A forensic investigator has shed some more light on what Bryan Kohberger did on his phone the night he murdered four students.
According to Heather Barnhart, the digital forensics expert who examined Kohberger’s phone and hard drive for the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office, the 30-year-old began calling his parents less than two hours after the killings on November 13, 2022, per PEOPLE.
At 6:13AM, just after returning to his apartment on Washington State University’s campus, he tried calling his mother, Maryann.
When she didn’t pick up, he called his father at 6:14AM, a pattern Barnhart says was common — calling one parent immediately after the other if the first didn’t answer.
Kohberger even texted his father: “Father, why did mother not respond? Why is she not answering the phone?”
Maryann eventually answered at 6:17AM, and they spoke for 36 minutes.
Less than two hours later, at 8:03AM, Kohberger called her again — this time for 54 minutes, a conversation that overlapped with him driving back toward the crime scene.
Prosecutors said he was at the house around 9:00AM for approximately 10 minutes, shortly before making yet another call to his mother that lasted nine minutes.
By the end of that day, Kohberger had spoken to his mother for well over three hours across multiple calls, with no significant messages or conversations in his phone records outside of his family.
Barnhart also discovered that Kohberger powered his Samsung Galaxy completely off between 2:54AM and 4:48AM — the period in which investigators believe the murders occurred.
The phone was at 100% battery, making it impossible for the defense to claim it simply died.
“When he powered it off, it was from a human pressing a button,” Barnhart noted, calling it a “pretty awesome” forensic moment that undermined his alibi about stargazing.
While the phone records were damning, newly released images from the Moscow Police Department reveal the physical horror of what happened inside the King Road home, per the Sun.
Photos show rooms in disarray, blood spatter on white wooden doors, and disturbing handprints on windows.
One redacted image depicts the pink blanket that covered the bodies of Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. Investigators later noted that Goncalves was “unrecognizable” after the attack, with some victims stabbed more than 30 times.
Authorities believe Kohberger circled the home for over 30 minutes before entering between 3:30AM and 3:58AM, committing the murders in just 13 minutes.
Security footage captured a whimper, a loud thud, and a dog barking for more than 15 minutes before his white Hyundai sped away at 4:20AM.
The release of these crime scene photos comes after Kaylee Goncalves’ father, Steve, voiced fears they might leak, saying: “We’ve been worried that we would see those leaked at any time,” per NewsNation.
Kohberger’s past has also raised disturbing questions. He was once investigated — and later cleared — in a 2021 break-in involving a knife-wielding intruder just 10 miles from the murder scene.
Files released earlier this year also revealed he had kept ID cards belonging to two women from his past, discovered at his parents’ home after his December 2022 arrest.
In jail, fellow inmates described him as “highly intelligent and polite” but noted obsessive habits: taking excessively long showers, compulsively washing his hands, pacing at night, and being difficult to share a cell with.
The only visible emotional outburst came during a phone call with his mother, when he briefly confronted another inmate over a misunderstanding.
On July 2, 2024, Kohberger confessed to killing Mogen, Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.
Three weeks later, he was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without parole. His mother and sister attended the sentencing, but he ignored them as he was led away.