Newly disclosed bodycam footage reveals convicted murderer Bryan Kohberger asserting his honesty when stopped by police for speeding, just months before he committed the murders of four University of Idaho students.
Kohberger is now incarcerated, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murders of Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in November 2022.
The 30-year-old admitted to the murders, with prosecutors presenting evidence that connected him to the crime scene. This included surveillance footage of his vehicle near the Moscow residence where the students lived.
However, months before the tragic event at the students’ home, bodycam footage from a Latah County sheriff’s deputy captured a traffic stop involving Kohberger on the Pullman-Moscow Highway.
This highway links Idaho, where the students resided, to Washington, where Kohberger was living at the time. Prosecutors noted that between July and November 2022, Kohberger’s phone registered on a cell tower that also served the Idaho residence 23 times, all occurring between 10 pm and 4 am.
The footage, recorded at 11:40 pm in August 2022, shows the officer approaching Kohberger’s vehicle and discovering him inside.
The officer informs Kohberger of his speed—43mph in a 35mph zone—and requests his license, also questioning if he was wearing a seatbelt. Kohberger admitted he was not.
“There’s absolutely no point not being honest,” Kohberger remarked.
Kohberger, a criminology student at the time, received a $10 fine for the seatbelt infraction and asked if it would affect his insurance.
He then assured the officer: “Just for future reference, I’m obviously an honest person, right? I told you I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt. When people lie to you about that, say I’d lied to you about that, right? [Do] you honestly go back and look at that?”
The officer explained that he was enforcing seat belt regulations and then allowed Kohberger to proceed.
Four months later, on December 30, 2022, Kohberger was apprehended at his parents’ residence in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania.
If the case had proceeded to trial, prosecutors intended to use the bodycam footage to confirm Kohberger’s identity, phone number, and the vehicle he drove.
On the night of the murders, Kohberger’s phone was switched off in Pullman at approximately 2 am and remained off until shortly before 5 am, when it was detected in the Moscow vicinity.