BOISE, Idaho — Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the Moscow college student homicides, has now been jailed in Idaho for 469 days following his December 2022 arrest. For each day that passes as he awaits his anticipated murder trial, the public costs shouldered by Idaho taxpayers climb.

Financial records obtained by the Idaho Statesman through public records requests across a dozen public entities detail the taxpayer dollars already spent on the Kohberger case. The total includes costs for the nationwide law enforcement investigation and ensuing legal proceedings so far. It also accounts for the daily rate to hold Kohberger in custody at the county jail while he awaits trial.

The amount of money spent on the high-profile murder case already exceeds $3.6 million, the Statesman investigation found. The cost of Kohberger’s prosecution is heightened, financial studies have shown and legal experts told the Statesman, because the state plans to pursue the death penalty if a jury convicts him.

Judge John Judge of Idaho’s 2nd Judicial District in Latah County, who is overseeing the case, said at a hearing earlier this month that he was mindful of the public costs for the extended pretrial process.

“If we have to have hearings on every single thing, we’ve got a long ways to go,” he said. “And it’s a lot of time, it’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of money, and it just makes everything more difficult.”

Still, the Kohberger case appears to be bringing exceptional expenses to the state. For comparison, the combined costs for the murder cases against Chad and Lori Vallow Daybell were roughly the same amount — about $3.6 million — but over three years’ time, East Idaho News reported in March 2023.

Kohberger, 29, a graduate student at nearby Washington State University at the time, is accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death at an off-campus home on King Road in Moscow. He is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. A Latah County grand jury unanimously indicted him on the five charges in May 2023.

The victims were seniors Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, junior Xana Kernodle and freshman Ethan Chapin, both 20. The three women rented the home with two other female housemates who went unharmed in the November 2022 fatal attack, while Chapin was Kernodle’s boyfriend and stayed over for the night, police said.

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Police costs to land on Kohberger as the suspected killer after a nearly seven-week manhunt were at least $740,000, the Statesman’s analysis found, most of which covered payroll for the cadre of Idaho State Police officers. That sum also includes an overtime bill of 600 hours for the Moscow Police Department, which led the homicide investigation, and the use of a private firm to secure the King Road property while it was still an active crime scene.

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