Huh. A really interesting new wrinkle in the ongoing University of Idaho murder investigation almost went completely under the radar over the weekend.
We’ve been following every little detail of the unsealed warrants and affidavits — giving us more insight into what evidence police have on Bryan Kohberger, the suspect arrested in December for the shockingly brutal deaths of four coeds in Moscow, Idaho. But this info is all about sealed warrants.
Related: Was Maddie Mogen The True Target Of The Idaho Killer??
A judge ordered a few dozen warrants to remain “sealed and redacted,” arguing the legal docs “contain highly intimate facts or statements… which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person” and even “facts or statements that might threaten the safety of or endanger the life or safety of individuals.” Wow. These might be details we’ll have to wait for the trial to see. But something that wasn’t sealed? All these warrants were served to companies for information — and the names of those companies were not blocked!
Legal docs available to the public revealed the following companies:
- Amazon
- American Express
- Apple
- Three warrants to AT&T
- Bank of America
- Banner Bank in Spokane, Washington
- Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.)
- Blue Ridge Knives in Marion, Virginia
- Charter Communications
- Coeur d’Alene Police Department Forensic Lab
- Discover Bank
- Ebay
- Elan Financial Services
- Idaho Central Credit Union
- Idaho Department of Labor
- Numerica Credit Union
- Potlatch No 1 Financial Credit Union
- Umpqua Bank
- Wells Fargo
- Verizon Wireless
- Washington State University
- DoorDash
- Cloud networking company Extreme Networks
- Inland Cellular
- KA-BAR Knives
- Match Group LLC, which owns 45 dating sites like Tinder, Match.com, Meetic, OkCupid, Hinge, PlentyOfFish and OurTime
- Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company
- Moscow Police Department Forensic Lab
- Paypal/Venmo
- SnapChat owner Snap Inc.
- Umpqua Bank
- UPS
- Two warrants to Verizon Wireless
- Wal-Mart
- Yahoo
- Yik Yak
Huh. Some of these are obvious. Meta would need to provide information about Instagram messages. We’ve already heard Kohberger allegedly followed the female victims — Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, and Xana Kernodle — and messaged one of them incessantly. Ka-Bar makes the knife described as the murder weapon in the affidavit. The various banks are necessary to access any of Kohberger’s financial information; the stores are likely to prove he bought items used in the murders, like the knife, gloves, etc. Data from the phone companies was already used to show Kohberger’s location at certain times.
The ones that stand out to us? First there’s Reddit… There was a conspiracy theory that one specific account posting on a true crime subreddit was actually the killer — because they knew too much. Could police also be wondering about this? Hmm…
Then there’s DoorDash. We know from the probable cause affidavit that Xana Kernodle received a food delivery, apparently from Jack In The Box, less than 20 minutes before the estimated time she was stabbed to death. Are police just trying to confirm their timeline? Or is there more to that delivery?
Finally there’s Match Group. Whether it’s Tinder or OKCupid, they only would have been served a warrant if Kohberger or one of the victims was using a dating site, right? How does it connect to the killings? Were the girls being followed on dating sites as well as IG? This doesn’t match any information we’ve seen on the case at all!
What do YOU think of this latest reveal? Does any company stand out to you??
[Image via Tinder/Doordash/KING 5 Seattle/YouTube.]
