ROME (AP) — Italy’s No. 1 fugitive, convicted Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested on Monday at a private clinic in Palermo, Sicily, after 30 years on the run, Italian paramilitary police said.
Messina Denaro was captured at the clinic where he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed medical condition, said Carabinieri Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, who heads the police force’s special operations squad.
Messina Denaro was taken to a secret location by police immediately after the arrest, Italian state television reported.
A young man when he went into hiding, he is now 60. Messina Denaro, who had a power base in the port city of Trapani, in western Sicily, was considered Sicily’s Cosa Nostra top boss even while a fugitive.
He was the last of three longtime fugitive top-level Mafia bosses who had for decades eluded capture.
Messina Denaro, who tried in absentia and convicted of dozens of murders, faces multiple life sentences.
He is set to be imprisoned for are two bombings in Sicily in 1992 that murdered top anti-Mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Among other grisly crimes he was convicted of is the murder of a Mafia turncoat’s young son, who was strangled and his body dissolved in a vat of acid.
The arrest Monday came 30 years and a day after the capture of convicted “boss of bosses” Salvatore “Toto” Riina, in a Palermo apartment after 23 years on the run.
A cosplay actor finds herself in the spotlight when she’s accused of murdering her boyfriend. Can she convince a jury it was self-defense? “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
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Melissa Turner called 911 saying she had discovered her fiancé Matthew Trussler lying unresponsive near their swimming pool in Riverview, Florida. He was pronounced dead at the scene and an autopsy later revealed he had died from stab wounds. It was Oct. 18, 2019, and Melissa initially told detectives that the couple had been drinking the night before, but that she could remember few details. However, when investigators found a security camera above a neighbor’s garage door that held clues to what happened, her story changed. Prosecutors say Melissa can be heard screaming at Matthew on an audio recording from the camera. She said she stabbed her fiancé, acting in self-defense when he tried to choke her. Melissa Turner was eventually arrested and charged with second degree murder with a weapon.
“I thought this was it. I thought he was going to kill me. And I stabbed him lightly in the back just to get him off me,” Turner told Moriarty. “I didn’t do what they’re saying I did. If I’m going to prison, then I’m going down fighting.”
THE DAY MATTHEW TRUSSLER DIED
911 OPERATOR: Hillsborough County Fire and Rescue. What’s the address of the emergency?
MELISSA TURNER: Please —
911 OPERATOR: Tell me what’s wrong.
MELISSA TURNER: He is nonresponsive.
Melissa Turner: I couldn’t stop crying.
Melissa Turner can vividly describe the moment as medics tried to revive her fiancé, Matthew Trussler.
Melissa Turner: I watched the EMTs unfold the sheet and, um, lay the white sheet over him.
Two years later, Melissa still struggles to talk about the day Matthew died.
Melissa Turner: And it was — it was when that happened that I couldn’t hold in the tears and everything.
It was around 8:30 a.m. when Melissa says she found Matthew unresponsive on the back patio of the house they shared in a suburb of Tampa, Florida.
Melissa Turner: I tried to see if he was breathing. And I tried to — to start CPR.
Just a couple hours later, still covered in blood, Melissa agreed to talk to the investigators at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. She says she wanted to help them figure out what had happened to Matthew.
Melissa Turner: I was just saying “yes” and complying with whatever was kind of said or told to me. … the world around me didn’t really feel real in those moments.
MELISSA TURNER (interrogation): This is a lot less glamorous than they make it on TV.
Melissa told the detectives the couple’s day had started off just like any other. They took care of their pets, did house chores as seen in previously posted Facebook videos and went grocery shopping. She admitted they were also drinking alcohol throughout the day leading into the evening.
MELISSA TURNER (interrogation): I mean, that’s what we do. We had just, we were there at the house ourselves … We had drinks. He always liked drinking. He was a drinker.
According to Melissa, around 11 p.m. she got tired and told Matthew she wanted to go to sleep. He was still up.
MELISSA TURNER: I slept on that — that big chair that’s in my little office area downstairs.
What she saw when she woke up the next morning, Melissa told investigators, didn’t make sense.
MELISSA TURNER: I saw the — the kitchen was — I didn’t see him outside at first. … I went upstairs, and I checked the bedroom … And I came back down again.
She says that’s when she discovered Matthew outside on the patio and began CPR.
DETECTIVE: You have his blood all over you.
MELISSA TURNER: I don’t understand.
DETECTIVE: You were trying to give CPR and help him.
A couple of hours after that frantic 911 call, investigators interviewed Melissa Turner about the couple’s drunken night.
Defense Attorney John Trevena
They are hard to see, but Melissa is wearing latex gloves given to her by an officer at the scene.
DETECTIVE: He had you put them on because of the amount of blood.
MELISSA TURNER: I was getting things bloody cause I was covered in his blood.
DETECTIVE 2: Do you want to keep wearing those gloves, or do you wanna take them off?
MELISSA TURNER: I’ll leave them on for now.
DETECTIVE: Do you have any injuries on your person?
MELISSA TURNER: No (cries).
DETECTIVE: Any scratches or cuts or anything?
MELISSA TURNER: Not that I’ve noticed (cries).
The detectives eventually told Melissa she would need to take the gloves off so they could take photographs of her.
MELISSA TURNER (points to her right palm): I have a little cut right here.
DETECTIVE: And that’s from what?
MELISSA TURNER: I think it’s from grabbing the glass? Or — cause there — I know there was the broken glass this morning.
POLICE PHOTOGRAPHER: Open your hands a little more there. … Did that hurt to open it up? Sorry.
MELISSA TURNER: Oh my gosh, I didn’t know.
DETECTIVE: That one’s sliced pretty good.
MELISSA TURNER: I didn’t even notice.
DETECTIVE: Oh, wow.
MELISSA TURNER: I had no idea that was there.
As detectives worked to get to the bottom of what happened, Matthew’s family was learning Matthew had died. His brother Sean Trussler got the call from their mother.
Sean Trussler: I got a call that he died in an accident is what they told me.
Sean called his fiancée Jennifer immediately.
Jennifer Giles: He’s sobbing so hard and just screaming at the top of his lungs, “He’s gone. My brother, Mattie. Mattie’s gone. He’s dead.” … I’m getting chills just talkin’ about this.
Sean and Matthew Trussler were originally from Massachusetts. In 2015, Matthew followed in his brother’s footsteps and moved to Florida to work with him in the construction business. Sean, who lost one of his eyes due to a work accident shortly after his brother’s death, says the two made a good team.
Sean Trussler: I have worked Mattie very hard. … He just needed to be led correctly.
Matthew, or Mattie as Sean calls him, struggled with substance abuse and was looking at the move to Florida as a chance to start over.
Sean Trussler: He was a really good kid. … He worked so hard. He had the biggest heart. He loved everybody and everything.
Melissa Turner told “48 Hours,” she and Matthew Trussler met on Tinder in April 2017.
Melissa Turner
Two years after his move, Melissa, then 24, met Matthew, 23 on an online dating app.
Melissa Turner: We met on Tinder … and I just liked how different Matt treated me … he made me feel more important. … he drew me in.
In 2019, the couple took a big step and bought a house together.
Melissa Turner: We were excited about the house … we were picking out, you know — paint colors for walls and furniture.
But Melissa says a few months into their new lives, their relationship became strained.
Melissa Turner: Matt’s drinking was getting worse … It was just becoming really — excessive.
At the sheriff’s office, Melissa had been adamant that there were no arguments between the couple that night.
MELISSA TURNER (interrogation): We were having a great time.
DETECTIVE: Was there anything physical, violent?
MELISSA TURNER: He was never violent. … He was always amazing with me.
But Melissa didn’t know that the detectives had been tipped off by the responding officer that Melissa had told him there had been an argument at the house the night before.
DETECTIVE: What were you and Matthew arguing about last night?
MELISSA TURNER: I don’t really remember. I mean, we might have got in argument. But it didn’t seem like anything … We weren’t, like, screaming at each other that I know of.
DETECTIVE: You told us that you guys were there. It was only the two of you. The two of you were drinking … my problem is, is I got Matthew on the back porch with stab wounds.
MELISSA TURNER: Stab wounds?
Meanwhile, another detective, Ryan LaGasse, was knocking on doors and canvassing the neighborhood for clues.
Ryan LaGasse: As I walked over here, you’ve got … the camera located directly above the residence … across the street here.
And what was captured by the home security camera, police say, would prove Melissa knew more than she was letting on.
MELISSA TURNER (security camera audio): Get up now! Get up! Get up! I hate you!
DIGITAL OBSERVERS
An eyewitness can be crucial to solving a crime, and just hours into the investigation of Matthew Trussler’s death, detectives discovered digital observers. There was an ADT camera inside the couple’s home, but at first glance, it didn’t appear to show any unusual activity.
Ryan LaGasse: Most of our information came from that camera that’s posted up above the garage.
It was a security camera on a neighbor’s garage that would prove invaluable — an unblinking eye trained on the side of Melissa and Matthew’s home that recorded sights and sounds.
Ryan LaGasse: So, I started looking at the footage.
LaGasse, a detective for the sheriff’s office at the time, saw only darkness and heard the near silence of suburbia until around 4 a.m.
Ryan LaGasse: I started to hear racketing. You know, things that were — sounded like they were crashing. And, um, so then, I kinda zoomed in my senses a little bit … And then, from there I started hearing voices … and then I hear what sounds like screaming, um, yelling.
LaGasse says those voices were coming from Matthew and Melissa’s house.
Erin Moriarty: How would you describe the tone of the voices that you heard?
Ryan LaGasse: So, the little bit of male voice … was tough to distinguish. But the female voice was very, um, very loud. Sounded very angry.
Erin Moriarty: What could you hear? What kind of phrases?
Ryan LaGasse: So, I heard —”Get up.” I heard — “So” and then there was an explicit “die.”
Erin Moriarty: You heard, “So die”?
MELISSA TURNER (security camera audio): “Go f***ing die!”
Ryan LaGasse: And then I heard — you know, it sounded like … a female voice was crying, saying, “What — what did I do?”
LaGasse immediately reached out to his colleagues, who were interviewing Melissa.
DETECTIVE: You said that last night you never woke up at all.
MELISSA TURNER: No. … I remember laying down. I remember waking up in the same spot.
Investigators now believed they had evidence that Melissa wasn’t telling all she knew.
DETECTIVE: Tell me about what happened around 4 o’clock this morning.
