Assistant DA Has Theory on Kohberger Waiving Extradition

The man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November is being moved from Pennsylvania to Idaho to face first-degree murder and burglary charges. The AP reports officials on Wednesday morning confirmed Bryan Kohberger left a Pennsylvania jail in state police custody, though precise details of his transfer will be kept secret "for security reasons," Idaho's Moscow Police Department said Tuesday. That's not all that's being hushed up. Later Tuesday, Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall issued a nondissemination order that "prohibits any communication by investigators, law enforcement personnel, attorneys, and agents of the prosecuting attorney or defense attorney concerning this case," police said, per the Idaho Statesman, adding officers will "no longer be communicating with the public or the media regarding this case."

The case against the 28-year-old suspect—a PhD student studying in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, a 10-minute drive from Moscow—is expected to be revealed once he enters Idaho. The judge's order will not affect the unsealing of the probable cause affidavit, which will become public once the charges against Kohberger are entered in court, the Statesman reports. The order prohibits all parties "from making extrajudicial statements, written or oral, concerning this case, other than a quotation from or reference to, without comment, the public records." The order is to remain in effect until a verdict is reached or the court alters its conditions.

Though he wouldn't give specific details, First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso of Pennsylvania's Monroe County said Tuesday that three search warrants were issued in the case: one for Kohberger's person, one for his white Hyundai Elantra, and one for his parents' home. "Having read those documents and the sealed affidavits of probable cause, I definitely believe that one of the main reasons the defendant chose to waive extradition and hurry his return back to Idaho was the need to know what was in those documents," Mancuso said, per Newsweek. Moscow police are asking members of the public to continue to submit information on the case. (More University of Idaho stories.)