The Hunt for a Killer: How Advanced DNA Technology Cracked the Idaho Murders Case

In the quiet college town of Moscow, Idaho, a horrific crime shocked the nation and left a community reeling. Four University of Idaho students were brutally stabbed to death in their off-campus home on November 13, 2022. Madison Mogen, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, had their lives cut tragically short in what investigators would later call a “catastrophic” crime scene. The path to finding their killer would involve cutting-edge genetic genealogy, dedicated investigators working through holidays, and an abundance of DNA evidence that would eventually lead to justice. At CrimeCon 2025 in Denver, David Mittelman, founder and CEO of Othram, revealed unprecedented details about how his team’s work helped crack one of America’s most closely watched murder cases in recent memory.

The DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene was far more substantial than initially reported, according to Mittelman. Contrary to public understanding that only “trace” DNA was found, investigators actually recovered “hundreds of times” more genetic material than in a typical case. “The DNA evidence was amazing,” Mittelman explained. “There was tons of DNA by the way… I don’t know why it’s been reported it was trace DNA. It was not. It was tons of DNA.” This abundance of high-quality genetic material came from a Ka-Bar knife sheath found discarded next to Madison Mogen’s body – a critical piece of evidence that would eventually link directly to Bryan Kohberger. The quality and quantity of the DNA allowed Othram’s team to work with exceptional confidence, providing what Mittelman described as “certainty in the quality of the DNA, certainty in the analysis, and certainty that there was more than enough information in that [family] tree to get to a person.”

The race to identify the killer began in earnest when Othram received the DNA sample on Thanksgiving Day 2022, just days after the murders. Rather than taking time off for the holiday, Othram’s dedicated team worked tirelessly, generating a complete DNA profile within an astonishing 48 hours. Their analysis quickly revealed that the suspect came from a “multigenerational” American family with Italian ancestry – specifically, a Pennsylvania family that had only two intersections with Italian heritage in its lineage. While this initial genetic genealogy work didn’t immediately identify Kohberger by name, it provided crucial geographic and ancestral parameters that would help investigators narrow their search. Meanwhile, police had already identified a white Hyundai Elantra as a suspect vehicle near the crime scene – exactly matching the car Kohberger drove as a criminology graduate student at nearby Washington State University in Pullman, just 10 miles from the murder house.

The investigation accelerated rapidly once these puzzle pieces began coming together. On December 19, 2022, the FBI sent Moscow police Kohberger’s name as their prime suspect. Just eleven days later, in a dramatic pre-dawn raid on December 30, authorities arrested Kohberger at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, shocking a nation that had been following the case with intense interest. Though investigators never recovered the actual murder weapon, they later discovered through a search warrant for Kohberger’s Amazon account that he had purchased a Ka-Bar knife with matching sheath and sharpening accessories through the shopping app. This crucial connection, combined with the overwhelming DNA evidence from the sheath left at the scene, created an extremely compelling case against him. As Jeff Nye, chief of the criminal division at the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, later acknowledged, “everything hinged” on the DNA evidence being admissible in court.

What makes this case particularly significant in terms of investigative technique is that Kohberger’s DNA wasn’t already in CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), the national database typically used to match crime scene evidence to known offenders. Without any prior criminal record that would have placed his DNA in government databases, traditional investigative methods might have taken much longer to identify him. Instead, the investigative genetic genealogy techniques employed by Othram allowed authorities to construct a family tree and focus their investigation with remarkable precision. Detectives later admitted that without this genetic genealogy breakthrough, they would have eventually had to manually investigate thousands of white Hyundai Elantras – a process that could have taken considerably longer and potentially allowed Kohberger to remain free.

The ultimate impact of this advanced DNA work became clear in July 2024, when Kohberger entered a surprise guilty plea after his defense team failed to have the DNA evidence excluded from trial. Facing overwhelming scientific evidence linking him directly to the crime scene, Kohberger chose to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty. He now serves four consecutive life sentences plus an additional 10 years, having waived his rights to appeal or seek future sentence reduction under Idaho law. For Kristen Mittelman, Othram’s chief development officer, this case demonstrates why investigative genetic genealogy should be more widely adopted. “We are advocating with the families to change that, to make sure that people have access to this real time so that people like Kohberger are caught before they commit that next crime,” she explained. “I’m certain that there’s someone at Thanksgiving with their family this year, last year, they wouldn’t be if Bryan Kohberger wasn’t caught in real time.” The Idaho murders case has not only brought justice for four young victims, but also highlighted how modern genetic technology can transform criminal investigations, potentially preventing future tragedies by identifying dangerous offenders more quickly than ever before.