According to the documents, a man incarcerated at the Latah County Jail who was once housed next to Kohberger’s cell told a detective on Sept. 16, 2024, that Kohberger would often question him about his past criminal offenses and why he was in the maximum security wing of the facility.
The man said Kohberger’s habits annoyed him, including how he washed his hands dozens of times each day and spent 45 minutes to an hour in the shower. He said Kohberger stayed awake almost all night and would only take a nap during the day, documents further stated.
Hundreds of documents with shocking details were released by police within hours of Kohberger being sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, for the brutal stabbing murders of Gonclaves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin early on November 13, 2022.
Although it is not yet clear whether the strange happenings had anything to do with the killings, the documents do illustrate the frenzied efforts by law enforcement to follow every possible lead to find and convict Kohberger.
Did Kohberger go to Walmart weeks before killing students
The documents also revealed that a staff member at Walmart told police that two to three weeks earlier, a white, college-age male had come in looking for a black ski mask that would cover his face.
People who saw online feeds of some of the victims at a food truck offered their thoughts about a possible perpetrator, and investigators also looked into leads about bar-goers they had seen earlier in the night or an Uber driver they frequently used, the documents show.
Kohberger purchased a military-style knife, say police
A woman who lived nearby told police that in either August or September 2022, she and her daughter saw a man in their yard who “looked nervous.” She said she was almost certain it was Kohberger.
Officers eventually identified Kohberger, a doctoral student in criminology at nearby Washington State University, using a DNA sample found on a knife sheath at the crime scene. They tracked his movements that night with cellphone data and obtained online shopping records showing he had purchased a military-style knife and linked him to a car that repeatedly drove by the students’ house.
Kohberger, 30, was sentenced to four consecutive terms of life in prison after pleading guilty to the murders of four Idaho students in November 2022. Judge Steven Hippler ordered Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole for first-degree murder in the killings of Mogen, Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.
He was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and assessed $270,000 in fines and civil penalties. He was a doctoral student at Washington State University at the time of the killings in the neighboring college town of Moscow, Idaho.
A strict gag order that has been in place for more than two years was lifted last week, and officials held a news conference after the sentencing, disclosing some new details.
