Eerie scribble that could help solve Idaho murders is revealed... and Bryan Kohberger's bizarre coffee offer to cop
A strange scribble could help seal the fate of the man accused of breaking into an off-campus home and slaughtering four University of Idaho students in an attack that sent shockwaves across the globe.
Bryan Kohberger is accused of murdering Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen in a horror knife attack back on November 13, 2022, in Moscow, Idaho.
In the moments after the murders, surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen came face-to-face with a masked man with bushy eyebrows and dressed in all black as he left the home at 1122 King Road.
Now, a bizarre, scrawling sketch drawn by Mortensen to show police what she saw that fateful night has been revealed for the first time.
The drawing, unearthed in a newly-released court document, appears to depict a balaclava.
According to prosecutors, Kohberger bought a black balaclava matching the description from Dick’s Sporting Goods on January 10, 2022 - 10 months before he allegedly donned the disguise to carry out the murders.
The state plans to present proof of this purchase to jurors at his capital murder trial this summer, to show it is 'the same type of mask described by DM that she witnessed worn by a male in the residence on November 13, 2022'.
The new details were revealed in a trove of court documents filed by the prosecution and the defense in recent days as both sides prepare for the high-profile trial.
The bizarre, scrawling sketch Dylan Mortensen drew of the mask she saw a man wearing inside the home at the time of the murders
In the documents, bombshell new details were also revealed about the accused killer's bizarre comments to officers mere moments after his arrest.
And an eerie college assignment from Kohberger's criminology degree at DeSales University was also released, in which the accused mass killer meticulously detailed a crime scene where a young white woman was murdered with a knife.
Kohberger, a 30-year-old PhD student at Washington State University, was arrested around six weeks on from the quadruple homicide at his parents' home in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf at his arraignment.
The newly-released drawing of the balaclava shines further light on the eyewitness account of the roommate who lived to tell the tale.
At the time of the murders, Mortensen and Bethany Funke lived with Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle in the three-story house in Moscow. They were both inside the home at the time of the murders but escaped unscathed.
Mortensen's bedroom was on the second floor and she is the only known survivor believed to have encountered the killer that night.
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 - also on the second floor - and a mystery man’s voice saying: ‘It’s ok, I’m going to help you.’
The off-campus student home in Moscow, Idaho, where the four students were murdered is seen on November 29, 2022
From left: Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee's shoulders), Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke
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.
The terrified student then made a series of panicked texts and calls to Funke and her slain roommates moments later.
Only Funke responded. The others were already dead.
Mortensen ultimately went to Funke's bedroom, where the two young women stayed together.
Around eight hours later, after cellphone records show their texts and calls to their roommates continued to go unanswered, they called two friends to the home, court documents show.
A harrowing 911 call was made from Funke's phone just before midday as Kernodle's body was discovered.
Police arrived on the scene to find young couple Kernodle and Chapin dead in her room on the second floor. Best friends Mogen and Goncalves were both found dead in Mogen's bed on the third floor. All four had been brutally stabbed to death.
Bryan Kohberger smirks and offers a 'thumbs up' to the camera in a selfie six hours after the murders
A search of Dick's Sporting Goods' current offering reveals there are 41 variations of black balaclavas or ski masks available
Following the murders, Mortensen told police in multiple interviews and testified to a grand jury that she could only make out the man's 'bushy eyebrows' because of the mask.
'I just remember, like, bushy eyebrows. That's all I could think about,' Mortensen told investigators.
The defense has tried to cast doubt on Mortensen's credibility as the sole surviving witness - and is asking the judge to ban the term 'bushy eyebrows' from the trial.
In the new court filing, released Wednesday, Kohberger's team unveiled her drawing of the balaclava and questioned its reliability.
The defense argued that Mortensen was drunk at the time - reeling off a list of alcohol consumed that night including champagne and hard seltzer. They added that she 'has a fascination with drawing eyes and eyebrows,' and had only seen the man for a very short time with limited lighting and 'under stress and expressed fear'.
According to the defense, her memory may have been impacted because she was allowed to mingle with Funke and many other friends after the murders were discovered - and before her first police interview.
'Many of the friends who were at 1122 King Road when police arrived also stayed in the same hotel room the night of November 13, 2022,' the defense argued.
The defense also argued that an officer had asked Mortensen if she knew what a balaclava was and showed her a picture during her third police interview on November 17, 2022.
Best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen were found dead in the same bed in Mogen's room on the third floor
Boyfriend and girlfriend Ethan Chapin (left) and Xana Kernodle (right) were slain in bed together in the gruesome murders in November 2022
During the next interview on December 1, 2022, Mortensen then drew the mask which looks like a balaclava.
'Mistaken identifications have been one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions in the United States for decades — and still are,' the defense wrote.