MELISSA TURNER: 4 o’clock? What happened at 4 o’clock?
DETECTIVE: I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you.
MELISSA TURNER: I don’t know either. Why?
DETECTIVE: Was there any arguing —
MELISSA TURNER: At 4 o’clock?
DETECTIVE: — 4 o’clock this morning?
MELISSA TURNER: Not that I know of.
MELISSA TURNER: I believe I was asleep. … I have no memory of any argument at 4 o’clock in the morning.
But after detectives confronted her with the evidence, Melissa’s story changed.
DETECTIVE: I have some video surveillance … actually, yelling and screaming between a male and a female coming from your house.
DETECTIVE 2: What we need from you that would probably … make a lot more sense is to … tell us what that argument was about.
MELISSA TURNER: I would say he woke me up and we got in an argument over that. Because he was still up at four in the morning drinking.
DETECTIVE 2: OK. So, just so I’m clear, you do have memory of what happened, right?
MELISSA TURNER: Yes.
DETECTIVE: At 4 o’clock.
MELISSA TURNER: Yes.
DETECTIVE: Why were you yellin’ at him, “Bitch, get up. Bitch, get up”?
MELISSA TURNER: … actually, a lot of the times whenever he’s drinking and gets that drunk into the hours of the morning — he will just fall over.
DETECTIVE: You also said a couple of other things like, “Stay down. So f***ing die.” what are you talking about?
MELISSA TURNER: That was me being pissed off at him that he fell over.
DETECTIVE: You got a slice on your hand — a slice. That’s what that is. How did that happen?
The investigators again focused on that cut on Melissa’s hand.
DETECTIVE: It’s not from glass. I can tell you that.
Once again, her story changed.
MELISSA TURNER: He does get his knives out sometimes. … He wasn’t him anymore. … thinking back on it, this is from me grabbing a knife out of his hand. … And things got escalated from there.
Melissa later told “48 Hours” she wasn’t trying to hide the injury on her hand. In fact, she had mentioned it earlier to the 911 operator.
MELISSA TURNER (911 call): I have a cut on my hand …
Melissa Turner: I barely remembered, even after mentioning it on the 911 call, that my hand was sliced open (cries).
Within the same day of that frantic 911 call, authorities arrested Melissa Turner for second degree murder with weapon.
Defense Attorney John Trevena
A few hours after Melissa placed that 911 call, she was arrested and charged with second degree murder with a weapon. Sean and Jennifer learned Melissa was in custody for Matthew’s murder from his mom, who called Melissa by her middle name, Rose.
Jennifer Giles: She said, “Rose killed him.” … I remember … we stood in my kitchen, and he just starts bawling.
Up until then, Sean and Jennifer say the couple didn’t appear to have any problems, but Sean says that Melissa did put a wedge between him and Matthew.
Sean Trussler: She just totally isolated him, and her, from the rest of the world. … and the truth is, like … how controlling and manipulating Rose was.
Sean says he hadn’t seen Matthew during the last six months of his life. The brothers had had a falling out after Matthew stopped working with Sean at his construction business.
Sean Trussler: She took Mattie long before she took him forever.
Sean and Jennifer say Melissa had two sides: as Matthew’s live-in partner and as a cosplay model, who dressed up in costume portraying famous fictional characters.
Sean Trussler and Jennifer say Melissa Turner had two sides: as Matthew’s live-in partner and as a cosplay model, who dressed up in costume portraying famous fictional characters.
Meliisa Turner/Tumblr
Erin Moriarty: What is that then?
Jennifer Giles: That is actually from –
Sean Trussler: — “Scooby Doo.”
She made a living by producing and acting in her own adult videos.
Jennifer Giles: But it’s from a movie clip where she actually is performing, um, sexual acts.
And it wasn’t until after his death that they learned Melissa had cast Matthew as her partner in her videos.
Jennifer Giles: And I really feel like — the pressure, and the stress, and the fact that it was more, and more, and more just paid its toll on him.
Erin Moriarty: You think that maybe he just didn’t want to do those films anymore?
Jennifer Giles: Absolutely.
Sean Trussler: I think he was done with her.
IN SEARCH OF ANSWERS
After Sean and hisfiancéeJennifer found out that Melissa had been arrested for Matthew’s murder, they began an investigation of their own.
Jennifer Giles: We came across things that were pretty disturbing.
Matthew Trussler
Matthew Trussler
Sean and Jennifer believe Matthew was becoming disenchanted with his role in those videos Melissa produced.
Jennifer Giles: I think at first it was OK, because he was seeing some fruits from his labor.
Sean Trussler: Money. Real money.
Jennifer Giles: But I think it got a little much.
They now wonder if Melissa had been looking for a partner for her videos when she spotted Matthew on that dating site.
Sean Trussler: People write little bios about themselves.
Jennifer Giles: … she went out and found someone with all the right stuff, the looks … the body and everything that goes with it.
Cameron Walega: She doesn’t do things without a bunch of research.
Cameron Walega, a former boyfriend of Melissa, met her before she began her career in the world of adult entertainment.
Cameron Walega: She was very artistic, so she was able to edit her own videos, edit her own pictures … very business driven.
The two met in 2012 when they were studying make-up effects at Douglas Education Center near Pittsburgh. Back then, Melissa was running a popular fitness blog after losing 100 pounds, later documenting her transformation on social media.
Cameron Walega: … it kept her accountable … she had this audience that was incredibly invested in what she was doing … watching her evolve as a person.
In 2013, Cameron and Melissa moved to Florida to pursue careers in special effects. There, Melissa confessed to Cameron that she had started a second blog with racier content.
Cameron Walega: … this was meant to be temporary. This was supplemental.
But Cameron says Melissa soon began earning a decent living doing what is called cam work, where she performed — in various stage of dress — for her internet followers who paid a fee.
Cameron Walega: She was so proud of where she got herself … “I used to be this incredibly insecure girl. Now they’re paying me to look at me.”
Melissa Turner
Melissa Turner/Facebook
He says he began to see a change in Melissa’s personality as her business grew.
Cameron Walega: It became maniacal to a point where it was a complete obsession. And it was money, money, money … And the more and more success that she found, the more and more unstable she became.
Cameron Walega: She would scream at times that it would pierce your ear. … There were times where she was just unpredictable. Absolutely unpredictable.
Sean and Jennifer now wonder if Melissa’s volatility may have escalated an argument with Matthew on the night he died. Did he want out of the adult entertainment business?
Sean Trussler: I think maybe that night he was like “Yo, I’m done with this. I’m washin’ my hands.”
Jennifer Giles: She didn’t like whatever he said to her. And it made her blow her top.
But that’s not how it happened, says Melissa.
Melissa Turner (cries): After he was upset for me wanting to go to bed — But you know I stayed downstairs … his demeanor would start to get darker and darker from there.
Melissa Turner told investigators Matthew Trussler woke her up and he was still intoxicated. She was angry from being woken up and they began to argue. Melissa says Matthew was holding a knife and she tried to grab it and things escalated. “If it was an accident, then I would have called 911, and not just let him die,” Melissa told investigators.
Defense Attorney John Trevena
Melissa Turner: Matt … had his knife out. It was the black — tactical switchblade.
Melissa Turner: There were times where he would get really upset and he would try and use it on himself. … and, so, it was a common thing for me to try and take a knife away from him.
Melissa Turner: On this night … He didn’t want to let go of the knife.
Melissa says Matthew was drunk and despondent. They struggled over the knife, she says, but after she managed to take it away, she says Matthew grabbed her by the neck and squeezed — a detail she failed to tell detectives during her interrogation.
Melissa Turner (cries): I thought this was it. I thought he was going to kill me. … And then I stabbed him lightly in the back just to get him off me.
She says after she stabbed him once in the back, Matthew pushed her into the kitchen counter, and she hit her head.
Melissa Turner: … he came at me. And that’s how I fell back and hit my head. … I … had a pretty severe head injury.
Melissa Turner
CBS News
But that claim would later be challenged at her trial.
Melissa Turner: I remembered a few blurry steps … towards my office. But that was it. I just remember passing out—blacking out there.
John Trevena: She’s the real victim … She’s the one that was suffering the abuse.
John Trevena is Melissa’s attorney. He describes the couple’s relationship as toxic.
John Trevena: … particularly since she said it was escalating. … His drinking was escalating, his behavior issues were escalating … And it just unfortunately escalated into this very odd incident.
John Trevena: I don’t think it is a murder case. I think it is a case of — self-defense.
But Melissa’s version of events will be picked apart by prosecutors Katherine Fand and Chinwe Fossett at her trial.
Katherine Fand: There’s just nothing to support her statement.
Chinwe Fossett: She never mentions anything about anyone strangling her or anything, until days before trial … you really have to take that into consideration.
Besides the audio from the neighbor’s security camera, the state plans to present video from inside the couple’s home. Remember that ADT security footage recovered by investigators? Prosecutors believed it didn’t show any suspicious activity the night of Matthew’s death. But just before the trial, they discovered they misread the time and date.
Katherine Fand: I’ll be honest, I misunderstood the timing. It’s not recorded in Eastern Standard Time. It is recorded in Universal Time.
And what the video did capture, say prosecutors, would undermine Melissa’s defense.
KATHERINE FAND (closing arguments) We’re gonna show you some ADT videos.
KATHERINE FAND (closing arguments): He’s calmly walking … and you can see, she’s hunched over, she’s yelling. … She is angry and upset.
MELISSA TURNER TAKES THE STAND
On Valentine’s Day 2022, two years after Matthew Trussler was found dead on his patio, his fiancée Melissa Turner went on trial for murder.
Melissa had been out on bail since her arrest in 2019. But if she’s convicted, she knows she could spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Melissa Turner: It’ll be a world of weight off my shoulders for this trial to just be over.
Melissa Turner
Melissa Turner/Facebook
The jury will hear nothing about her videos — her cosplay modeling and acting out fantasies online. The judge ruled it wasn’t relevant to the case. Prosecutor Chinwe Fossett sees it differently.
Chinwe Fossett: I did think that the jury should’ve known that she was an actress. … And she was able to make herself into this victim-type person, and then cry on demand.
Melissa’s attorney, John Trevena, told the jury that she didn’t mean to kill Matthew. That she stabbed him in self-defense during that struggle over the knife.
JOHN TREVENA (in court): Who killed Matthew Trussler? Matthew Trussler killed Matthew Trussler.
