Idaho murders latest updates: Ethan Chapin’s mom shares update as it emerges Bryan Kohberger ‘vanished’ from police

The grieving mother of slain University of Idaho student Ethan Chapin has shared an update about how the family is adjusting to their “new normal” without the 20-year-old.

In a Facebook post, Stacy Chapin spoke of the small victories they accomplish each day in the healing process as she revealed she and her husband had visited their two surviving triplets Mazie and Hunter at the college where all three had been enrolled before Ethan’s murder.

“The start of the grieving process felt like standing at the bottom of the wall with no key to get through the gate and no rope to get up the wall. The rope has been tossed over the wall and we’ve started the tedious climb,” she wrote.

The owner of a restaurant where two of the four University of Idaho victims worked has denied a report that suspect Bryan Kohberger ate at the business.

Jackie Fischer, owner of the Mad Greek — where slain students Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle were servers — spoke out in a strongly-worded Facebook post on Friday after an anonymous former staff member claimed to People that Mr Kohberger had visited the eatery in the weeks before the killings.

According to the People report, Mr Kohberger visited the restaurant in Moscow twice in the weeks leading up to the murders and ordered vegan pizza.

It also alleged that an investigator with insight into the case reportedly told the magazine that authorities knew about the visits to the restaurant, had seized footage and that both staff and owners had been interviewed by law enforcement.

Ms Fischer slammed the claims and said they were unequivocally false.

“The news/media should really do their due diligence before running a story with completely fabricated information. This person who wants their 5 minutes of fame has now caused a whole bunch of extra work for myself and the investigators,” Ms Fischer wrote in a Facebook post.

University of Idaho students have launched fundraiser selling bracelets in honour of the four murder victims.

The Vandal Strong bracelets are black silicon bands featuring the names of Ethan, Maddie, Xana and Kaylee.

They are for sale on the UI website with funds from the sales set to go towards a memorial for the victims.

“Student fundraiser organized by @ASUIDAHO selling #vandalstrong bracelets to raise money towards building a permanent memorial on @uidaho campus for Xana, Ethan, Madison, and Kaylee. A way for us to honor and remember them forever,” tweeted Xana Kernodle’s family member Sheldon Kernodle.

Surveillance teams had been tasked with keeping eyes on the 28-year-old criminology PhD student after he became a “person of interest” in the 13 November murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in Moscow, Idaho.

But, in the early morning of 13 December, when he set off on a cross-country drive with his father from his apartment at Washington State University (WSU) to his family home in Pennsylvania for the holidays, FBI agents “lost” the accused quadruple killer.

The shocking revelation came to light in Air Mail’s “The Eyes of a Killer: Part Two”, citing law enforcement sources who admitted that Mr Kohberger managed to slip the net almost as soon as his white Hyundai Elantra pulled out of the parking lot at his graduate housing complex.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the story:

A court in Idaho has extended a gag order issued earlier this month prohibiting law enforcement officials from revealing information about the murders of four University of Idaho students and the arrest of their accused killer Bryan Kohberger.

The order, issued by the Latah County Chief Magistrate on 4 January, was extended on 19 January and will remain in place throughout court proceedings until a verdict has been reached or unless the mandate is modified by the court.

The earlier court order banned investigators, law enforcement personnel, attorneys, and members of both the prosecution and the defence from sharing any new information about the investigation or the suspect before a verdict is reached at trial.

As a result Moscow Police Department, which had been sharing updates on the investigation, said in a statement that it will no longer be communicating with the public or the media regarding the case.

The order both extends and expands the earlier measure.

According to court documents “any attorney representing witness, victim, or victim‘s family, as well as the parties to the above-entitled action, including but not limited to investigators, law enforcement personnel, and agents for the prosecuting attorney or defense attorney, are prohibited from making extrajudicial statements (written or oral) concerning this case”.

A record of evidence recovered during the apartment search was unsealed on Wednesday, revealing the seizure of 15 items including hairs, receipts, a computer tower, a disposable glove and items with peculiar stains.

The record reignited a frenzy of speculation online – despite its simplicity and lack of conjecture.

But what significance, if any, can actually be gleaned from the list? The Independent spoke to two experts – Dr Monte Miller, a former crime scene investigator and forensic expert for the Texas Department of Public Safety; and former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer – for their takes on each item.

The prominent attorney Duncan Levin spoke to The Independent’s Rachel Sharp about the case against Bryan Kohberger and what to expect for the next moves from the defence and the prosecution.

Bryan Kohberger is believed to have followed all three slain female University of Idaho victims on Instagram and “repeatedly” messaged one of them prior to the brutal stabbings, according to a report.

An investigator familiar with the case told People that the 28-year-old criminology PhD student followed the accounts of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle but neither of them followed him back.

Then, in late-October – around two weeks before the 13 November slayings – Mr Kohberger allegedly messaged one of the victims “repeatedly” on the social media platform, the source said.

It is unclear which of the three female students was the recipient or if she even saw the messages.

However, the source said that the victim did not respond to Mr Kohberger’s messages.

“He slid into one of the girls’ DMs several times but she didn’t respond,” the investigator said.

“Basically, it was just him saying, ‘Hey, how are you?’ But he did it again and again.”

A criminology PhD student accused of murdering four University of Idaho students was interviewed by a local police department for an internship position months before the slayings.

New emails obtained by The New York Times show a brief exchange between Washington State University student Bryan Kohberger and the then-chief of Pullman Police Department Gary Jenkins regarding Mr Kohberger’s interview process for the research assistantship for public safety position in April 2022.

Mr Kohberger, 28, is facing four murder charges in the brutal stabbings of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on 13 November. Mr Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania on 30 December before he was extradited to Idaho on 5 January.

In his email to Mr Jenkins, Mr Kohberger wrote that “it was a great pleasure to meet with you today and share [his] thoughts and excitement.” Mr Jenkins replied that it was “great to meet and talk with you as well.”

It is not clear whether Mr Kohberger was offered a position with the department.

Attorneys representing Bryan Kohberger have now received thousands of documents and photos as evidence in the University of Idaho murders case.

Court filings reveal that prosecutors in Moscow, Idaho, handed over the huge trove of evidence to lawyers for the 28-year-old suspected mass killer last week, including 995 pages of documents, one audio/video file, and 1,865 photos.

The evidence – which shows what led investigators to arrest the criminology PhD student for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – came in response to the defence’s discovery request in the case.

However, the state objected to handing over some information in the case, including the identity of potential informants.

“The State objects to requests by the Defendant for anything not otherwise addressed above on the grounds that such requests are outside the scope of I.C.R. 16 and/or are not subject to disclosure under ICR 16(g) (work product and informants),” prosecutors wrote in the court filings.