Brian Kohberger’s distinctive eyebrows were one of the early clues linking him to the gruesome Moscow murders, a new report claims.
Investigators assigned to the Nov. 13 stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students named the PhD student as the likely culprit because of his “scratched eyebrows.” Airmail reported..
“[The suspect] He wore a mask that covered his mouth and nose. But not his eyes. Or his eyebrows,” author Howard Blum writes, citing surviving housemate Dylan Mortensen’s description of the man she saw walking home from 1122 King Road the night of the murder.
Later, when police identified Kohberger as the possible driver of a 2015 Hyundai Elantra seen speeding away from the scene, they were immediately struck by the bushy eyebrows in his license photo.
“He quickly zeroed in on the eyebrows: They were bushy,” Blum says of the moment when Corporal Brett Payne, the lead investigator on the Moscow case, first saw Kohberger. Saw the face.
Kohberger, 28, was arrested Dec. 30 at his parents’ Pennsylvania home after a nearly seven-week manhunt.
Now in custody in Idaho, the former criminology doctoral student faces four counts of murder and one count of aggravated burglary in the deaths of 21-year-old Kelly Goncalves, 21-year-old Madison Maughan, 20-year-old Zanna Kurnodel and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin.
The four students were stabbed to death while they were sleeping in their beds around 4am on November 13 last year.
Although Kohberger has been arrested for the murders, few connections have been made between him and the victims. Although he has yet to enter a plea to murder, he told a lawyer representing him that he is “desperate to be acquitted.”
Here’s the latest coverage on the brutal murders of four college friends:
- An unsealed warrant for an accused Idaho killer shows a bloody mattress cover
- Idaho suspect Brian Kohberger sends DNA for genetic testing to find ancestry: Neighbors
- The Idaho suspect repeatedly broke into the victim’s KDM in the weeks before the murder.
After a brief appearance in a Latah County court in January, Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial and his next hearing is scheduled for June 26.
Blum also claims that the FBI lost track of Kohberger and his father during a cross-country drive from Pullman, Wash., to Pennsylvania in mid-December when they returned for the holidays.
However, the FBI quickly denied Blum’s claims, saying: “The publication of false information attributed to anonymous sources is not helpful to the case against Kohberger or the American people.”
Although the motive for Kohberger’s alleged crime has not been determined, Blum appears to agree with some experts that the murders were fueled by the toxic frenzy and jealousy of party-loving college students.
“Can you imagine watching that wild night, all the euphoria, from somewhere in the shadows and knowing deep in your dark heart that you’ll never be a part of something so exciting, so beautiful? Will you?” he asks the reader.
“It will be hell.”
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