John Trevena: He did. He did it to himself because of his actions and his behaviors. … His drinking, his emotional abuse.
Erin Moriarty: You’re saying that Melissa had the right to kill him because he was drunk?
John Trevena: No. … Melissa had the right to kill him to defend herself from being strangled.
But Prosecutor Fosset says Matthew had no record or history of violence against anyone.
Erin Moriarty: Why do you believe that Melissa killed Matthew Trussler.
Chinwe Fossett: I think she was intoxicated, and I do think that she went far beyond anything she thought she would do. … Maybe she was just so frustrated with his drinking. … that she harms him so badly that he ends up dying.
At trial, Melissa decided to take a risk and testify. She described Matthew as an alcoholic who had exhibited abusive and unsettling behaviors in the past
MELISSA TURNER (in court): There were times where he would push me … and punch the walls beside my head.
MELISSA TURNER (in court): I had seen him cut himself, burn himself, stab himself.
MELISSA TURNER (in court): He would stare off at some corner … And he would tell me that “there’s a demon standing right there.” … There were times where … he would talk in a different voice (cries).
JOHN TREVENA: Did that frighten you?
MELISSA TURNER: God, yes. I was terrified.
Erin Moriarty: And this was happening on that night?
Melissa Turner (cries): Yeah. … He just had this little smile on his face. And he said, “What’s a matter, little girl? Are you scared? ‘Cause Matt’s not here anymore.”
Authorities never checked Melissa’s blood alcohol level, but Matthew’s was nearly five times the legal limit in Florida.
JOHN TREVENA: That level of blood alcohol not only is lethal, it can cause hallucinations, the demon that we’ve heard about.
CHINWE FOSSETT: But the medical examiner didn’t say that he died of alcohol — intoxication … The cause of death … is that he was stabbed, and he bled to death.
According to the medical examiner, Matthew had several small cuts and bruises and a possible defensive wound on his forearm. The fatal injury was not the stab wound to his back, but from a deep incision on his right arm, which punctured a vein.
CHINWE FOSSETT (in court): You stabbed him in the back, correct?
MELISSA TURNER: Correct.
CHINWE FOSSETT: OK.
Melissa Turner: The only thing that I did was the back.
Erin Moriarty: How did he get cut on his right arm?
Melissa Turner: I — I couldn’t tell you that. I have no clue. He could’ve fallen into something; he could’ve done it himself. … And I stabbed him once to get him off of me from strangling me.
Erin Moriarty: Why didn’t you tell the police that he had been trying to strangle you?
Melissa Turner: … because I couldn’t remember at the time. … I had complained multiple times about a headache.
Prosecutor Fossett questioned Melissa about her memories that returned before the trial.
CHINWE FOSSETT (in court): And so today, in 2022, you now claim you had some kind of head injury, correct?
MELISSA TURNER: Umm, yes.
But a crime scene tech testified there was no evidence of head injury.
CHINWE FOSSETT: And now in 2022, you speak of some kind of blackout, correct? Yes?
MELISSA TURNER: Correct.
CHINWE FOSSET: OK.
The jury won’t have to rely just on Melissa’s memories as they weigh the evidence. There’s also that video from inside the couple’s home. Prosecutors say it proves Melissa was the aggressor that night. At 3:38 a.m., Melissa is seen running towards her office. At 3:42 a.m., Matthew walks past the camera, Melissa follows him.
At 3:42 a.m., Matthew is seen walking past the ADT camera as Melissa Turner follows him.
Defense Attorney John Trevena
Chinwe Fossett: He’s walking calmly, unarmed in the ADT videos, and she’s following him hunched over angry.
At 4:01 a.m., the video shows Melissa running from the direction of the kitchen; she appears distressed. This is also around the time when the camera across the street picks up audio of screaming and yelling. Then in the next video clip is at 4:08 a.m.
ADT SCREENGRAB: MELISSA STARING AT DOOR 4:01 A.M. – John Trevena
Katherine Fand: … she’s standing at a front door … and she’s seeming like she’s talking to open air … and you can see on her hand, you can see the hint of red … she already has the cut.
Prosecutors say the cut on her hand occurred when Melissa stabbed Matthew — they believe he was still alive at that point. Prosecutors say she could have left then for help or called 911.
Chinwe Fossett: That’s not what she did. She … walks back to …where he is.
Katherine Fand: She is not in reasonable fear of him. That’s what’s clear.
But Melissa’s attorney John Trevena rejects the state’s timeline and disputes what prosecutors say is seen on that video.
John Trevena: I never saw any cut on her hand, and I don’t think it shows that.
The fighting continues, say prosecutors, because around 4:30 a.m., they say the couple moved close to an open window and that security camera across the street recorded a woman’s angry voice.
MELISSA TURNER (NEIGHBOR’S SECURITY CAMERA AUDIO): “You have the power to do something, so ****ing die.”
CHINWE FOSSETT (in court): You said, 4:33 a.m., “So f***ing die.” Right?
MELISSA TURNER: No. … I have no recollection of that. … I explained my side and why I did what I did (cries).
CHINWE FOSSETT: You’re crying right now. Is that, is that what’s happening? Are you crying right now?
MELISSA TURNER: Do you know what tears look like?
CHINWE FOSSETT: Are you crying because you can just cry on cue?
MELISSA TURNER: I’m crying because, because my life is on the line right now.
Trevena says it’s impossible to clearly understand what Melissa is saying on the Nest recording. And a former FBI audio forensic expert, Bruce Koenig, testified for the defense how he believed sections of the nest audio had been, what he called, “volume enhanced.”
JOHN TREVENA (in court): So, it could be that maybe one voice on the recording was not amplified and that another voice on the recording was greatly amplified.
BRUCE KOENIG: That’s true.
John Trevena: I find it highly suspicious that … Miss Turner’s voice is screeching loud. … But when it came to — Matthew Trussler … you could barely hear mumbling.
Prosecutors deny the audio was manipulated.
Based on the outside camera, Prosecutor Fand says the confrontation ended at 5:11 a.m., when Matthew somehow got out to the pool area through a window.
Katherine Fand: So, the window was actually open. But when he decided to flee from her he … pushed out the screen and went out the window.
Prosecutors say by the time Matthew collapsed by the pool, Melissa would have seen how injured he was.
Katherine Fand: He has already bled all that blood in the kitchen and then gone out.
Chinwe Fossett: She knows that he needs help. And she’s awake and she doesn’t help him.
But Melissa says that’s when she returned to her office and blacked out.
Erin Moriarty: The argument ends sometime around 5 o’clock. But you don’t call 911 until 8:45.
Melissa Turner: Correct, because I was unconscious.
One of the last ADT clips shows Melissa at 8:35 a.m. walking from the direction of her office. In the police report, her hair is described as “messy as if she just woke up.”
John Trevena: That was the most … demonstrative of her not knowing he’s dead. … Because you wouldn’t be go lookin’ for him if you killed him.
Erin Moriarty: Is it possible … that she did pass out there? She’s been drinking, whatever. And had no idea that he was dying at that time?
Katherine Fand: She knew he was dying because she saw him bleeding out.
As the jury began their deliberations, one of the jurors, Donald Goodwin, was feeling the weight of his decision.
Erin Moriarty: How does the first vote go?
Donald Goodwin: Two for guilty in the second-degree.
Erin Moriarty: And where were you?
Donald Goodwin: Unknown.
A JURY DECIDES
Erin Moriarty: What do you hope the jury comes back with?
Melissa Turner (cries): What everyone hopes for, not guilty.
On Feb. 18, 2022, Melissa Turner’s murder trial wrapped up after five days of testimony before Judge Samantha Ward.
JUDGE WARD: Your duty is to determine if the defendant has been proven guilty or not in accord with the law …
Matthew Trussler and Melissa Turner
Melissa Turner
Melissa is hoping the jury will believe her story about seeing Matthew alive before blacking out.
Melissa Turner: He was still up and, and moving around…
She says she had no idea of how badly he had been injured.
Melissa Turner: …So the last I remembered of him he was still up.
Erin Moriarty: Isn’t it possible … that there may not have been really — intent to kill anybody. It’s this drunken fight and somebody ends up bleeding to death.
Chinwe Fossett: That’s a homicide.
And Prosecutor Chinwe Fossett says this case is really about domestic violence.
Chinwe Fossett: He was cut and stabbed and left to die. I think that’s the very definition, especially considering that this was by his fiancée.
In Florida, second-degree murder cases are heard by six jurors. In this case, two women and four men — one of them, Donald Goodwin.
Donald Goodwin: You see a young lady and you’re already, like, your stomach drops. You’re like, Lord, just let me do the right thing … But behind the looks of a young lady, the truth was coming out quickly.
Donald Goodwin: When she went to the stand, I think it hurt her, big time. … her tears were so fake. And you can tell.
An emotional Melissa Turner testifies at her trial.
CBS News
MELISSA TURNER (in court): I’m crying because I still remember all those places, all those plans …
Donald Goodwin: … She was super angry and super sad. Her emotions were everywhere. I’m like that tells me who she is.
Goodwin, a part time family pastor, says those security camera videos were crucial because of what he says was a lack of other evidence.
Donald Goodwin: I looked at the videos over and over, the ADT videos that’s inside the house. … I seen red on her hands. But I couldn’t use it as evidence because the camera wasn’t crystal clear.
Erin Moriarty: At that point, did you think he had already been stabbed?
Donald Goodwin: Yes.
Donald Goodwin: And I think she snapped.
Erin Moriarty: You don’t believe he was strangling her at the time?
Donald Goodwin: No. … I felt like she had enough … and attacked him.
And there was one clip of the audio recording that convinced Goodwin Melissa knew Matthew was hurt.
Donald Goodwin: … then she said … “What did I do?” And I was, like, that right there tells me you know exactly what’s going on now. … she knew he was gonna die, she knew it, and yet, she called nobody.
And as for Melissa’s claims about hitting her head and blacking out?
Erin Moriarty: You don’t believe that she might’ve passed out?
Donald Goodwin: No. Not at all. … there was no evidence of head injury.
The jury deliberated for seven hours.
COURT CLERK: We the jury find as follows as to the charge … the defendant is guilty of murder in the second degree.
Guilty of the murder of Matthew Trussler.
JENNIFER GILES: I remember Sean squeezing my hand, it was a happy feeling.
John Trevena: She was inconsolable. I mean, it was — it was very difficult. I mean, she was crying profusely.
