A Report Claims Genealogical DNA Identified an Idaho Murder Suspect
Genealogical DNA testing helped the police find the person responsible for the deaths of four University of Idaho students, a source says. The Independent got documents that say FBI agents and Pennsylvania State Police officers arrested Bryan Christopher Kohberger, a criminology student at Washington State University who is 28 years old, on Friday morning.
At a press conference, the Moscow Police Department said that more information about Mr. Kohberger’s arrest would be made public after he went to court in Idaho. Mr. Kohberger was a suspect in the case for more than a month before he was found out through genetic genealogy.
Sources who know about the investigation say that the unidentified DNA evidence was checked against a public database to see if it could be linked to a family member. After the DNA test results came back, the police kept looking into the case, and Mr. Kohberger was eventually arrested.
The way police work in the field of criminal investigation has changed because of genetic genealogy. According to Parabon Nanolabs, it is used in the process of figuring out who the dead person was by “tying the DNA to a family with a missing person or pointing to the likely identity of a perpetrator.”
The website says that DNA from crime scenes is compared to DNA from “volunteer participants,” or people who give samples to open-source databases on their own time. Four counts of murder were brought against Mr. Kohberger because of the deaths.
The arrest of Mr. Kohberger is the first big step in the investigation of the deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin on November 13. CNN sources say that the suspect was followed and watched for several days before he was arrested.
Jason LaBar, the chief public defender for Monroe County, is Mr. Kohberger’s lawyer. He has said that his client plans to skip his extradition hearing in the Keystone State on January 3 so that he can get back to Idaho faster.
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