The Hit-and-Run Footage
The footage shows the activity in Kohberger's neighborhood on the night of the homicides.
This project took nearly ten weeks of work partly due to my weak laptop. Your support would be appreciated.
I.
At around 11:40pm on November 12, 2022, a 911 call reported two victims hit by a vehicle on NE Brandi Way, which happens to be one of the two streets with an entrance to Steptoe Apartments, Bryan Kohberger’s place of residence in Pullman, Washington. Witnesses told the responding officers that before hitting the two victims, the vehicle hit a pole and then a fire hydrant, both of which are across the street from the apartment complex’s west entrance.
When the responding officers arrive at the scene, they are met with a chaotic tableau: A young woman lies face down in the street, screaming beneath her hood; a busted fire hydrant gushes water and floods the parking lot down the hill; and the young woman’s boyfriend lies bloodied on the sidewalk with a head injury, suffering from what seems to be anterograde amnesia. Every few minutes, he asks the people around him what happened.
What happened?
You got hit by a car. It’s okay.
I got hit by a car? What the fuck?
The officers mill about the area, interviewing witnesses and searching for evidence. Witnesses who saw a damaged SUV turn right onto NE Valley Road recite its description: A dark, early-2000’s Jeep Grand Charokee.
The sergeant later issues a command:
Let’s tape this whole fucking thing.
So the officer grabs a roll of yellow tape from the back of his car and walks up and down the street, stretching the tape across the road and tying it to light poles and street signs, effectively blocking off the west entrance to Steptoe Apartments until at least the late morning.
II.
Neither Kohberger nor his vehicle appear in the footage filmed on Brandi Way, which did not surprise me and was not the reason why I requested the footage. Instead, I was more interested in the following passage from the probable cause affidavit:
A review of [video footage on the Washington State University campus] indicated that at approximately 2:44 a.m. on November 13, 2022, a white sedan, which was consistent with the description of the White Elantra known as Suspect Vehicle 1, was observed on WSU surveillance cameras traveling north on southeast Nevada Street at northeast Stadium Way. At approximately 2:53 a.m., a white sedan, which is consistent with the description of the White Elantra known as Suspect Vehicle 1, was observed traveling southeast on Nevada Street in Pullman, WA towards SR 270.
(Emphasis mine.)
According to this passage, the white sedan was traveling north through the WSU campus on lightly-trafficked roads at approximately 2:44am—the affidavit makes no mention of the car’s location before this time—and was traveling in the opposite direction nearly nine minutes later; therefore, if the vehicle stopped at Kohberger’s apartment complex, then it was only briefly. This path and time of travel is not inconsistent with Kohberger driving toward his apartment complex on NE Valley Road, seeing the police activity, and turning around.
But is this what happened?
No. He still went to his apartment.
Why?
Possibly to grab his phone, which he might have left behind earlier that night.
As I have argued before, Kohberger was likely in Moscow before the homicides, waiting for the intended victim to arrive home. After she got home at 1:56am, he left the area and returned to Pullman, or so my theory goes.
Let’s revisit the probable cause affidavit. The affidavit bifurcates the sedan and phone’s activity into two different sections. When the car and phone activity are consistent, the affidavit declares as much, like in the following passage with my own emphasis added:
At approximately 2:47 a.m., the 8458 Phone utilized cellular resources that provide coverage southeast of the Kohberger Residence consistent with the 8458 Phone leaving the Kohberger Residence and traveling south through Pullman, WA. This is consistent with the movement of the white Elantra.
But when the car is driving north just minutes before, there is no indication of the phone’s movements with the car:
On November 13, 2022 at approximately 2:42 a.m., the 8458 Phone was utilizing cellular resources that provide coverage to 1630 Northeast Valley Road, Apt G201, Pullman, WA, hereafter the “Kohberger Residence.”
And in a different section of the affidavit, which I quoted previously:
A review of that video indicated that at approximately 2:44 a.m. on November 13, 2022, a white sedan, which was consistent with the description of the White Elantra known as Suspect Vehicle 1, was observed on WSU surveillance cameras traveling north on southeast Nevada Street at northeast Stadium Way.
There is no passage connecting the car and the phone at around 2:42am or 2:44am.
Investigators seem to believe that Kohberger was leaving his apartment at around 2:47am—hence the language “consistent with the 8458 Phone leaving the Kohberger Residence”—but they include no information to corroborate Kohberger entering his residence despite the car’s movements minutes earlier. This could be because the phone didn’t move until Kohberger retrieved it.
The passages of the affidavit concerning the car and phone’s movements at around this time can be organized into the following timeline:
2:42am: Phone is pinging to a tower that provides coverage to Kohberger’s apartment complex.
2:44am: Car is traveling north on SE Nevada Street.
2:47am: Phone stops reporting to the network.
2:53am: Car is traveling southeast on SE Nevada Street.
With this timeline in mind, my working theory about the activity during this time frame is as follows:
Kohberger drove to Moscow at some point during the late hours of November 12 or early morning hours of November 13 to watch the house; he left his phone at his apartment with the intention of arguing that he was there while Suspect Vehicle 1 was near the crime scene at that time. Whether or not he can still argue this, I have no idea. The defense’s mention of Kohberger’s driving late on November 12 suggests that the evidence of his or his car’s movements was too damning.
Then, after the intended victim arrived home at 1:56am, he drove back to Pullman—I assume along SR 270—and was driving north on SE Nevada Street at 2:44am. He stopped by his apartment via the east entrance to pick up his phone, and his phone stopped pinging to the network shortly thereafter at 2:47am. I think Kohberger will argue that this is when he went to Wawawai County Park. (I will mention the park again in a moment.)
