint, Pennsylvania State Police were assisting the Moscow (Idaho) Police Department, Idaho State Police and the FBI to take Kohberger into custody on a first-degree murder warrant.
The warrant was issued through the Moscow Police Department and the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office.
A SWAT team entered the location Kohberger was staying in and took him into custody, sources say.
He appeared before a judge in Pennsylvania on Friday morning. Court documents show the judge ordered Kohberger’s extradition to Idaho where he will face criminal charges.
The Moscow Police Department in Idaho will hold a news conference on Friday afternoon to announce developments in the investigation.
The police department’s announcement of the news conference comes a day after 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.
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The students, 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
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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.
Police have said they have been searching for a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra thought to have been near the home early on November 13.
Police said Thursday the rental home would be cleared of “potential biohazards and other harmful substances” to collect evidence starting Friday morning.
It was unclear how long the work would take, but a news release said the house would be returned to the property manager upon completion.
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.
RELATED: A timeline of the killings of 4 University of Idaho students
The case also enticed online sleuths who speculated about potential suspects and motives. In the early days of the investigation, police released relatively few details publicly.
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.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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ABC News, the Associated Press and the CNN Wire contributed to this report
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