JUDGE WARD: She will be taken into custody at this time.
A month after the verdict, on March 18, 2022, Melissa returned to court to for sentencing.
CBS News
On March 18, 2022, Melissa returned to court to learn her sentence. She talked about what she had lost.
MELISSA TURNER (in court, cries) On October 18th, Matthew lost his life, and I lost a man that I loved. I lost my future and my hopes and my dreams.
But Matthew’s family also spoke, struggling with both grief and anger.
JENNIFER GILES: Mattie … 25 years old, wow, so much life still ahead. The life of a son, a brother, a brother-in-law, and an uncle. … Sean … will never see his best friend again. He will never be able to replace you.
MARGARET: The story that you have contrived has caused me as much pain as his death … If Matthew’s drinking was escalating … it was because of the lifestyle that you involved him in. It was not consistent with who he was and with the way that he was raised.
JUDGE WARD: This jury did not believe her claims of self-defense, nor does this court.
Still, Judge Samantha Ward offered Melissa some mercy, sparing her a life sentence.
JUDGE WARD: Based on the jury’s verdict, you are adjudicated guilty, sentenced to 20.5 years in the Florida State Prison.
Melissa Turner will be eligible for release before she turns 50.
Matthew Trussler
Matthew Trussler/Facebook
Erin Moriarty: What do you guys miss about Mattie the most?
Jennifer Giles: Oh, my gosh.
Sean Trussler: His laugh probably.
Jennifer Giles: He had a great laugh.
Sean Trussler: He was a good kid, he was … He was just starting to be a man.
One life lost, another ruined on a night juror Goodwin says didn’t have to happen.
Donald Goodwin: Matthew Trussler didn’t have to die. … They could’ve walked away from each other and started a different life. … Melissa Turner chose to kill Matthew Trussler. Do I think it was premediated? Absolutely not. Do I think she’s guilty? Absolutely.
The prosecutor says Matthew Trussler was a victim of domestic violence.
If you or someone you know needs help, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or visit TheHotline.org.
Produced by Asena Basak. Ryan Smith, and Marc Goldbaum are the development producers. Jordan Kinsey is the field producer. Phil Tangel, Wini Dini and George Baluzy are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer
A 21-year-old Texas man remained jailed Friday after authorities accused him of killing and decapitating his wife.
Jared Dicus has been charged with murder in the death of 21-year-old Anggy Diaz. Dicus is being held on a $500,000 bond.
Anggy Diaz is seen in a photo posted to a online fundraiser set up by her family.
Waller County Sheriff Troy Guidry said authorities found Diaz’s body Wednesday afternoon at a home the couple shared in a rural area near Magnolia, located about 44 miles northwest of Houston.
“It’s a gruesome crime,” Guidry said.
Dicus was found at the murder scene and arrested, Guidry said. The sheriff told reporters that Dicus later confessed to the killing. Investigators believe a kitchen knife was used in the slaying.
Court records did not list an attorney for Dicus who could speak on his behalf.
Guidry said authorities are still trying to determine a motive.
Diaz’s friends told CBS affiliate KHOU-TV that she was an immigrant from Nicaragua who had been working two jobs to help pay for her mother’s cancer treatment back home.
Surveillance video from a store where Diaz worked appears to show Dicus pulling up in the parking lot around 11:40 a.m. on the day she was found dead, KHOU-TV reported. The video appears to show him walking into the store and grabbing a beer before he appears to be seen opening the beer, taking a sip and driving away.
Surveillance video from the store where Anggy Diaz worked appears to show her husband Jared James Dicus pulling up in the parking lot around 11:40 a.m. on the day she was found dead. https://t.co/FQtrGBjjb8
Guidry said there were prior calls of a disturbance made from the home but “nothing to this effect or level of violence,” KHOU reported.
“That’s the world we live in today. It’s a gruesome scene,” Guidry said. “Both sides of these families will be altered by it.”
Waller County Judge Trey Duhon said in a statement on Facebook that he had married the couple in October.
“During my short time with them, they were a very nice young couple,” Duhon wrote, adding: “I’m greatly saddened and shocked by the news of this tragic event and my prayers are with all of their families.”
A fundraiser set up by the victim’s family called Diaz “the light to our family and community.” It had raised more than $20,000 as of Friday afternoon.
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A neighbor of Bryan Kohberger’s in Pullman, Washington, said the suspect in the murder of four University of Idaho students spoke to him about the killings days after they occurred. The neighbor asked not to be identified.
“He brought it up in conversation,” the neighbor exclusively told CBS News on Wednesday. “[He] asked if I had heard about the murders, which I did. And then he said, ‘Yeah, seems like they have no leads. Seems like it was a crime of passion.’”
“At the time of our conversation, it was only a few days after it happened so there wasn’t much details out,” the neighbor added.
The search warrant for Kohberger’s apartment in Pullman, Washington, has been temporarily sealed by an Idaho judge. The judge said the details could “prematurely end the investigation” and “create a threat to public safety.”
Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were stabbed at the women’s off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho.
Few details were released about the investigation into the murders until after Kohberger was arrested at his family’s home in Pennsylvania in late December — more than a month after the Nov. 13 murders. An affidavit detailing how police tracked down the suspect was unsealed after he was extradited to Idaho.
University of Idaho students are returning to class for the first time since Kohberger’s arrest. Many, like Madeline Paulik, are expressing relief.
“I was kind of glad to see a lot of cops around, just in case something did happen, they would be there,” she said. “But it just feels very relieving knowing he’s behind bars.”
In an exclusive interview, a neighbor of Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the murders of four University of Idaho students, said Kohberger spoke to him about the case prior to his arrest. Lilia Luciano visited campus to speak with students as the University of Idaho’s spring semester started on Wednesday.
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They were victims of a racist mob, their families torn apart and dispossessed. But as survivors of the Rosewood massacre, they were united in grief, silence, and resilience.
In January 1923, a racist mob stormed the town of Rosewood, Florida, after a White woman claimed she was attacked by a Black man. In the massacre’s wake, at least six Black and two White people were killed and the once prosperous town was left decimated. Many Black families fled for safety, leaving their homes, land, and businesses behind.
Some of the survivors hid for days in swamps and nearby woods. Many families were separated, with historical records saying some women and children were placed on a rail owned by a White store owner and taken to Gainesville, Florida.
Rosewood was abandoned. Robbed of a more prosperous future, survivors started new lives elsewhere, created new identities, and many did not talk of the carnage again. Their descendants say they grew up watching their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles suffer in silence because of fear and distrust.
“The violence that destroyed a Black community, destroyed families, it prevented families from passing on their legacy and property to their kids and their grandkids,” said Maxine Jones, a historian at Florida State University who was the lead researcher on the Rosewood reparations case. “And no one was held accountable for the violence that took place during that week.”
The story of the Rosewood massacre lay buried for 70 years, Jones said, until the state of Florida passed a bill in 1994 to compensate survivors and their descendants. It offered $150,000 to survivors who could prove they owned property during the massacre and created a scholarship fund for descendants who attended in-state colleges.
Despite reparations, the trauma of a week of terror that began on January 1, 1923 has endured through generations.
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the massacre, and families gathered in Rosewood on Sunday for a wreath-laying ceremony to honor the survivors and lives lost. They are speaking at a series of centennial events at the University of Florida this week.
Here are the stories of three descendants:
As a child, Gregory Doctor said he knew something wasn’t right when every year at Christmas the adults in his family would send him and other kids outside to play while they gathered in the house and cried together.
“When we were allowed to come back in the house, I could just see the pain and the tears,” Doctor said. “But you dare not ask the question of why, because it wasn’t a conversation for the kids.”
Doctor’s grandmother, Thelma Evans Hawkins, was a survivor of the Rosewood massacre. Hawkins, who was in her 20s at the time, escaped the violence with her siblings and moved to Pasco County, Florida, where the family was able to restart its mill. Hawkins settled down there, married a man who had also escaped from Rosewood and had two children.
His parents didn’t share the story until he was 19 when an article about the massacre appeared in a local newspaper, Doctor said. Hawkins recalls being upset that his family had never told him he was a descendant of a Rosewood survivor and heartbroken at what his grandmother endured.
“That was a secret that my grandmother did not share with us,” Doctor said. “It was a forbidden conversation.”
Doctor said he remembers Hawkins being depressed a lot. She would sit on her porch and sing hymns and cry. Hawkins was slow to trust people and carried a pistol everywhere she went, Doctor said. She passed away in 1996.
As an adult, Doctor has reconnected with the family members his grandparents had lost touch with after the massacre, he said.
“We grew up not knowing each other,” Doctor said. “So when we reconnected it was like meeting strangers.”
Doctor spearheaded the centennial events at the University of Florida this week. He hopes honoring the survivors and lives lost will help bring closure to families, he said.
“Let’s have this conversation so we don’t repeat history,” Doctor said. “We have like-minded people who still believe in racist violence.”
Growing up, Raghan Pickett learned about the Rosewood massacre at family reunions and other gatherings when relatives talked about the family’s history.
But Pickett, now 20, didn’t understand the severity of it all until the topic came up during a high school lesson.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ so this is what happened to my family?” Pickett said.
Knowledge of the massacre made her want to dig deeper. She learned that her great-great uncle, Willie Evans, had been visiting family in Rosewood for the holidays when he was forced to flee on a train with other relatives. A lot of details surrounding his escape are unclear, Pickett said, but she knows he settled in Sanford, Florida, with family.
“It was pretty sad to understand and to know what happened to your family,” Pickett said. “To see that your family had everything that they knew or owned, burned to the ground and having to relocate to new areas.”
Pickett said she believes the massacre was a financial setback for her family members who survived and the generations that came after.
“Personally, I think that hadn’t that horrific, horrific tragedy occurred, I think my family would be better off with their own land … owning their own property, having their own Black establishments,” Pickett said.
Pickett said the reparations bill of 1994 was a step in the right direction. As a direct descendant of the Rosewood massacre, she was able to receive a scholarship that fully covered her tuition at Florida A&M University. She is currently a junior studying political science.
However, Pickett also wants the state of Florida to return the land back to the descendants of the families who lost it during the massacre, she said.
Pickett said she hopes the centennial events in Florida will raise awareness of the massacre and recognize the strength and resiliency of her family.
“Many people like to sweep things under the rug when it comes to racial injustice,” Pickett said. “I’m so glad that we’re being acknowledged.”
