A recent court filing indicates that the defense team for Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the Idaho college quadruple murder case, plans to argue at trial that the knife sheath found at the crime scene may have been planted by the actual killer. In a filing released on Tuesday, prosecutors outlined the defense’s stance, which is currently sealed from public view.
The filing states, “Instead of disputing that the DNA on the knife sheath belongs to the defendant, the defense’s expert disclosures suggest they will argue that the DNA does not prove the defendant was ever at the crime scene and that the knife sheath could have been placed there by the true perpetrator.”
Investigators in Idaho discovered a three-person mixture of DNA under the fingernails of Madison Mogen, a 21-year-old University of Idaho student, after she and three friends were murdered in her off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022, according to earlier court filings.
The FBI utilized two publicly accessible databases to identify Kohberger, who was first named a person of interest on December 19, 2022, and was arrested on December 30, 2022, in connection with the deaths of Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
Kohberger’s defense team has sought to challenge the credibility of investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) research, which helped authorities focus on him in relation to the quadruple homicide. The prosecution’s filing quotes a defense expert disclosure, indicating that Kohberger’s lawyers intend to call a forensic biology and DNA expert to testify about the DNA found on the knife sheath.
The DNA recovered from the button of the knife sheath is a critical piece of evidence in the case, which has been the subject of extensive legal maneuvering ahead of the trial. Defense expert Dr. Leah Larkin, a genetic genealogist, testified that she believes someone at the FBI violated internal policies and the terms of service of genealogy databases to generate the lead that implicated Kohberger.
In redacted motions regarding the evidence, defense attorney Bicka Barlow, who specializes in challenging DNA evidence, argued that the inconclusive test results could mislead the jury. She also stated that independent testing conducted for the defense excluded Kohberger as a contributor.
Barlow further claimed that the FBI admitted to using MyHeritage and GEDMatch (without the “PRO”), databases that law enforcement is not supposed to search. The FBI declined to
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