Bryan Kohberger mugshot. Credit: Monroe County Office of the District Attorney
On Tuesday, Bryan Kohberger, the only suspect in the slayings of four University of Idaho students in November, agreed to be extradited from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week, to face charges in Idaho.
Investigators have said they are still looking for a murder weapon and a motive for the killings. More details about the case are expected to be released after Kohberger arrives in Idaho and an affidavit is unsealed, despite the issuance of a “gag order” by an Idaho magistrate judge late Tuesday evening.
Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall’s non-dissemination order prohibits those involved in the case from speaking about anything “reasonably likely to interfere with a fair trial of this case.” This includes details about evidence, the existence of any confessions or other statements given by the defendant, or the merits of the case.
The gag order will last until a verdict is given or is modified by the court. The paper documents filed in the criminal case are still expected to be open to the public once Kohberger arrives in Idaho, however, according to the Associated Press.
Those documents may shed a lot of light on the case as very little has been revealed in the seven weeks since the murders took place—a fact the University of Idaho community and the general public have been unhappy with.
What we do know is DNA evidence played a key role in identifying Kohberger as a suspect. An anonymous law enforcement official confirmed to the Associated Press last week that investigators were able to match his DNA to genetic material recovered during the investigation.
Interestingly, CNN has reported that a credible source with knowledge of the case said it was genetic genealogy that was used to connect Kohberger to the still-unidentified DNA evidence. The DNA obtained from the crime scene was run through a public database to find potential family member matches, and subsequent investigative work by law enforcement led to Kohberger as the one and only suspect, the source told CNN said a few days ago.
If/when that aspect is confirmed by court documents or law enforcement, it’s quite the turn of events for investigative genetic genealogy.
Presently, almost every case solved via genetic genealogy is a cold case. Despite its immense success since 2018, investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) is still often considered a last-ditch effort for identification, be it a suspect or Doe. The assumed use and possible success of investigative genetic genealogy in a present case of this magnitude could be a game changer for the technique.
“Today, IGG addresses a lot of old and cold cases. The decision to use IGG is made after the CODIS pipeline is exhausted. Only then do investigators look to IGG in help closing the case. As we look into handling more recent cases, we need to look into making the decision to use IGG upfront, incorporate it at the earliest stages of case submission,” IGG pioneer Colleen Fitzpatrick told Forensic way back in 2020.
By all accounts, Kohberger has never been arrested before, thus his DNA would likely not be in CODIS. When Idaho police could not—presumably—match the DNA retrieved from the crime scene to anyone in CODIS, did they immediately turn to IGG?
It’s an interesting question the forensic community hopes to have an answer to soon, as it not only has an effect on justice served for the four slain students, but also the DNA community as a whole.
Within law enforcement and forensics, it feels like we may be at a turning point for IGG. Since it burst onto the landscape so quickly and in such a mainstream way, it was developed—for the most part—outside of the conventional framework. Given its success, the community has mostly looked past that for the last four years, however, it feels like the time has come to reassess.
For example, the Board of Certification for Investigative Genetic Genealogy launched this past summer. The independent, non-profit board is comprised of experts and stakeholders who have developed a set of professional standards they deem critical to the field of IGG. The group, including Margaret Press of DNA Doe Project and Parabon’s CeCe Moore, published their first paper—"The need for standards and certification for investigative genetic genealogy, and a notice of action”—in Forensic Science International in October.
Universities and colleges have also started offering the study of IGG, adding an air of formality to the technique, especially with the December launch of Ramapo College of New Jersey’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) Center.
Fitzpatrick herself has aided the standards process with the creation of OCIG—Operational Casework Implementation of Investigative Genetic Genealogy. The group, which includes multiple other experts and stakeholders, seeks to “demystify the complex scientific solutions to solving crime by integrating conventional crime lab protocols with investigative genetic genealogy methods to create a streamlined approach to identification using the best of both approaches.”
“We need to understand where we are going and the practicalities of how IGG can be implemented,” said Fitzpatrick. “We have to understand this is a learning curve for everyone...This is a new era we are in.”