Jonathan Barry-Blocker has vivid memories of spending spring breaks visiting his late grandfather, Rev. Ernest Blocker, in Sarasota, Florida, where they would go saltwater fishing, dig up fiddler crabs and pick fruit off the citrus trees in his backyard.
Barry-Blocker, who grew up in Orlando, recalled his grandfather being a stern man who loved to learn, fought for what he believed in, and never let any challenges hold him back. Rev. Blocker was an ordained minister and served as the pastor of an AME church in Sarasota.
Still, Rev. Blocker never talked about surviving the Rosewood massacre. Barry-Blocker learned of his family’s connection when he was 13, he said, after his father sat him down and told him his grandfather’s story of survival, but forbade him from ever mentioning it.
“He said, ‘well your grandfather was involved in the event, he is a survivor, but he’s not going to talk about it, so don’t ask him,’” Barry-Blocker recalled. “And so I never asked him during all the years he was alive.”
Barry-Blocker doesn’t know why his grandfather refused to discuss Rosewood, he said. However, he learned from research that his grandfather had applied for a cash payment after the reparations bill was passed but was denied. According to a 2020 report in the Washington Post, only nine living survivors received the full $150,000 payout. And 143 descendants of survivors received smaller payouts with only half getting more than $2,000.
“Because my grandfather, from what I can tell, could not prove that his parents owned or his grandparents owned any property at the time of the massacre, I’m assuming that’s why his application was denied,” said Barry-Blocker, who is a civil rights attorney and a visiting law professor at the University of Florida.
Barry-Blocker said he has little information about his grandfather’s escape from Rosewood. He only knows that Rev. Blocker was a child at the time and that he evacuated with his mother and siblings to South Florida. Rev. Blocker’s father stayed behind and the family was never reunited, Barry-Blocker said.
He said he often wonders where his family would be if they had not been forced to uproot their lives from Rosewood.
“Did we own land? Could we have owned land? Could we have amassed land? Could we have built wealth?” Barry-Blocker asked.
Barry-Blocker said he hopes that recognizing the 100th anniversary of Rosewood will inspire other states to consider reparations packages. He also hopes it encourages more families to speak out about racist violence and generational trauma.
“We’ve got to share our stories and understand that the living witnesses to such incidents are dying, they are leaving us,” Barry-Blocker said. “And if we don’t transmit their stories, we won’t know our legacies, in some respects.”
Classes resume Wednesday at the University of Idaho, just weeks after many students abandoned the campus amid anxiety over the lack of an arrest in the gruesome stabbing deaths of four students in November.
The arrest of a suspect over winter break, however, has alleviated many students’ fears, allowing them to walk into classrooms Wednesday with more confidence in their safety. Still, the community’s long-held sense of security has been irrevocably shattered, some university members say.
“It definitely seems like a different place,” sophomore Shua Mulder said to CNN affiliate KXLY. “I’m hanging out with some more people. Definitely staying in groups.”
The university is still mourning the loss of the four students – Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20 – who were found stabbed to death in an off-campus home on November 13.
Nearly seven weeks passed without an arrest in the case, leaving the tight-knit campus wracked with unease and uncertainty. The university significantly heightened security measures and gave students the option to leave campus and complete the semester remotely.
So when Bryan Kohberger, 28, was arrested and named the sole suspect on December 30, students like sophomore Ryder Paslay were offered a little peace of mind.
Paslay was watching the news with his family when he learned of Kohberger’s arrest. “I breathed a sigh of relief and I’m pretty sure my mom did the same thing,” he told KXLY.
Though some security measures implemented after the killings will be scaled down this semester, campus security will remain heightened, the university’s provost and executive vice president Torrey Lawrence told CNN last week. While students still have the option to attend remotely, he said most have returned to campus.
Even so, he said, the “very peaceful, safe community” has experienced a “loss of innocence” in the tragedy’s wake. Before November’s stabbings, Moscow hadn’t seen a murder since 2015.
“I don’t know if it will ever feel the same,” sophomore Paige Palzinski told KXLY, “But I think just being conscious of knowing what’s happened and having more protections in place has been huge.”
Following his arrest at his parents’ Pennsylvania home, Kohberger waived extradition to Idaho, where he’s been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in each of the killings and one count of burglary.
Kohberger is set to appear in court Thursday for a status hearing. He has yet to enter a plea and is currently being held without bail in the Latah County, Idaho, jail.
A court order prohibits the prosecution and defense from commenting beyond referencing the public records of the case.
Following the killings, students’ anxieties grew as several weeks passed without a publicly named suspect or announcements of significant advances in the case. Moscow police also received backlash after they initially said there was no immediate threat to the community, but later backtracked on their assurance.
Criticism of police mounted as it appeared the case had stalled with no suspect or discovery of a murder weapon. But behind the scenes, investigators were working meticulously to narrow down on the suspected killer, court documents show.
Investigators had their sights set on Kohberger weeks ahead of his arrest, the documents show, but decided not to share key developments with the public to avoid compromising the investigation.
Notably, a crucial witness account was not shared publicly until after Kohberger was in custody, when the probable cause affidavit was unsealed.
One of the victims’ two surviving roommates told investigators she saw a man dressed in black inside the house the morning of the killings, the affidavit said. She described the man as being 5’ 10” or taller, “not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” it said. The roommate’s description was consistent with Kohberger’s driver’s license information, which investigators reviewed in late November.
Armed with the suspect’s driver’s license and plate information, investigators were able to obtain phone records, which indicate Kohberger’s phone was near the crime scene the morning of the killings, according to the affidavit. The records also show his phone was near the victims’ home at least a dozen times between June 2022 and the present day, it said.
Kohberger had finished his first semester as a PhD student in Washington State University’s criminal justice program in December, the school confirmed. He was living on the school’s Pullman, Washington campus, which is about a 15-minute drive from Moscow, where the killings took place.
Investigators linked Kohberger to the killings through DNA found on a knife sheath left at the crime scene, according to an affidavit. His car was also seen near the victims’ home around the time of the killings, the document said.
Law enforcement tracked Kohberger to his family’s home in Pennsylvania, where he was visiting for the holidays.
He was surveilled for four days leading up to his arrest, a law enforcement source told CNN. During that time, he was seen putting trash bags in neighbors’ garbage bins and “cleaned his car, inside and outside, not missing an inch,” according to the source.
On December 30, a Pennsylvania State Police SWAT team arrested him at his parent’s home, breaking down the door and windows in what is known as a “dynamic entry” – a tactic used in rare cases to arrest “high risk” suspects, the source added.
Canadian police have identified the Toronto man who was fatally stabbed last month, allegedly by a group of eight teenage girls. Toronto Police named him as 59-year-old Ken Lee and released few other details. Police previously said the man had moved into the city’s shelter system in recent months.
Police said Lee died in hospital after he was allegedly swarmed and stabbed by a group of eight teenage girls in mid-December. Three 13-year-olds, three 14-year-olds and two 16-year-olds are facing second-degree murder charges.
Police have said they believed the teens congregated after meeting on social media and are from homes across the Greater Toronto Area. They said three had previous interactions with police, while five others did not. Canadian authorities can’t identify them because they’re minors. One was granted bail last month, while the rest await hearings.
Investigators have said they think the girls were trying to take a bottle of alcohol from the man. They also said the same girls got into an altercation earlier that night, taking part in a “swarming,” which is unheard of among girls, Toronto Police Sgt. Terry Browne said last month.
For a time decades ago in Toronto, young teen boys would swarm people as they tried to steal Dr. Martens boots or Air Jordan shoes, but the crimes faded away, he said.
“Has this happened recently that we are not aware of? Have people been posting this stuff online that we weren’t aware of?” Browne said. “It’s something that we are going to try to find out.”
Browne said last month that police spoke to the parents of the teens.
“I can tell you it was a shock to find out that their children were involved in an event like this,” he said.
Canadian authorities can’t release the girls’ names by law because they’re underage.
“I’ve been in policing for almost 35 years and you think you’ve seen it all,” Browne said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Anyone who isn’t shocked with hearing something like this has clearly just thrown in the towel and just said that anything is possible in this world. Eight young girls and most under the age of 16. If this isn’t alarming and shocking to everyone, then we’re all in trouble quite frankly.”
According to statistics released by the Toronto Police Service, the city reported 70 homicides in 2022, including 17 stabbing deaths.
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A former men’s magazine model was sentenced Tuesday in Nevada to 10 to 25 years in prison for killing a California doctor whose bludgeoned corpse was found in 2019 in the trunk of her abandoned car just outside Las Vegas.
Kelsey Turner appears for her court hearing where she pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in the death of a California psychiatrist, at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Thursday, June 13, 2019.
Erik Verduzco/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP
Turner, a former model for Playboy Italia and Maxim magazines, was tearful in court but did not make a statement, CBS affiliate KLAS-TV reported.
Her sentencing followed sentencing in July for her 29-year-old former boyfriend, Jon Logan Kennison, to 18 to 45 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy.
Police and prosecutors said Turner had “an intimate relationship” with Burchard, and Burchard paid the rent on a Las Vegas home where Turner and Kennison lived with a roommate, Diana Nicole Pena.
Police put Kennison, Turner and Pena together at the time Burchard was reported missing by his longtime girlfriend in Salinas, Judy Earp, and said it appeared that Turner, Kennison and Pena abruptly moved out of the home after Burchard was killed.
The Clark County coroner found that Burchard was beaten to death with head injuries from an unspecified object that left what police called a unique pattern.
Police also said they found a door broken in half; blood, cleaning supplies and items bearing Kennison’s name in a bedroom in the house; and apparent blood, footprints and more cleaning supplies in the garage. Blue and white bath towels found at the house matched a towel found with Burchard’s body in Turner’s blue Mercedes Benz coupe, police said.
Pena’s and Kennison’s fingerprints were found in the car, according to police, along with a baseball bat.
In court on Tuesday, Earp accused Turner of forging Burchard’s signature and stealing money from him, and said she believed Turner “lured” Burchard to Las Vegas in 2019 by saying she was sick and couldn’t afford to take care of her child, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Earp previously told KLAS-TV that Turner stole upwards of $300,000 from Burchard after he attempted to cut her off.
“She printed on her home computer checks with Tom’s name and account number and her address. She also went online and made many charges paying her bills,” Earp said to the court, according to CBS affiliate KLAS-TV. “His last words to me were, ‘she’s such a pervasive liar that I had to see for myself.’”
