Survivor's terrifying account of 'masked figure' at student slayings

The details were shared in a probable cause affidavit released yesterday in the prosecutors’ case against suspect Bryan Kohberger.

The roommate, identified in the document as DM, said she “heard crying” in the house the morning of the murders and heard a male voice say, ‘it’s okay, I’m going to help you.'”

DM said she then saw a “figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” the affidavit said.

“DM described the figure as 5′ 10″ or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” the affidavit said.

“The male walked past DM as she stood in a ‘frozen shock phase.'”

“The male walked towards the back sliding glass door. DM locked herself in her room after seeing the male,” the document said, adding the roommate did not recognise the male.

The release of the affidavit – which also said a DNA profile obtained from the trash at the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger’s family matched DNA on a tan leather knife sheath found at the scene of the killings – comes as the 28-year-old suspect makes his first court appearance in Idaho, where he faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.

Kohberger was booked into the Latah County, Idaho, jail Wednesday night after being extradited from his home state of Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last Friday, almost seven weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were found fatally stabbed in an off-campus home in the college town of Moscow, Idaho.

The affidavit addresses some questions authorities have so far left unanswered, namely some of the steps used to identify Kohberger as a suspect.

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Authorities had been searching for a white Hyundai Elantra seen in the area of the killings, the affidavit notes, and soon after notified area law enforcement to look for such a vehicle.

Several days later, officers at nearby Washington State University, where the suspect was a PhD student in the criminal justice program, identified a white Elantra and subsequently found it was registered to Kohberger.

Kohberger’s driver’s licence information was consistent with the description the surviving roommate saw in the home at the time of the attack, the affidavit said, noting specifical his height and weight, 182cm and 83kg, and the fact he has bushy eyebrows.

At the time of his arrest last week, a white Elantra was found at Kohberger’s parents’ house in Pennsylvania, according to Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, who said Kohberger had gone home for the holidays.

Additionally, trash recovered from the home of Kohberger’s family late last month was sent for DNA testing to the Idaho State Lab, the affidavit said.

The lab “reported that a DNA profile obtained from the trash” matched a tan leather knife sheath found “laying on the bed” of one of the victims.

Phone records also indicate Kohberger’s phone was near the victims’ residence at least 12 times between June 2022 to the present day, the document said. “All of these occasions, except for one, occurred in the late evening and early morning hours of their respective days.”

A court order prohibits the prosecution and defence from commenting beyond referencing the public records of the case.