- NBC News, citing police documents, reports that Bryan Kohberger searched online for serial killer Ted Bundy both before and after the University of Idaho murders
- Kohberger also allegedly searched for nonconsensual pornography with keywords including “forced,” “passed out,” “drugged,” and “sleeping,” according to the documents
- These are just some of the new allegations that will be revealed about the case on a new episode of Dateline this Friday, May 9, at 9 p.m.
Bryan Kohberger allegedly searched online for Ted Bundy as well as pornography depicting nonconsensual sex in the weeks before and after four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death at an off-campus home, according to a report from NBC News, which cites police documents.
The network reports that Kohberger allegedly searched for pornography with the keywords “forced,” “passed out,” “drugged,” and “sleeping.”
Those are just two of the new allegations that will be revealed about the case on a new episode of Dateline this Friday, May 9, at 9 p.m.
The Bundy search could have been related to Kohberger’s role as a teacher’s assistant in an introductory-level criminology class, a job he held both before and after the murders.
It could also have been a way for him to find the op-ed his mother wrote about the serial killer in 1999, which later went viral after her son’s arrest.
By that time, Kohberger was incarcerated and did not have access to a cell phone or computer.
NBC News also obtained video footage of a car similar to the one driven by Kohberger that was taken both before and after the fatal stabbings of Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, on Nov. 13, 2022.
The four were found stabbed to death inside the home that Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle shared with their two surviving roommates.
The probable cause affidavit alleges that authorities linked Kohberger to the killings after running traces of DNA found on a knife sheath through genetic genealogy sites to identify a relative.
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Police also traced the location of Kohberger’s cell phone on the night of the murders. NBC News reports that cellphone tower data and records reviewed by an FBI expert allegedly showed Kohberger’s phone connected to a tower providing coverage within 100 meters of the murder house 23 times over four months.
The phone always connected after sunset, according to the report, and the last recorded visit occurred just six days before the killings, NBC News reports.
In a motion laying out his alibi, Kohberger’s lawyer, Anne Taylor, said the suspect was out driving by himself on the night of the murders and that he did not kill the four victims.
Kohberger’s murder trial is set to get underway Aug. 11 in Ada County after the defense successfully petitioned for a change of venue. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.
The murder suspect previously told the public defender who represented him after his arrest in Pennsylvania that he expects to be exonerated at trial. He declined to enter a plea in an Idaho courtroom when he was formally charged with four counts of murder, so the judge entered a not guilty plea for him.
Latah County Prosecutor William Thompson and Taylor, who are prohibited from making extrajudicial statements about the case under a non-dissemination order filed just days after Kohberger’s arrest, did not respond to requests for comment.
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