Idaho prosecutors have released a university essay from the alleged student murder of Brian Coberger, showing that he knows the path around the crime scene, revealing a new court application.
Written in 2020 in the final of the 300-level criminal justice course, Missib, Coberger explained how crime scene investigators can avoid using “fiberless” overalls, gloves and booties to contaminate the place with their own DNA and fingerprints.
On King Road in 1122, where he allegedly killed four undergraduates at the University of Idaho in November 2022, police have revealed little evidence other than Ka-Bar knife sheath, found under one of the victims who allegedly possessed Coberger's DNA in the snap.
His name was unknown to detectives before the FBI identified him as someone of interest through his research genetic genealogy.
He went into other aspects of the crime scene investigation, but police repeatedly mentioned it to protect the location, sharing his thoughts on circumstantial evidence, identifying domestic partners as potential suspects, and warning that crime scenes could be staged.
“Prosecutors are going to talk about this when they bring up the lack of forensic evidence left by the killer,” said Joseph Jacaron, a former NYPD cold case investigator and a professor of criminal justice at Penn State University Valley.
“They said, 'Look, how much he knows about this. He's talking about textile-free clothes.”
Kohberger mentioned when talking about protective gear investigators should wear to avoid contamination of the scene, such as fiber overalls, shoe covers, gloves and hair nets.
“This is useless for him,” Jacaron said.
“Like he's talking about this fictional policeman about not leaving evidence behind… we may have a bit of insight into the way that the lack of forensic evidence has been left, or at least the answer,” Giacalone told Fox News Digital. “He doesn't mention it by name, but he talks about the principle of exchange of Locard, the theory of transfer between all the evidence, through this he talks about the transfer of evidence many times.”
However, Kohberger also made some mistakes in the work, Giacalone said.
“He said staging is common,” Giacalone told Fox News Digital. “That's not common. Most of what happens at a crime scene is a mistake or panic mode.”
He also does not believe Kohberger committed the crime when he claims that he had time to stage the scene after hitting an eyewitness on the way he didn't attack after killing four people in about 15 minutes.
“I don't think there's a way he didn't see her,” he said. “So I don't think it's plausible for him in this scenario.”
Kohberger, who claims through his lawyers that there is blood and DNA evidence in the victim's home that could refer to a potential alternative perpetrator, wrote in his essay that crime scene investigators are not responsible for reviewing potentially planted evidence.
“Even if an investigator has items featured at the scene by a criminal to abandon the investigator, it's not a job for a criminal investigator to handle the crime scene and reach a conclusion,” Kohberger wrote.
Giacalone said if Kohberger incorporates the paper for one of his classes, he would probably give him a B.
“He knows a lot, but this can be obtained from any academic book,” Giacalone said. “You can learn about this, but putting it into practice and doing it is two other things.”
Kohberger graduated from Desales University with a master's degree and then went on to Washington State University to earn his Ph.D. In criminology.
The school is just 10 miles from the University of Idaho and is accused of entering the house at 4am and killing four of the six students on November 13, 2022.
The victims were Madison Morgen (21, Kaylee Goncalves), 21, Zana Carnodor, 20, and Ethan Chapin.
All three young women were roommates. Chapin lived nearby and was dating Carnodor.
Coberger's trial on four counts of first-degree murder and another robbery trial are scheduled to begin on August 11th. The selection of the ju judge is scheduled for July 30th.
The previous judge entered an innocent plea on behalf of Coberger in May 2023 with an arrest.
If convicted, he could face death penalty.
