Woman who says she saw Bryan Kohberger near murder scene repeated claim at least four times
The woman who said she will offer key eyewitness testimony in Bryan Kohberger's upcoming capital murder trial repeated that claim at least four times, to three different officers, after she was pulled over last year, according to police footage obtained by ABC News.
The body camera and dashcam footage, along with a police report from the unrelated September 2024 incident were released last weekend by police in Pullman, Washington, in response to a public records request.
In the videos, the woman explained to police that among her many life stressors, she was due to take the stand in the high-profile trial of the man charged with killing four University of Idaho students in 2022. She had been pulled over on Sept. 4, 2024, first for driving with expired registration, then was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence, the police report said.
After the woman was placed under arrest, she told officers that she was the DoorDash driver who, in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, dropped off food for Xana Kernodle, one of the four killed that night. Police believe Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death by a masked intruder in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, just minutes after the DoorDash driver pulled away.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary for the four Idaho college students' stabbing deaths. He could face the death penalty if convicted. His lawyers insist that he is innocent, and that he was driving around alone on the night when the killings occurred.
The woman, in talking to police while in custody, reiterated that she would be testifying "against Bryan" four times, to three different officers.
"I've gotta testify against Bryan next year. I've got enough crap going on," she told one officer through sobs, handcuffed in the back of the police vehicle.
As she was driven to the Pullman Police holding facility, the woman again repeated that claim.
“I’m supposed to testify against Bryan next year,” she said, "The guy that killed all the freakin', all the girls over in Moscow."
“Well, this won’t change any of that," the officer said.
“Yea well, I got a DUI on my record? That’s gonna look like crap," the woman said.
“I think maybe be more concerned about the drug use than the DUI," Pullman Police Officer Breauna Carpenter said.
The woman responded, “Yeah.”
The woman's DUI charge was later amended to first-degree negligent driving and she pleaded guilty.
While being questioned at the Pullman Police holding facility ,the driver once again said, to a third officer, "Now I have to testify in that big murder case here, 'cause I'm the Door Dash driver."
When asked, she clarified the "murder case with the college girls ... I'm the DoorDash driver, I saw Bryan there. I parked next to him."
The driver has not responded to a request for comment from ABC News.
Prosecutors have already signaled they will want to use Kernodle's DoorDash order in their case against Kohberger. They have told the court the driver's presence at the crime scene would help them establish a "timeline of events" for Kernodle before the killings, and to corroborate their witnesses’ testimony, according to court records.
The case against Kohberger is largely circumstantial. As of now, the DoorDash driver could well be one of only two people still alive who could put the intruder in the vicinity of the crime scene on the night the students were killed.
Also expected to testify — the girls' surviving roommate who told police she saw a masked, male intruder with "bushy eyebrows" in the home right around the time the killings occurred. That descriptor was given to investigators early on, and has been a hallmark of the case since the start.
Jury selection is scheduled to start Aug. 4 in Boise, Idaho. Opening arguments are set for Aug. 11.
