Creepy Bryan Kohberger selfie taken simply hours after Idaho killings might present key element in homicide case
A never-before-seen picture of Bryan Kohberger taken just hours after he allegedly murdered four college students will form part of the prosecution’s case against him.
The extraordinary picture shows Kohberger smirking and offering a ‘thumbs up’ to the camera.
The selfie appears to have been taken in a bathroom, with a shower as the backdrop.
Kohberger wears earphones and a collared long sleeve shirt buttoned to the top in the eerie picture.
The prosecution is expected to show jurors the picture as they argue that one of the surviving housemates recalls seeing a person ‘with bushy eyebrows’ in her home on the night of the murders, according to NewsNation’s Brian Entin.
Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were all found fatally stabbed in their off-campus student home in Moscow, Idaho in November 2022.
Kohberger, a criminology PhD student, was arrested six weeks later and accused of the slayings. He denies involvement in the crime.
Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen recalled amasked intruder leaving the student house moments after the brutal murders are believed to have taken place.
The extraordinary picture shows Kohberger smirking and offering a ‘thumbs up’ to the camera
From left: Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee’s shoulders), Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke
The defining characteristic she recalls was the man’s ‘bushy eyebrows.’
Last month, the accused mass killer‘s defense made a string of requests asking the judge to block certain words and phrases from his trial – including ‘bushy eyebrows.’
Mortensen, whose bedroom was on the second floor, came face-to-face with a masked man in the immediate aftermath of the murders, according to court documents.
She told investigators that she had been woken by noises in the home at around 4am that morning and had heard a voice say ‘there’s someone here.’
She also heard what sounded like whimpering coming from Kernodle’s room and a man’s voice saying: ‘It’s ok, I’m going to help you.’
Mortensen told investigators she had opened her door and peeked outside three times.
The third time, she said she saw a man with ‘bushy eyebrows’ and dressed in black walk past her door and head towards the sliding back doors of the home.
Between 4.22am and 4.24am on the morning of November 13, 2022, Mortensen and the other surviving housemate Bethany Funke exchanged 17 frantic text messages fearing someone was in their house.
Ethan Chapin was staying at his girlfriend Xana Kernodle’s (together on left) home on the night of the murders. Best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen (together on right) were found stabbed to death in the same bed
Between 4.22am and 4.24am on the morning of November 13, 2022, survivors Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke exchanged 17 frantic text messages fearing someone was in their house
‘I’m not kidding o [sic] am so freaked out,’ one of the messages read.
Over three separate messages, Funke responded ‘come to my room. Run. Down here.’
Soon after seeing the intruder, Mortensen went downstairs to Funke’s room and the two roommates fell asleep there, according to the newly-filed court documents.
The text messages offer an insight into the state’s case against Kohberger and the chilling fear that ran through the survivors on the night four of their friends were tragically killed.
‘Kaylee. What’s going on,’ Mortensen wrote in a text message to Gonclaves. She didn’t hear back.
She sent another text to Funke which read ‘no one is answering’, followed moments later by another: ‘I’m rlly confused rn.’
Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen together. Mogen had DNA from three individuals under her nails
Funke replied, asking: ‘Ya dude wtf… Xana was wearing all black.’
Mortensen responded confessing she was ‘freaking out’ before clarifying that she had seen someone wearing ‘like a ski mask almost.’
Kohberger has so far offered up a vague alibi for the night of the murdersclaiming he was driving around at night looking at the stars.
No witnesses can corroborate where he was, his attorney Anne Taylor admitted in a court filing.
As well as the DNA found on the knife sheath, prosecutors say Kohberger was also tied to the murders through his white Elantra – matching the car seen leaving the crime scene at the time of the murders – and cellphone records placing him in the vicinity of the home.