'When a witness swears under oath to the identification of the person on trial, the impact cannot be understated,' the defense argues. 'In this case, if D.M. is allowed to say that she saw bushy eyebrows, it will not be different than her pointing to Mr. Kohberger and saying, “that is him.”
'To make matters even more prejudicial the State wants to admit into evidence a picture of Mr. Kohberger, as if D.M. identified him in the photo. This is how wrongful convictions occur.'
Prosecutors want to show jurors a creepy selfie taken by Kohberger hours after the murders, arguing that the jury should decide if the accused killer could be described as having 'bushy eyebrows'.
The photo shows the quadruple homicide suspect sporting earphones and a pristine white shirt buttoned all the way up to the collar as he stands in front of a shower.
A slight grin is plastered across his face as he gives a thumbs-up to the camera.
The photo, prosecutors say, was taken at around 10:30am on November 13, 2022 - about six hours after the 30-year-old allegedly killed the four victims.
Bryan Kohberger's drivers license was revealed in the new court filings ahead of his trial
Bryan Kohberger (pictured during his extradition in January 2023) is slated to go on trial in August
It was also snapped about an hour after Kohberger's cellphone allegedly placed him back outside the home between 9:12 and 9:21am - indicating the suspected killer returned to the scene of the crime before the grisly murders were discovered and the 911 call was placed.
In another new court document, the defense revealed new details about Kohberger's bizarre behavior at the time of his arrest.
A SWAT team raided his parents' home on December 30, 2022, and took him into custody.
During his arrest, Kohberger allegedly suggested to one of the officers that they go for coffee sometime.
'A full swat team, doors broken, and parents zip tied, he made small talk with the detective in the back of the car during the ride to the police station,' the filing says.
'He asked the officer about his education and suggested that they get coffee at a later date.'
The defense argues this shows Kohberger did not understand 'the profoundly serious nature of the moment' due to his autism diagnosis - a diagnosis the team argues is reason to strike the death penalty from the case.
Due to changes in state law, Kohberger could be executed by firing squad if convicted.
DNA was found on a Ka-Bar knife sheath (seen in a stock image) left behind at the scene
It's an outcome some of the victims' families have made it clear they welcome.
The defense is also attacking a trove of evidence in the prosecution's case, arguing that much of it is too broad and its relevance unclear.
As part of this, the defense took aim at surveillance footage from the night of the murders, phone records and Kohberger's DeSales student records.
Prosecutors responded by sharing a 12-page assignment Kohberger submitted in 2020 as part of his criminal justice Masters degree.
The document details how to handle a crime scene where a white woman has been found murdered at a trailer park - stabbed to death with a knife.
It describes how crime scene investigators must meticulously photograph the scene including the victim's body, capturing 'the deceased woman in the living room... the bruises on her face, the marks on her neck, the bloody shirt...'
It also details photographing the knife at the scene, capturing any signs of forced entry, and documenting all crime scene evidence.
Prosecutors argue it shows Kohberger's extensive knowledge of crime scenes.
While at DeSales, the accused mass murderer studied under Dr Katherine Ramsland - a leading expert on the notorious BTK serial killer Dennis Rader.
The student home where the murders took place. It has now been demolished before the trial
There, as part of his thesis, he also sent out a questionnaire delving into an individual's thoughts and feelings while committing a crime.
After graduating from DeSales, in summer 2022, Kohberger enrolled on a criminology PhD program at WSU in Pullman, Washington - just over the border from Moscow, Idaho.
Kohberger was ultimately tied to the murders after investigators found a brown leather Ka-Bar knife sheath, featuring a US Marine Corps seal, next to Mogen's lifeless body in her bedroom on the third floor of the home.
Touch DNA on the sheath was traced back to Kohberger using Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG), according to prosecutors.
Following his arrest, testing showed it to be a statistical match.
Amazon records show Kohberger bought a Ka-Bar knife, sheath and sharpener from the site back in March 2022 - eight months before the murders, according to court documents.
Kohberger's Amazon history also reveals that he searched for a replacement knife or sheath in the days after the murders, according to prosecutors.
As well as the DNA evidence, cellphone records also allegedly show that Kohberger may have stalked the King Road home at least a dozen times in the lead-up to the murders - and that he turned his phone off while committing the crime to try to cover his tracks.
Surveillance footage also captured a vehicle matching the description of the suspect's car around the student home at the time of the murders.
After the judge struck down attempts to get the DNA evidence and Amazon shopping history thrown out, the defense is now expected to argue that the sheath was planted by the real killer at the scene - framing him for the shocking crime.
Kohberger's team has previously pointed to other DNA evidence found at the scene that does not belong to the suspect - including the blood from two mystery men, one on the handrail of a stairwell and the other on a glove found outside.
A three-person mixture of DNA was also found under Mogen's nails, with testing coming back inconclusive for Kohberger and several other individuals.
After more than two years, Kohberger's trial is finally set to get under way in Ada County in August.
Kohberger is next due in court in April.
