Pa. family of Idaho slaying suspect calls for privacy as they ‘let the legal process unfold’

“We respect privacy in this matter as our family and the families suffering loss can move forward through the legal process,” the Kohberger family said in a public statement.

Bryan C. Kohberger, 28, was taken into custody in Monroe County from this gated community at the family’s home in Albrightsville on Friday morning in connection with the killings of four University of Idaho students. Albrightsville PA. Friday, December 30, 2022.Read moreSteven M. Falk / Staff Photographer

by Max Marin

Published Jan. 2, 2023, 9:45 a.m. ET

The family of the Pennsylvania man charged with the slaying of four University of Idaho students is asking for privacy and patience as the legal process plays out.

Bryan Kohberger, 28, was taken into custody Friday at his family home in Chestnuthill Township in rural Monroe County in connection with the November slayings that devastated a sleepy college town along the Washington state border, where Kohberger had been enrolled in a doctoral criminology program at the nearby Washington State University.

Idaho prosecutors allege that Kohberger broke into the University of Idaho students’ off-campus home “with the intent to commit murder,” and fatally stabbed Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves — likely while they were sleeping, according to autopsy reports.

Kohberger is being held without bail at Monroe County Correctional Facility. The Associated Press reported that he plans to waive his extradition hearings scheduled for Tuesday so that he may be quickly brought to Idaho to face charges.

The Kohberger family, who live in the Poconos north of Allentown, extended condolences to the victims’ families while also asking the public to uphold “the presumption of innocence” in the nationally watched case against their son and brother.

Here’s the full statement, as reported by CBS News:

“First and foremost we care deeply for the four families who have lost their precious children. There are no words that can adequately express the sadness we feel, and we pray each day for them. We will continue to let the legal process unfold and as a family we will love and support our son and brother. We have fully cooperated with law enforcement agencies in an attempt to seek the truth and promote his presumption of innocence rather than judge unknown facts and make erroneous assumptions. We respect privacy in this matter as our family and the families suffering loss can move forward through the legal process.”

Kohberger family statement

Citing sources, CNN reported that FBI agents in Pennsylvania surveilled Kohberger at home for days before the arrest Friday, after authorities had tracked his DNA to the crime scene and tied him to a white Hyundai Elantra seen in the area around the time of the slayings.

Kohberger had been enrolled in the graduate criminology program at Washington State University, located in another college town just 10 miles from the University of Idaho. WSU listed Kohberger as a teaching assistant for the university’s criminal justice and criminology program, but the school has since scrubbed the webpage listing him and his classmates.

Jason LaBar, a lawyer for Kohberger, has also asked the public for patience as the legal process unfolds in a case that has already drawn widespread social media speculation, according to the Associated Press.

“Mr. Kohberger has been accused of very serious crimes, but the American justice system cloaks him in a veil of innocence,” LaBar wrote in a statement. “He should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise — not tried in the court of public opinion.”

This article contains information from the Associated Press.