A photo of Xana Kernodle is shown during a vigil for her and the three other University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in a home near the campus on Nov 13, 2022, in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov 30, 2022. New records show that the FBI identified Bryan Kohberger as a potential murder suspect after tapping consumer databases that were supposed to be off limits. — ©2025 The New York Times Company
As investigators struggled for weeks to find who might have committed the brutal stabbings of four University of Idaho students in the fall of 2022, they were focused on a key piece of evidence: DNA on a knife sheath that was found at the scene of the crime.
At first, they tried checking the DNA with law enforcement databases, but that did not provide a hit. They turned next to the more expansive DNA profiles available in some consumer databases in which users had consented to law enforcement possibly using their information, but that also did not lead to answers.