Kohberger might have known about the police presence on Brandi Way, but there’s no reason to believe that he approached his apartment from that street or crossed paths with the officers at any point.
Of course, this theory is subject to change in light of new information.
III.
The driver of the Jeep Laredo is identified and located on Greek Row. An officer asks if she would consent to a sobriety test. He illuminates an imaginary line with his flashlight.
Across the street, there is a brief interlude: A young man in a Mariners jersey flags down an officer, his voice mute in the footage because the audio has yet to begin. He is moving his arms broadly, turning around to point out something vague, as if acting out a scene in a game of Charades. Then the audio starts.
And then they came out of the—
It is difficult to understand him. His voice is cracking. The officer interrupts him.
Hey, where do you live at? Like what area of Pullman?
Literally, like two blocks—
Alright, let’s go home for the night, dude.
The officer says they’re busy. The man in the Mariners jersey argues that four cops is too many for a vehicle collision, they’re just standing around anyway, it only takes one cop to look into this, and he needs their help.
I’m actually so concerned about my safety, and they’re threatening me, and you guys are just like, ‘uh, suck a dick, blegh…’
Ranting with Shakespearean gestures, he pauses only to compliment an observer’s camera—I love this—before executing a swift but clumsy heel turn and storming off.
He yells from down the street.
You guys are so fucking autistic!
Go home!
Meanwhile, two young women are waiting for their takeout order in nearby Moscow, Idaho, before returning to their home on King Road.
IV.
Again, Kohberger’s vehicle never appears in the footage filmed on Brandi Way. That said, a vehicle that looks similar to a white Hyundai Elantra was captured on a dash camera elsewhere at 11:43pm on November 12: Traveling west across the intersection of E Main Street and SE Kamiaken Street. As the officer’s vehicle drives north, the white sedan seems to be sitting at a red light off-camera before proceeding west after the light changes. The officer proceeds north, and the white sedan is never seen again.
E Main Street has another name: SR 270, which leads straight to Moscow to the east.
In the alibi document filed August 2, 2023, the defense stated that Kohberger was driving late on November 12 and into the early morning hours of November 13.
In the alibi document filed April 17, however, the mention of Kohberger’s driving on November 12 was gone. Still, the defense revealed two interesting pieces of information: One, that investigators were interested in a car caught on a camera near Floyd’s Cannabis Shop traveling east on SR-270 at a time unknown to the public; and two, that Kohberger is claiming to have visited Wawawai County Park in the early morning hours of November 13. The trip to the park, if it happened, could involve SR-270 depending on the route taken.
Of course, the front of the car is never captured on camera, so whether or not the car has a front-facing plate is unknown. The rear license plate is never captured clearly and its details are indiscernible.
Some of the car’s features in the footage are difficult to identify due to the motion blur; other features, however, are consistent with those of a 2014–2016 Hyundai Elantra. I have yet to find a better candidate for the make and model of this car, but I’m sure someone will let me know if one exists.
But if this is certainly a white Hyundai Elantra, then is it Kohberger’s car? Well, the newly-minted saying goes: I guess we won’t know until trial.
V.
The scene is quiet at NE California Street. A worker from a local tow company loads the Jeep Loredo onto the dolly to be transported to the police station.
An officer stands nearby.
Thank you very much for doin’ this. I don’t know what they told you, but this is a pretty significant case. A couple of people are in the hospital.
Yeah. Sounds like it’s going into evidence.
Yeah.
The worker says something that is difficult to make out.
The officer laughs. He pauses before speaking again.
You can only imagine what the criminal justice majors tell us.
Oh, I’ll bet.
The time is 3:45am, and a white sedan is circling the King Road neighborhood.
The footage and radio logs for the hit-and-run incident are below.
The Footage
My notes are as follows:
The 11:42pm footage is set to age restricted due to the male victim’s injuries. His head, where he was the most severely injured, is completely redacted.
The only redactions logged by Pullman police pertain to sensitive information related to the hit-and-run case. There is no indication that footage was redacted for the Kohberger case.
I was relatively liberal with my own redactions given that—presumably—no civilians in the footage are relevant to the Kohberger case. The audio redactions include first names. I used mosaic blurs—aside from one black box and one full-screen blackout—for the visual redactions, which cover the faces of the victims, witnesses, and workers called to the scene; officer phone screens and note pads; ID cards; and two black screens to conceal apartment unit locations. Redactions with Gaussian blurs were made by Pullman police.
Some of the audio redactions seem longer than necessary due to the officer repeating the witness’s information.
Nobody in the footage identifies themselves as living at Steptoe Apartments.
I edited the 11:42pm footage into two versions: synchronous and asynchronous. I spliced the audio in the synchronized version, but I tried my best to retain any audio that could possibly be relevant to the homicide timeline or the conditions of Kohberger’s neighborhood that night.
In the synchronized version of the footage, there is a maximum of four body-worn or dash cameras on the screen at one time. For this reason, I made a few seconds worth of cuts to the video to meet that maximum. The audio source is outlined in orange.
The Radio Logs
The radio logs are available on my Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HdYvezeCc4nM_kCJ0MdJEc4sGM63a7Ch/view?usp=sharing
The date in the top-left corner, 03/16/24, refers to the day the logs were collected for my public records request.
The logs appear in reverse-sequential order, and the redactions are indicated on the final page.