Police and prosecutors said Turner, Kennison and Pena killed Burchard in March 2019 and left his body in the trunk of Turner’s car. The vehicle was found abandoned on a dirt road between Las Vegas and the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
Pena, now 34, a former bartender at a Las Vegas Strip resort, pleaded guilty in June 2019 to accessory to murder. She testified that she helped clean the crime scene after Burchard was killed and fled Las Vegas with Kennison and Turner.
Turner was later arrested in Salinas and Kennison was arrested in Las Vegas.
The Review-Journal reported that Turner’s public defense attorney, Ashley Sisolak, told Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny that she and Turner believed the plea deal was the best resolution to the case.
The Justice Department on Monday formally appealed a 2021 federal court ruling that found the US government was mostly responsible for the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, arguing that the court erred when it said the government was more at fault for the massacre than the shooter himself.
During the shooting, the gunman, former US Air Force member Devin Patrick Kelley, killed 26 people and wounded 22 others at the First Baptist Church in the small community of Sutherland Springs. He died later that day from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“The attack on innocent victims at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs was an inexpressible tragedy and the United States unequivocally does not seek to excuse the Air Force’s failure to submit Kelley’s fingerprints and record of conviction for inclusion in NICS databases,” attorneys for the department wrote in court papers filed Monday evening. “Nonetheless, under settled Texas and federal law, the United States is not liable for Kelley’s actions, and is certainly not more responsible for those acts than the murderer himself.”
DOJ spokeswoman Dena Iverson said in a recent statement that the government and plaintiffs have been engaged in a months-long effort to resolve the case through an out-of-court resolution.
“Although the formal mediation has now ended, we remain open to resolving the plaintiffs’ claims through settlement and will continue our efforts to do so,” Iverson said.
In a July 2021 ruling from US District Judge Xavier Rodriguez for the Western District of Texas, the court found the government 60% responsible for the harm that happened in the shooting and “jointly and severally liable for the damages that may be awarded.”
Rodriguez concluded the Air Force failed to exercise reasonable care when it didn’t submit the shooter’s criminal history to the FBI’s background check system, which increased the risk of physical harm to the general public.
“Even if the United States could be liable, the court erred in apportioning 60% of the responsibility to the United States (20% for line employees and 40% for supervisors), leaving only 40% for Kelley,” the DOJ attorneys argued in their filing on Monday.
“The court committed legal error in apportioning a share of responsibility to the United States under a negligent supervision theory after already imposing liability for the acts of the supervised line employees – under Texas law, these theories are mutually exclusive. Moreover, the court erred by holding the United States more responsible for Kelley’s outrages than Kelley himself,” they wrote.
In its filing, the DOJ asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to hold oral arguments to hear the appeal, writing: “The record in this case is voluminous and the legal issues are important and complex. Oral argument will be of substantial benefit to this Court in understanding the important issues in the case.”
Victims of the shooting and families who suffered a loss in the incident have previously voiced opposition to the DOJ’s plan to appeal the decision, with an attorney for some of them saying on Monday that the move “dealt a blow to America’s safety.”
“The DOJ’s appeal asks the court to hold that flagrantly and repeatedly violating the law – for over thirty years – by allowing child abusing felons and domestic violence offenders’ guns does not risk the safety of the public. The twenty-six dead and twenty-two injured at the Sutherland Springs mass shooting disagree,” Jamal Alsaffar, the lead attorney for the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church families, said in a statement.
Kelley was charged in military court in 2012 on suspicion of assaulting his spouse and their child. Kelley received a bad conduct discharge, confinement for 12 months, and was demoted to E-1, or airman basic.
But despite his history of domestic abuse and questionable behavior involving firearms, Kelley was able to purchase the Ruger AR-556 rifle he allegedly used in the shooting from a store in San Antonio in April 2016, a law enforcement official previously told CNN.
The failure to relay that information prevented the entry of his conviction into the federal database that must be checked before someone is able to purchase a firearm. Had his information been in the database at the National Criminal Information Center, it should have prevented gun sales to Kelley. Federal law prohibits people convicted of a misdemeanor crime involving domestic violence from owning firearms.
Rodriguez’s order stated that no other individual – not even the shooter’s parents or partners – knew as much as the government did about his violent history and the violence he was capable of committing.
Former Executive Assistant Director of Intelligence with the FBI Joshua Skule joined CBS News to discuss the investigation into the murders of four University of Idaho students.
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In the weeks after four University of Idaho students were found stabbed to death in a home near campus, police faced mounting criticism from the public as the investigation appeared to be at a standstill.
In fact, court documents show, a team of local and state law enforcement officers, along with a slew of FBI agents, were working meticulously through the holiday season to catch the alleged killer.
Weeks before making an arrest on December 30, investigators began setting their sights on Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old PhD student in criminology at a nearby university who has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
“I bristled in the days after the arrest when people questioned whether police had the right man because a PhD candidate in criminal justice would be too smart for this crime,” said John Miller, a CNN law enforcement analyst and former New York Police Department deputy commissioner. “You can teach a master’s class on how to do a complex criminal investigation based on this case.”
The brutal nature of the November 13 killings set off a wave of fear and anxiety in Moscow, a small college town on the Idaho-Washington border that had not reported a murder in seven years.
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt told CNN she saw “lots of blood on the wall” when she arrived at the scene. She said there were multiple stab wounds on each body, likely from the same weapon. One victim had what appeared to be defensive stab wounds on the hands.
Moscow police initially told the public the attack was targeted and there was no threat to the community. Days later, however, Police Chief Jason Fry backtracked: “We cannot say that there is no threat to the community,” he said. Many students began leave town.
Authorities remained tight-lipped, withholding details of the crime and some of the leads they were tracking. For weeks, law enforcement officials said they had not identified a suspect or located the murder weapon.
Jim Chapin, the father of Ethan Chapin, said in a November 16 statement that the lack of information from the university and local police “further compounds our family’s agony after our son’s murder.”
“For Ethan and his three dear friends slain in Moscow, Idaho, and all of our families, I urge officials to speak the truth, share what they know, find the assailant, and protect the greater community,” the statement said.
As frustrations continued to mount, pundits and relatives of the victims became even more critical of the apparent lack of progress in the case.
“It takes a while to put together and piece together that whole timeline of events and the picture of really what occurred,” Idaho State Police spokesman Aaron Snell said on November 22, nine days after the killings. “A lot of this the public doesn’t get to see because it’s a criminal investigation. But I guarantee you behind the scenes, there’s so much work going on.”
“We all want to play a part in helping, and we can’t play a part if we don’t have any real substantial information to work from,” he said.
Asked what he’d heard from local police, Goncalves said, “They’re not sharing much with me.” He suggested Moscow police might be limited in what they can share.
One bit of information initially not shared publicly was that a review of surveillance footage from the area around the home brought to investigators’ attention a white sedan, later identified as a Hyundai Elantra, according to a probable cause affidavit released Thursday in the case against Kohberger.
By November 25, law enforcement in the area had been notified to be on the lookout for such a vehicle, the affidavit said.
And several days later, officers at nearby Washington State University, where the suspect was a graduate student in the criminal justice program, identified a white Elantra and subsequently found it was registered to Kohberger.
This was just part of the behind-the-scenes work in a complex quadruple homicide investigation where any hint to the public about a suspect or the various leads police are following can cause it to fall apart, according to experts.
“We don’t want to tip off suspects or spook them so that they end up going on the run. We don’t want them trying to get rid of evidence or destroy things,” said Joe Giacalone, adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired NYPD sergeant who directed the department’s homicide school and the Bronx cold case squad.
“There’s a lot of people in the public that need to apologize to the police department,” Giacalone said. “That Moscow, Idaho, police chief took a beating and he kept on moving ahead.”
Miller agreed: “They were willing to take it on the chin, from the public, from the press, from local critics, in order to keep the case clean and keep the investigation going.”
One crucial clue not shared by police was that one of the two roommates who survived told investigators she saw a masked man dressed in black in the house the morning of the attack, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The roommate, identified in the document as D.M., said she “heard crying” in the house that morning and a male voice say, “It’s ok, I’m going to help you.” D.M. said she then saw a “figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” the document said.
“D.M. described the figure as 5’ 10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” according to the affidavit. “The male walked past D.M. as she stood in a ‘frozen shock phase.’”
Kohberger’s driver’s license information, which was reviewed by investigators in late November, turned out to be consistent with the description provided by the surviving roommate, the affidavit said, noting specifically his height and his “bushy eyebrows.”
Armed with driver’s license and plate information, investigators were able to obtain phone records that indicated Kohberger’s phone was near the victims’ residence at least 12 times between June 2022 to the present day, the affidavit said.
Those records also showed that Kohberger’s phone was near the crime scene again after the killings, between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m., the document said.
“For weeks before the arrest, so called experts, pundits and some in the press criticized the Moscow police for not being up to the task and for not having an arrest,” Miller said. “It’s not like ‘Law & Order,’ ‘Blue Bloods’ or ‘CSI.’”
From the morning the murders were discovered, Miller said, the Moscow police knew they needed help and brought in the state police homicide squad and the FBI.
“What the Moscow police had, that the FBI and the state police could never have, was they knew the area,” Miller said. “They knew the community and they knew the people and they had a very engaged community. But the FBI brought technical prowess and expertise. And what the state police brought was experience in homicide investigations and a state-of-the-art lab.”
But the court documents show that investigators worked through the holidays to build their case, which included DNA found at the scene of the killings and at the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger’s family.
“The general public tends to think all of this happens overnight,” said retired FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole. “You have a group of investigators from different agencies coming together and working together. It’s very challenging.”
Investigators learned that Kohberger received a new license plate for his Elantra five days after the killings, the affidavit said, citing records from the Washington State Department of Licensing.
At the scene of the killings, investigators found a tan leather knife sheath on the bed next to one of the victims, the affidavit said. On its button snap, the Idaho State Lab would later find a single source of male DNA.
Late last month, Pennsylvania law enforcement recovered trash from Kohberger’s family home in Albrightsville, according to the affidavit. That evidence, too, was sent to the Idaho State Lab.
The DNA in the trash is believed to belong to the biological father of the person whose DNA was found on the sheath, the document said.
On December 29, authorities requested an arrest warrant for Kohberger on four counts of first-degree murder and burglary, according to the affidavit.
