CLARKSTON, Wash. (Court TV) — New security footage reveals Bryan Kohberger calmly shopping at stores just hours after brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death, displaying a chilling composure that has stunned legal experts and investigators.
Surveillance video shows Bryan Kohberger hours after four students were murdered. (Gray Hughes/YouTube)
The video, obtained by investigative podcaster Gray Hughes, shows Kohberger attempting to enter a Costco store in Clarkston, Washington, approximately 20 miles from the Moscow, Idaho, murder scene, but being denied entry because he wasn’t a member. The footage captures him keeping his left hand inside his pocket, presumably to hide injuries sustained during the Nov. 13, 2022, attack that killed Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
MORE | New photos released of crime scene where Idaho students were murdered
“It’s not so much that he walked in … without understanding the principle of going into one of these club stores like this,” said Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of applied forensics at Jacksonville State University. “Could he have been in a frenzy at this particular time, looking for cleaning supplies, or looking for things that would aid him along the way to dispose of any kind of physical evidence that he may have had on this person?”
After being turned away from Costco, surveillance footage shows Kohberger driving his white Hyundai Elantra to a nearby Albertsons grocery store, where he made a small purchase at self-checkout before leaving.
High-profile attorney Ben Chew noted Kohberger’s remarkably calm demeanor throughout the shopping trips.
“The fact that despite whatever internal chaos was going on… I was struck by how calm he appeared to be on the outside,” Chew said. “He didn’t seem particularly agitated… it just seems remarkable how casual, to the observer, he appeared to be.”
A photo recovered from Bryan Kohberger’s Android device is dated after he killed four University of Idaho students on Nov. 13, 2022. (Court TV)
The newly released footage provides another disturbing glimpse into Kohberger’s behavior following the murders. Previously released documents revealed that Kohberger, a criminology doctoral student at Washington State University, had exhibited concerning behavior toward female students for months before the killings.
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Investigators used DNA evidence from a knife sheath found at the crime scene, cellphone data tracking his movements, and surveillance footage of his white Elantra to build their case against Kohberger. He was arrested at his parents’ Pennsylvania home about six weeks after the murders.
The case terrorized the rural Idaho community and drew nationwide attention. Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in July 2025 to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
During his sentencing hearing, surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen, who witnessed a masked figure leaving the house that night, called Kohberger “a hollow vessel, something less than human.”
The victims’ families established foundations in their memory, including the Ethan Chapin Foundation and the Kaylee, Maddie & Xana Foundation, which provide scholarships and support initiatives to honor their legacies.
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