My friends who are PDs aren’t in it for the money.
The story about using genealogical databases proved false.
The cops took trash from the parents home. The fathers DNA confirmed they had the right suspect.
I don’t understand why they didn’t get a search warrant for the suspect’s apartment and get DNA from it (as well as look for the knife).
OK, so now we’re back to asking why the police suspected this particular individual. They had to suspect it was him before they’d have searched trash cans on the other end of the country for DNA, and if they didn’t have the DNA yet, they obviously didn’t suspect him because of his DNA on the knife sheath.
Reading the affidavit, it looks like they were able to zero in on him because of his car. IIRC, they identified a white sedan in the area, passing in front of the property more than once in fact (so, of the very few cars seen in the area around the time of the murder, this one behaved particularly suspiciously), then tracked it from the area of the crime scene to a road heading towards the nearby university in Washington with cameras in Moscow, Idaho. Then, they picked it up again on cameras around the university in Washington, and lost it in the immediate vicinity of a university campus student housing area. Then, based on the make/model of the car, they got a lucky break with the campus police department having a record of that car being registered with the university (perhaps it needed to be registered there for a parking pass—just a guess of mine). That gave them his name, and it was pulling on this thread that led them to go sifting through the garbage for DNA outside his family’s home.
Anyway, that’s it. My sense is that the guy was a dumbass who thought he was a genius, but really he just mistook sociopathy for intelligence (as too many stupid people do, effectively mistaking the absence of emotional intelligence for the presence of intelligence in general) and so fucked up royally in seeking to carry out the perfect crime.
I hope he rots in prison.
I might have been hard to get a search warrant for his apartment before the DNA match. No need for warrant to go through someone’s garbage. I’m guessing they’ve searched his apartment by now.
Having identified the suspect as the owner of a vehicle of the same type and color as the suspect vehicle, they pulled his phone records. Phone mast connection data was used to confirm that the suspect’s phone followed the same route as the vehicle, confirming it was his vehicle. Then they went for the DNA collection from the trash can.
Phone data also revealed that the suspect had been in the area of the murder house on at least a dozen occasions, all but one between late evening and early morning, prior to the night of the murder. We still don’t know whether the suspect knew the victims. It would be interesting to know what he was doing there.
How could anyone in 2022 not understand their phone is easily tracked? Airplane mode is a huge red flag that you’re going to do something.
Leave it at home before doing anything sketchy. That’s just common sense.
Or borrow a friend’s phone… 
It seems he turned the phone off part way into his journey, and turned it on again part way back.
This is the suggested route the police say the suspect took, based on phone data, and that they say “is consistent with Kohberger attempting to conceal his location”.
His car could be there anytime, anywhere, but that still does equate to evidence he killed anyone. Just that he was there. That is “opportunity”, which is 1/3 of what is needed- means, motive and opportunity.
Many others were there. Who had a motive?
Even DNA on a knife sheath doesn’t mean much unless they know it was that knife that did the killing. And, they have not yet recovered the weapon, have they? A sheath knife in Idaho is not something rare.
Of course, maybe the police have some better evidence they are withholding but so far this is pretty poor.
How then did the suspect’s DNA get on the empty knife sheath that lay on the bed next to the murder victim who had been stabbed to death?
She had no way of knowing if it would or would not help the victims. She heard someone crying and saw an unknown masked person in her house when she started to check and then locked the door in fear. All the time her roommates lay bleeding to death. She may very well have been able to help the victims.
missed the edit
That, but also “Oh, it’s just another empty sheath in a murder house lying next to somebody stabbed to death. Those are too common around Idaho. No reason to suspect it’s related to the stabbing. Nothing to see here, no need to bother checking it for evidence” is a ridiculous scenario to consider.
Is that the right sheath? What other DNA was on it? What sort of DNA was on it?
And the detail of where I have not yet seen.
Sure it is evidence. But it is hardly conclusive. Does the sheath match the murder weapon?
Seriously? An empty knife sheath lying next to a stabbed murder victim?
Maybe the cops eventually find it’s entirely unrelated somehow, but the balance of probabilities is against that.
ETA: Not immediately finding such a thing found in the same room as a stabbing victim to be overwhelmingly suspicious would be incompetence and negligence of the highest order
Yes, seriously. Dr Deth’s question is exactly what defence counsel would ask.
Balance of probabilities is not enough to convict.
Of course it can be suspicious.
But if, for example, it is the sheath to a Swiss Army knife- then not so much.
Is there other DNA on it? who did it belong to?
Yeah, this certainly can be probable cause, but it does not go into “beyond all reasonable doubt”.
The cops seem to be doling out little tidbits. which doesn’t make sense.