The next day, a Pennsylvania State Police SWAT team moved in on the Kohberger family home. They broke down the door and broke through windows in what is known as a “dynamic entry” – a rare tactic used to arrest “high risk” suspects, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Kohberger was booked into the Latah County jail last week after being extradited from Pennsylvania. The affidavit, with many previously unknown details of the case, was released Thursday as the suspect made his first court appearance in Idaho.
Kohberger did not enter a plea and he is due back in court on Thursday. A court order prohibits the prosecution and defense from commenting beyond the public records of the case.
Moscow police “took a lot of criticism and a lot of heat in those seven weeks after the incident,” University of Idaho Provost and Executive Vice President Torrey Lawrence told CNN. “And I’m just so thankful that they stayed committed to that case and to sharing only what they could share so that they didn’t disrupt the investigation… If they had shared more, we could wonder would Mr. Kohberger have been able to elude them.”
Following the stabbing deaths of four students in November, the tight-knit University of Idaho community was shaken for weeks, but the recent arrest of a suspect may allow the campus to regain a sense of security as students return to classes this week.
“I think I speak for many in our community that there’s a great sense of relief, but it’s bittersweet because this is still a horrible tragedy,” the university’s provost and executive vice president Torrey Lawrence told CNN Friday.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, is charged with the murders of students Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, who were found brutally stabbed to death in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13.
The gruesome killings rattled the campus community and city of Moscow, which had not seen a murder since 2015. Anxieties only worsened as weeks passed without a named suspect, leading some students to leave campus and complete the semester remotely.
Classes resume on Wednesday following the winter break, and though students who are still uncomfortable being on campus have the option to attend remotely, most students are planning to return, Lawrence said.
“The timing of this for our students was probably good,” the provost said, adding, “Hopefully we can really just be focused on classes starting and on that student experience that we provide.”
Security will remain heightened on campus, he said, though some measures such as a state patrol presence are no longer in place.
Still, the “very peaceful, safe community” students enjoyed before the killings has experienced a “loss of innocence,” he said.
Kohberger, who is the sole suspect, was pursuing a PhD in criminal justice at nearby Washington State University at the time of the killings and lived just minutes from the scene of the killings, according to authorities.
Investigators say phone records indicate Kohberger was near the victims’ home at least 12 times between June 2022 and the present day, according to an affidavit detailing the evidence against him. The records also show the suspect was near the residence on the morning of the killings, court documents say.
DNA recovered from the the Kohberger family’s trash was linked to DNA found on a tan leather knife sheath found on the bed of one of the victims, according to the affidavit. The DNA in the trash is believed to belong to the biological father of the person whose DNA was found on the sheath, the document says.
The suspect’s white Hyundai Elantra was also seen close the victims’ home around the time of the killings, according to investigators. Kohberger received a new license plate for the car five days after the killings, Washington state licensing records and court documents reveal.
Kohberger had his initial court appearance in Idaho on Thursday and did not enter a plea at the hearing.
Before Kohberger’s arrest, authorities noted that the suspect thoroughly cleaned his vehicle and was seen wearing surgical gloves repeatedly outside his family’s Pennsylvania home, a law enforcement source tells CNN.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was briefed on observations made by investigators during four days of surveillance leading up to Kohberger’s arrest at his family home.
Kohberger “cleaned his car, inside and outside, not missing an inch,” according to the law enforcement source.
A surveillance team assigned to Kohberger was tasked with two missions, according to multiple law enforcement sources: keep eyes on Kohberger so they could arrest him as soon as a warrant was issued, and try to obtain an object that would yield a DNA sample from Kohberger, which could then be compared to DNA evidence found at the crime scene.
Kohberger was seen multiple times outside the Pennsylvania home wearing surgical gloves, according to the law enforcement source.
In one instance prior to Kohberger’s arrest, authorities observed him leaving his family home around 4 a.m. and putting trash bags in the neighbors’ garbage bins, according to the source. At that point, agents recovered garbage from the Kohberger family’s trash bins and what was observed being placed into the neighbors’ bins, the source said.
The recovered items were sent to the Idaho State Lab, per the source.
Last Friday, a Pennsylvania State Police SWAT team then moved in on the Kohberger family home, breaking down the door and windows in what is known as a “dynamic entry” – a tactic used in rare cases to arrest “high risk” suspects, the source added.
The man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in November had thoroughly cleaned the interior and exterior of his car and was also seen wearing surgical gloves multiple times before being apprehended, a law enforcement source tells CNN.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, is currently the sole suspect in the gruesome stabbings of students Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, who were found dead inside their off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13.
Kohberger, who was pursuing a PhD in criminal justice at Washington State University at the time of the killings, “cleaned his car, inside and outside, not missing an inch,” according to the law enforcement source.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was briefed on observations made by investigators during four days of surveillance leading up to Kohberger’s arrest at his family’s Pennsylvania home on December 30.
As Kohberger now remains behind bars in Idaho awaiting his January 12 status hearing, new details have emerged elucidating some of the suspect’s movements in the days leading up to his arrest.
A surveillance team assigned to Kohberger was tasked with two missions, according to multiple law enforcement sources: keep eyes on Kohberger so they could arrest him as soon as a warrant was issued, and try to obtain an object that would yield a DNA sample from Kohberger, which could then be compared to DNA evidence found at the crime scene.
Kohberger was seen multiple times outside the Pennsylvania home wearing surgical gloves, according to the law enforcement source.
In one instance prior to Kohberger’s arrest, authorities observed him leaving his family home around 4 a.m. and putting trash bags in the neighbors’ garbage bins, according to the source. At that point, agents recovered garbage from the Kohberger family’s trash bins and what was observed being placed into the neighbors’ bins, the source said.
The recovered items were sent to the Idaho State Lab, per the source.
Last Friday, a Pennsylvania State Police SWAT team then moved in on the Kohberger family home, breaking down the door and windows in what is known as a “dynamic entry” – a tactic used in rare cases to arrest “high risk” suspects, the source added.
On Thursday, Kohberger had his initial court appearance in Idaho after he was booked into the Latah County jail Wednesday night following his extradition from Pennsylvania.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. He did not enter a plea at the hearing.
Steve Goncalves, whose daughter Kaylee was among those killed, he told CNN’s JIm Sciutto in an interview that aired Friday morning.
“Nobody understands exactly why but he was stalking them, he was hunting them,” Goncalves said. “He was a person looking for an opportunity and it just happened to be in that house. And that’s hard to take.
“She had her phone right next to her and she couldn’t call 911. So these were just girls that went to sleep that night and a coward, you know, a hunter that went out and he picked his little opponent that was girls, that’s probably why the house was targeted.”
Goncalves was in the courtroom for Kohberger’s appearance.
“He knows I want him to look me in the eye. So he didn’t. He didn’t give me that opportunity,” Goncalves said. “He’s scared to look at me in the eyes and start to understand what’s about to happen to him. You know, he picked the wrong family.”
Authorities spent nearly two months investigating before they were able to name publicly a suspect, a task that grabbed national attentionand rattled the victims’ loved ones as well as the community – which had not recorded a murder in years.
Still, the public’s view of the case remains mired with questions. As of late Thursday, it remains unclear what motivated the killings. It’s also unclear how the suspect entered the house after authorities said there was no sign of forced entry or why two roommates who were inside the residence at the time of the killings survived the attacks.
DNA: Trash recovered from Kohberger’s family home revealed that the “DNA profile obtained from the trash” matched a tan leather knife sheath found “laying on the bed” of one of the victims, according to a probable cause affidavit released Thursday. The DNA recovered from the trash “identified a male as not being excluded as the biological father” of the suspect whose DNA was found on the sheath. “At least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father,” the affidavit said.
Phone records: Authorities found the suspect’s phone was near the victims’ Moscow, Idaho, home at least a dozen times between June 2022 to the present day, according to the affidavit. The records also reveal Kohberger’s phone was near the crime scene hours after the murders that morning between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m, the document says. The killings were not reported to authorities until just before noon.
A white sedan: A Hyundai Elantra was seen near the victims’ home around the time of their killings. Officers at Washington State University identified a white Elantra and later learned it was registered to Kohberger. The same car was also found at the suspect’s Pennsylvania family home when he was arrested last Friday. The suspect’s university is about a 10-minute drive from the Idaho crime scene.
One of two roommates who were not harmed in the attacks said she saw a masked man dressed in black inside the house on the morning of the killings, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Identified as D.M. in the court document, the roommate said she “heard crying” in the house that morning and also heard a man’s voice say, ‘It’s OK, I’m going to help you.’” D.M. said she then saw a “figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” the affidavit continued.
“D.M. described the figure as 5’ 10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” the affidavit says. “The male walked past D.M. as she stood in a ‘frozen shock phase.’
“The male walked towards the back sliding glass door. D.M. locked herself in her room after seeing the male,” the document says, adding the roommate did not recognize the male.
Watch “48 Hours: The Idaho Student Murders” — correspondent Peter Van Sant reports on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
One of two roommates who survived the brutal attack that left four students dead at the University of Idaho told investigators that she saw a masked man leaving her home after the victims were fatally stabbed, according to court documents released on Thursday. The affidavit written by Moscow, Idaho Police Cpl. Brett Payne details the police investigation that followed November’s murders, which rocked the northern Idaho college town where it happened and has since held the attention of people across the country.
The documents were made public on Thursday as Bryan Kohberger, the 28-year-old criminology student arrested in connection with the homicide case, was set to appear in an Idaho courtroom for the first time since he was taken into custody at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania on Dec. 30. The affidavit also said Kohberger’s DNA was found on a knife sheath at the crime scene,
Kohberger’s arrest came almost seven weeks after University of Idaho students and housemates Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle, as well as Ethan Chapin, their classmate and Kernodle’s boyfriend, were stabbed to death at the women’s rental house before dawn on Nov. 13.
Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle were found dead in two bedrooms located on the upper floors of the home, which is near the university’s campus in Moscow and where they lived with two additional roommates, both of whom were present during the murders, according to the affidavit. It notes that, based on various mobile phone records, a DoorDash delivery receipt and footage taken from a security camera next door, detectives believe the killings likely took place at some time between 4 and 4:25 a.m.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger (inset) was arrested in connection with the murders of four University of Idaho students found dead in a home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.
Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images; Inset: Monroe County Correctional Facility
The surviving roommates, Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen, who are respectively identified in the affidavit as B.F. and D.M., slept in bedrooms on the first and second floors of the rental home. Kernodle’s bedroom was located on the second floor, investigators said, while Goncalves and Mogen lived in two adjacent rooms on the third and uppermost floor. Goncalves and Mogen were both found in Goncalves’ bedroom, as was the dog that Goncalves shared with her ex-boyfriend, Jack DuCoeur.
