A criminology graduate student has been arrested on suspicion of killing four students in the state of Idaho over six weeks ago, said US police.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was taken into custody in Pennsylvania over 2,500 miles from the crime scene.
Four students, Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, were found dead after being stabbed to death in their beds on 13 November 2022.
The students were all 20 or 21 years old and they were discovered in a rental home near the university campus in the small college city of Moscow, in northern Idaho.
They suffered multiple stab wounds and some had defensive injuries, police said.
Kohberger was arrested early Friday morning by the Pennsylvania State Police at a home in Chestnuthill Township, authorities said.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said investigators believe Kohberger broke into the students’ home “with the intent to commit murder”.
The authorities said Kohberger was a graduate student at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, about 10 miles from the victims’ campus in northwest Idaho.
He was listed on the WSU’s website as enrolled in the criminal justice and criminology department.
Chief James Fry described the crime presented a “complex case” but said to reporters: “These murders have shaken this community and no arrest will ever bring back these young students.
“However, we believe justice will be found through the criminal process.”