Overview
- Kohberger filed a petition on Monday, July 27, 2026, asking an Idaho court to withdraw the guilty plea he entered in July 2025 and alleging ineffective legal help and coercion.
- Investigators linked the November 13, 2022, slayings to Kohberger using touch DNA from a Ka‑Bar knife sheath, genealogical tracing and confirmatory testing of trash from his family home, neighborhood surveillance of a white Hyundai Elantra, and cell‑tower records.
- Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 to four counts of first‑degree murder and one count of burglary and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without parole plus 10 years, avoiding a death‑penalty trial.
- Netflix released a three‑part docuseries on July 29, 2026, that assembles newly released police bodycam and Ring footage and centers the victims’ lives and family testimony rather than the perpetrator.
- Families remain split between relief at a quick legal resolution and anger that the plea foreclosed a public trial and a clear motive, and the petition could trigger further proceedings though reporters have not identified new public exculpatory evidence.