Idaho Murder Suspect Bryan Kohberger Claims Bizarre Alibi (But Nobody Is Buying It)

While the world focuses on Donald Trump's criminal trial (and Melania's absence from it), the case of Bryan Kohberger still has months to go before seeing the inside of a courtroom. In the meantime, more legal documents are being filed in the quadruple murder case, including the 29-year-old's alibi that he was out looking at the stars while the murders of four University of Idaho students took place.

On November 13, 2022, the bodies of four University of Idaho students were found dead in their home. The victims, three women and one man, were between the ages of 20 and 21 and were renting an off-campus house in the town of Moscow, Idaho. In December of that same year, Kohberger was arrested on four counts of first-degree murder. Kohberger pled not guilty and waived his right to a speedy trial. His court case will be heard in 2025.

A gag order was placed on the case, prohibiting all parties involved from talking about details. Court documents, however, have been open to the public, and on April 17, 2024, Kohberger's attorney filed information with the court about where he was the night the students were killed. "Mr. Kohberger was out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars," the legal document stated, leaving many to shake their heads. An alibi with the only witnesses being the night sky?

Bryan Kohberger was a student at the University of Washington in Pullman, Washington, about a 10-mile drive from Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho students were fatally stabbed in November 2022. Evidence used in Kohberger's arrest for the quadruple murders includes cell phone records showing him near the victims' home as many as 12 times before the murders, leading some to believe he was casing the house. There is also a video of a white car, similar to Kohberger's, seen driving back and forth in front of the Moscow house just before the killings, and on the highway to Pullman afterward. 

In a document filed by his attorney, Kohberger's alibi states he regularly went out for late night and early morning drives to look at the sky. The defense also plans to use a CSLI (cell site location information) expert to prove Kohberger's cell phone was not on the highway where his car was allegedly caught on camera.

"It's a weak alibi defense, but Kohberger's team needs to come up with some argument to get around the cell phone evidence," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani explained to People, in response to the court-filed alibi. "What I think is happening is that Kohberger's defense team, they're trying to tailor the story to the evidence. I mean, who drives by themselves in the middle of the night for no reason, or to look at the stars?"