An eerie selfie of a smiling Bryan Kohberger giving a thumbs-up, snapped just hours after four University of Idaho students were brutally slain, was revealed in newly released court documents.
The never-before-seen photo was among a slew of potential evidence unsealed on Wednesday ahead of the former PhD student’s trial that’s slated for August.
Kohberger, 30, is accused of fatally stabbing Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin at an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.
The slayings took place on the morning of November 13, 2022, between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m., investigators say. Six hours later, at 10:30 a.m., Kohberger snapped a selfie of himself in what appears to be a bathroom.
Wearing a white dress shirt buttoned up to the collar and what appear to be earbuds, he gives the camera a closed-mouth smile and a thumbs up, according to the photo, which was included in the documents viewed by The Independent.
Prosecutors are hoping his bushy eyebrows, which are prominent in the photo, will help lead to a conviction. In the court filing, they asked to show that one of the two surviving roommates in the house during the murders saw a man with what she described as “bushy eyebrows” wearing a ski mask. Prosecutors said they would present the photo of Kohberger and let the jury decide whether or not he has bushy eyebrows.
Prosecutors also filed a motion asking a judge to allow them to present Kohberger’s Amazon shopping activity as evidence during trial — claiming they have proof that he bought a knife and knife sheath online in the months before the killings.
Key evidence in the case is the DNA recovered on the button of the knife sheath that was found near one of the victims, which ultimately led authorities to Kohberger weeks after the murders.
A defense attorney pushed to have the DNA evidence thrown out, but Judge Steven Hippler denied that request last month.
According to the court documents, the state obtained a search warrant for Kohberger’s Amazon activity, which included knives and accessories, his payment methods and details of items he added and removed from his cart.
Prosecutors said that search warrant was narrowly tailored to March 20 to March 30, 2022, the time they said Kohberger was known to have bought a Ka-Bar knife with sheath and sharpener from Amazon, and between November 1 and December 6 that year, dates falling weeks before and after the killings.
In arguing the judge should admit the evidence, prosecutors said Kohberger’s Amazon activity showing the purchase of a Ka-Bar knife and sheath before the homicides made it more probable that the Ka-Bar sheath found at the crime scene was his.
Thousands of pages of court documents have been filed in the complicated case as attorneys on both sides attempt to set the ground rules for what will and won’t be presented to jurors.
Kohberger’s trial is scheduled to begin August 11 and is expected to last more than three months. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.
