Idaho Killings Suspect Was Pulled Over Twice While Driving Across Country

After about three minutes, the deputy said, “Do me a favor and don’t follow too close, OK?” and then returned Mr. Kohberger’s driver’s license and let them go.

Just five minutes later, Mr. Kohberger and his father were pulled over again, this time by an Indiana state trooper who also said that they were tailgating. The audio from the trooper’s body camera is obscured by traffic noise, but Mr. Kohberger and his father could be heard telling the officer that they were just stopped minutes earlier. Again, the father brought up the incident that morning at Washington State. The trooper wished them a safe trip and let them go with a warning.

It was two weeks later, on Dec. 30, that the police in Pennsylvania carried out a pre-dawn raid of Mr. Kohberger’s parents’ home, arresting Mr. Kohberger on suspicion of carrying out the Idaho killings. They also searched his car and executed a warrant to obtain his DNA, officials said. Mr. Kohberger has said through a public defender that he looks forward to being exonerated.

Mr. Kohberger had just completed his first semester as a Ph.D. student in criminology at Washington State University, which is about a 15-minute drive from the crime scene in Moscow, and had shown an interest in the psychology of criminals, as well as forensics.

The murders of the four University of Idaho student victims — Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20 — and the arrest of Mr. Kohberger have rattled the neighboring college towns of Moscow and Pullman.

The stabbing took place in the early morning hours at a home along a dead-end street a five-minute walk from campus. The police have said that the victims were most likely asleep when they were attacked, and two more roommates were in the home but apparently slept through the killings.

Friends and relatives of the victims are searching for any connection between the victims and Mr. Kohberger, but so far none has been disclosed.

The police have said that the surviving roommates realized something was wrong only late in the morning and believed that only one of their roommates had passed out. They called friends to the home and then someone called 911, after which police officers discovered the grisly scene.