Mortensen, who also slept on the second floor, later told police in an interview that she opened her door three times after waking up at around 4 a.m. to what she thought “sounded like Goncalves playing with her dog in one of the upstairs bedrooms, which were located on the third floor,” according to the affidavit.
“A short time later, D.M. said she heard who she thought was Goncalves say something to the effect of ‘there’s someone here,’” the affidavit says. However, investigators pointed out that it could have been Kernodle’s voice, since records from a forensic download of her cell phone “indicated she was likely awake and using the TikTok app at approximately 4:12 a.m.”
Mortensen told police that she “did not see anything” when she looked out of her bedroom for the first time after hearing the voice. When she opened her door a second time, after hearing what she believed was “crying coming from Kernodle’s room,” Mortensen said that she heard a man’s voice say “something to the effect of ‘it’s ok, I’m going to help you,’” according to the affidavit.
Mortensen said that she heard crying again later and opened her door for the third time, investigators said in the document. When she looked out, Mortensen told police that she “saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her.” She described the person as a man, standing at either 5 feet 10 inches or taller, who was “not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows.”
The roommate told police that the man walked past her while she stood at her bedroom doorway “in a ‘frozen shock phase,’” and proceeded to exit the home through a sliding glass door at the back entrance. Mortensen told police that she locked herself inside of her room after seeing the masked individual.
“This leads investigators to believe that the murderer left the scene,” they wrote in the affidavit.
While processing the crime scene, detectives found a diamond-shaped footprint, potentially from a Vans sneaker, near Mortensen’s bedroom door. They said the discovery substantiated her interview comments regarding his path of travel as he moved through the home and out the back door.
The 28-year-old PhD student in criminal justice was extradited to Idaho Wednesday from his home state of Pennsylvania. Facing four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, Kohberger did not enter a plea during his initial court appearance Thursday.
Here are key takeaways from the court documents – which include the probable cause affidavit used to support Kohberger’s arrest and obtain a warrant – and some questions that remain.
Trash recovered from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger’s family late last month and sent to the Idaho State Lab for DNA testing revealed that the “DNA profile obtained from the trash” matched a tan leather knife sheath found “laying on the bed” of one of the victims, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The DNA in the trash “identified a male as not being excluded as the biological father” of the suspect whose DNA was found on the sheath.
“At least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father,” the affidavit said.
One of two roommates who were not harmed told investigators she saw a masked man dressed in black in the house the morning of the attack, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Identified in the document as D.M., the roommate said she “heard crying” in the house that morning and a male voice saying, ‘It’s OK, I’m going to help you.’”
D.M. told investigators she saw a “figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” according to the affidavit.
“D.M. described the figure as 5’ 10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” the affidavit said. “The male walked past D.M. as she stood in ‘frozen shock.’”
“The male walked towards the back sliding glass door. D.M. locked herself in her room after seeing the male,” according to the document, which said the roommate did not recognize the male.
Authorities reviewed local surveillance footage and were drawn to a white sedan, later identified as a Hyundai Elantra, according to the affidavit.
The vehicle was seen in the area around the home where the killings took place.
By November 25, local law enforcement had been notified to be on the lookout for the vehicle, the affidavit said.
Days later, officers at nearby Washington State University, where the suspect was a PhD student in criminal justice, identified a white Elantra and found it was registered to Kohberger.
Kohberger’s driver’s license information was consistent with the description the unharmed roommate gave investigators, according to the affidavit.
The document specifically noted Kohberger’s height and weight – 6 feet and 185 pounds – and that he has bushy eyebrows.
Kohberger received a new license plate for his Elantra five days after the killings, the affidavit said, citing records from the Washington State Department of Licensing.
At the time of Kohberger’s arrest last week, a white Elantra was found at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania, according to Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, who said Kohberger had gone home for the holidays.
Phone records show Kohberger’s phone was near the victims’ residence at least 12 times since June, according to the court documents.
“All of these occasions, except for one, occurred in the late evening and early morning hours of their respective days.”
Additionally, records show Kohberger’s phone was near the murder scene – 1122 King Road – between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m. – hours after the killings, according to the court documents.
A review of phone records showed Kohberger’s phone left his home at approximately 9 a.m. and traveled to Moscow, the affidavit said, and that the same phone traveled “back to the area of the Kohberger Residence … arriving to the area at approximately 9:32 a.m.”
Kohberger applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department in Washington in the fall of 2022, court documents show.
“Pursuant to records provided by a member of the interview panel for Pullman Police Department, we learned that Kohberger’s past education included undergraduate degrees in psychology and cloud-based forensics,” according to an affidavit.
“These records also showed Kohberger wrote an essay when he applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department in the fall of 2022. Kohberger wrote in his essay he had interest in assisting rural law enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data in public safety operations.”
Nearly two months after the killings, however, a number of questions remain.
It’s not clear why the unharmed roommate did not immediately call 911, or why the roommates were spared.
The motive for the crime also remains a mystery, and police have said they are still looking for the murder weapon.
The documents released Thursday shed no light on whether Kohberger had any other reason to be in the area at the time of the killings.
Why wasn’t Kohberger arrested until more than six weeks after the victims were found dead?
And authorities have not said publicly whether Kohberger knew any of the victims.
The suspect in the November slaying of four University of Idaho students waived extradition from his home state of Pennsylvania to face murder charges in the state of Idaho.
Bryan Kohberger arrived at Pennsylvania’s Monroe County Courthouse Tuesday by prison transport van, cuffed and in a prison jumpsuit, and was escorted to the back of the courthouse by armed law enforcement.
Kohberger answered “no” when the judge asked if he had any mental health issues that would impede his ability to waive his extradition, and Kohberger’s father, also in the courtroom, shook his head “no.” The defendant signed the waiver at the defense table with shackles still around his wrist.
Judge Worthington ordered Kohberger must be handed over to the custody of Latah County District Attorney’s Office within 10 days.
Kohberger has invoked his right to be silent going forward, his state-appointed extradition attorney, Jason LaBar, said.
Tuesday’s move was expected after the attorney earlier indicated his client planned to waive extradition from his home state and called the hearing a “formality proceeding.”
All the commonwealth needed to prove is that his client resembles or is the person on the arrest warrant and that he was in the area at the time of the crimes, Monroe County Chief Public Defender LaBar told CNN’s Jean Casarez.
Kohberger did not answer reporters’ questions as he was escorted in. He made eye contact with and nodded to his family seated in the first row of the courtroom behind the defense table as officers brought him in.
Kohberger’s mother and father sat on either side of his sisters, accompanied by a representative from the public defender’s office, and when the judge told Kohberger he faces charges of murder when he returns to Idaho, his mother collapsed into his sister’s arms, both sobbing openly.
Arrangements are currently being made to transfer Kohberger to Idaho, according to state police, but no timeline has been announced.
“My heart goes out to the families of the victims, their friends, the community of Moscow and the University of Idaho,” Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Robert Evanchick said at a news conference. “No words can heal the pain associated with the loss of a child. Their young lives were ended far too soon.”
The Monroe County Correctional Facility warden informed officials that Kohberger has been a “model prisoner” who has not caused any problems during his time in detention, according to a source familiar with Kohberger’s status at the facility.
Kohberger, considered a maximum status prisoner, is being held in a cell monitored by an officer at all times.
He has been “quiet” and “followed directions,” according to the source.
Kohberger was arrested Friday in Pennsylvania, almost seven weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were found dead November 13 in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.
Kohberger was “shocked a little bit,” LaBar told CNN a day after his client was arrested. Kohberger is presumed innocent until proven guilty, LaBar added in a statement. He “believes he’s going to be exonerated.” LaBar said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday.
Kohberger has been “very easy to talk to,” is “in a calm demeanor” and understands the proceedings, including what to expect concerning his transport to Idaho and what to expect when he gets there, LaBar said.
The 28-year-old suspect last month finished his first semester as a PhD student in the criminal justice program at Washington State University’s campus in Pullman, about a 15-minute drive west of Moscow.
He drove home to Pennsylvania for the holidays, accompanied by his father, LaBar told CNN on Saturday. The two arrived in the commonwealth around December 17.
A white Hyundai Elantra authorities had been looking for in connection with the killings was found at Kohberger’s parents’ house, LaBar confirmed.
Investigators focused on Kohberger as a suspect after tracing ownership of the Elantra, which had been seen in the area of the killings, to him, according to two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation. Also, his DNA was matched to genetic material recovered at the home where the students were slain, the two sources said.
An FBI surveillance team tracked Kohberger for four days before his arrest while law enforcement worked with prosecutors to develop enough probable cause to get a warrant, the two law enforcement sources said.
Other than the DNA and the car, details such as whether Kohberger knew the victims – or a possible motive in the slayings – are not publicly known. The probable-cause affidavit, which would contain information to justify the suspect’s arrest, remains sealed until he appears in an Idaho court.
With those details still unknown, much public interest has focused on Kohberger’s criminal justice studies.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and this year completed his Master of Arts in criminal justice at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, according to a spokesperson for the university.
In a post removed from Reddit after his arrest was announced, a student investigator associated with a DeSales University study named Bryan Kohberger sought participants for a research project “to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime.”
“In particular, this study seeks to understand the story behind your most recent criminal offense, with an emphasis on your thoughts and feelings throughout your experience,” the post read.
Moscow Police Department Chief James Fry said after the arrest that the investigation of the complex, extensive case was not over.
Investigators are still searching for pieces of evidence, Fry said, including the weapon used, believed to be a fixed-blade knife.
“We developed a clear picture over time,” he said, “(but) be assured that the work is not done. This is just started.”
Kohberger is being held without bail in Pennsylvania, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said Friday. Once Kohberger is in Idaho, he is expected to make an initial appearance before a magistrate, and further hearings will be scheduled.
A devastating storm dumped heavy rain and snow over Northern California, causing landslides, strong winds and deadly flooding. Also, new details are emerging following the arrest of a man accused of killing four Idaho college students. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener.
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Bryan Kohberger, the suspect charged with the brutal murders of four college students in Idaho, could be back in the state as early as next week after he was arrested at his parents’ Pennsylvania home Friday. The arrest is bringing comfort to the rattled community of Moscow. Danya Bacchus has the details.
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