Video: Watch Bryan Kohberger traffic stop in Moscow months before Idaho murders
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- New police video shows Bryan Kohberger 2022 traffic stop for speeding and seat belt.
- Prosecution planned to show video at trial to link ID Kohberger, and phone number.
- Kohberger pleaded guilty to murder on July 2, and received four life prison sentences.
In previously unreleased police video, convicted murderer Bryan Kohberger is seen in a traffic stop by a Latah County sheriff’s deputy in August 2022 for speeding on the Pullman-Moscow Highway that traverses the two states and connects the two college cities, and handed a safety belt ticket.
Portions of the body-worn camera footage from Deputy Darren Duke, which the Idaho Statesman obtained in a public records request, were planned to be shown at Kohberger’s capital murder trial. It already had received approval from 4th District Judge Steven Hippler, who was presiding over the case before his defense reached a plea deal.
Prosecutors said they intended to show jurors the police video from the 11:40 p.m. stop to establish Kohberger’s identity, phone number and that he owned a white Hyundai Elantra. Kohberger drove his 2015 sedan to King Road in Moscow in the early morning when he fatally stabbed four University of Idaho students in November 2022.
At the time, Kohberger, now 30, was a former Ph.D. student of criminology at Washington State University in Pullman. He pleaded guilty to the four murders earlier this month, and Hippler sentenced him to four consecutive life terms in prison, with no chance of parole.
The victims were U of I undergraduates Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20. The three women lived in an off-campus home on King Road in Moscow with two other female roommates, and Chapin was Kernodle’s boyfriend and slept over for the night.
“I stopped the vehicle for speeding, 42 mph in a 35 mph zone, confirmed patrolled speed at 29 mph,” Duke wrote. “Driver stated he was not aware of the speed limit. I noticed he was not wearing his seat belt and he acknowledged that he was not. I cited him for the seat belt and warned him for the speed.”
Duke issued a warning to Kohberger for speeding, and gave him a safety restraint citation with a fine of $10.
A month before the murders, Kohberger was stopped again by a member of the WSU police department on campus for running a red light. He received a warning from the officer.
After more than two and a half years in police custody between the Latah County and Ada County jails as he awaited trial, Kohberger now is behind bars at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise serving his prison sentences.
This story was originally published July 29, 2025 at 12:11 PM.
