Sign up for our free US newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every weekday morning
Sign up for our free US Morning email newsletter
Tinder, DoorDash and Venmo are among dozens of companies that have received search warrants in the University of Idaho murder case.
Court documents filed last week reveal that investigators probing the brutal murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle have issued warrants to about 40 companies as they pursue murder charges against accused killer Bryan Kohberger.
Any evidence the searches may have turned up remains unknown, as the judge ordered the warrants to remain sealed and redacted.
However, the orders determining the sealing of the warrants revealed which companies had been issued with warrants.
Businesses range from online dating websites to banks and online payment companies to retailers.
Includes: Amazon, American Express, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, Banner Bank in Spokane, Washington, Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.), Blue Ridge Knives in Marion, Virginia, Charter Communications, Coeur d’Alene Police Department Forensic Lab, Discover Bank, DoorDash, Ebay, Elan Financial Services, Extreme Networks, Google, Idaho Central Credit Union, Idaho Department of Labor, Inland Cellular, KA-BAR Knives, Match Group LLC (owner of Tinder) Meta Platforms (parent company of Facebook), Moscow Police Department Forensic Laboratory, Numerica Credit Union, Paypal/Venmo, Potlatch No 1 Financial Credit Union, Reddit, Snap Inc. (Snapshot parent group), T-Mobile, Umpqua Bank, UPS, Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, Verizon Wireless, Washington State University, Yahoo and Yik Yak.
Some of the reported companies seem more obvious than others.
KA-BAR Knives received a search warrant, after the killer left a KA-BAR knife sheath at the scene of the murders. DNA found on the holster matched Mr. Kohberger, according to a criminal affidavit.
Meanwhile, Kernodle received a DoorDash order at the off-campus home just minutes before she was killed.
While some of the warrants sought information about Kohberger, others sought information about the victims, such as access to their Facebook and Snapchat accounts.
This comes as investigators work to piece together any possible link between the students and their accused killer or what his motive for the quadruple murders might have been.
Several of the warrants were filed in December, at the height of the investigation into the Nov. 13 killings, but have now come to light as the judge ordered them to remain sealed until further notice from the court.
All of the judge’s orders gave the same reasons for keeping the documents sealed.
Bryan Kohberger is accused of murdering four students in Moscow
(AP)
“The documents contain very intimate facts or statements, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person,” the orders say.
“The documents contain facts or statements that could threaten the security or endanger the life or safety of individuals and disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy.”
Although the Idaho search warrants remain sealed, search warrants were recently opened at Mr. Kohberger’s family home in Pennsylvania.
Warrants reveal that during a search of the home in Chestnuthill Township, when law enforcement officers conducted an early morning raid, they found a .40 caliber Glock pistol, empty gun cartridges, a knife, a pocket knife, black masks and black gloves. on December 30.
Other items seized included a “book with underlying page 118”, Mr Kohberger’s phone bills and a “green leafy substance in a plastic bag”.
On the same day, Mr. Kohberger’s apartment in Pullman and his office at Washington State University (WSU) were searched.
The unsealed documents reveal that investigators seized a number of items from his home, including possible strands of human and animal hair, a disposable glove, items with red and brown stains and a computer.
Authorities also took swabs from Mr. Kohberger’s car and seized a shovel, gloves and goggles, a bandage and the best reflective material inside.
Kohberger, a 28-year-old Washington State University doctoral student, was arrested during the Dec. 30 raid at his family’s home in Pennsylvania and extradited to Moscow, Idaho, to face charges of murder
He is accused of murdering the four University of Idaho students in a brutal knife attack that sent shockwaves through the small college town.
On Nov. 13, he allegedly entered the off-campus student house shared by the three young women and stabbed all four victims to death.
Police tape surrounds the house that was the scene of the quadruple murder
(Getty Images)
Two other roommates were unharmed in the house.
One of the surviving roommates came face-to-face with the killer, masked, dressed in head-to-toe black and with thick eyebrows, as he left the house after the murders.
The bodies of the victims were discovered hours later.
The affidavit, released in January, revealed that investigators believe Mr Kohberger may have stalked the student at the home before the mass killing, with cellphone data placing him at the property 12 times before the 13 of November
At the time of the murders, investigators believe Mr. Kohberger turned off his cell phone in an attempt to avoid detection.
However, mobile phone data places him near the King Road home at around 9am on November 13, suggesting he returned to the crime scene within hours of killing the four victims in around 4 a.m., the affidavit reveals.
As a doctoral student in criminal justice at WSU, Kohberger lived just 15 minutes from the victims on the Idaho-Washington border in Pullman. He had moved there from Pennsylvania and started his studies there that summer, just finishing the first semester of his arrest.
Prior to that, he studied criminology at DeSales University, first as an undergraduate and then completed his graduate studies in June 2022.
While there, he studied with renowned forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland, who interviewed the BTK serial killer and co-wrote the book Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer with him.
He also carried out a research project “to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime”.
Now, he faces life in prison or the death penalty for the murders that have rocked the small university town of Moscow and made headlines around the world.
He is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on June 26.
FAIR-USE COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as citation, syndication, criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by the copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
-This article has no negative impact on the original works (It would actually be positive for them).
-This article is also for teaching and inspirational purposes.
– It is not transformative in nature
Source link