Bryan Kohberger was seen on newly released surveillance video changing the license plates on his white Hyundai Elantra and laughing in casual conversation with a DMV worker just days after he murdered four University of Idaho students, according to Washington state licensing officials and multiple media reports.
The footage, recorded at a Washington State Department of Licensing office in Pullman on Nov. 18, 2022, shows Kohberger walking into the DMV, approaching the counter, and requesting new Washington plates for his car.
At that time, he was living in nearby Pullman as a graduate student and had previously registered the vehicle in Pennsylvania, where he had moved from earlier that year. Officials say the transaction resulted in a new plate number assigned to the same white Elantra later sought by investigators, according to People.
In the video, Kohberger appears relaxed as he speaks with a female DMV employee, at times smiling and laughing while making small talk about the local area and sports.
Reporters who reviewed the footage say his demeanor shifts when the worker briefly mentions the Idaho college murders that had shocked the region days earlier, and he quickly becomes quiet and steers the conversation away from the topic. Throughout the interaction, he keeps his gloves on his hands and periodically looks around the office.
On November 13, 2022, five days before the DMV visit, students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death in a three‑story rental house near the University of Idaho campus in Moscow.
Investigators say the attacker entered the off‑campus home in the early morning hours and moved through multiple floors, attacking the victims in their bedrooms. Two surviving roommates inside the house were not physically harmed.
Autopsies concluded that each victim suffered multiple stab wounds from what authorities believe was a large fixed‑blade knife, and several had defensive injuries. A tan leather knife sheath recovered on a bed near the bodies of Mogen and Goncalves later yielded DNA that prosecutors say matched Kohberger, according to court records.
The killings, which showed no obvious signs of forced entry, left the college town on edge as police searched for a suspect for more than six weeks, the New York Times reported.
Investigators later said that a white Hyundai Elantra seen on surveillance cameras near the crime scene became a critical lead in the case. After reviewing vehicle records, a Washington State University police officer identified Kohberger as the likely owner of such a car, helping focus the investigation on him.
By the time authorities publicly appealed for information about the vehicle in early December, Kohberger had already driven back to Pennsylvania with his father, where he was arrested on Dec. 30, 2022.
Kohberger, then a criminology PhD student at Washington State University, was ultimately charged with four counts of first‑degree murder and one count of burglary. He later pleaded guilty and, in July 2025, received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors have cited his rapid move to change license plates, as seen in the newly surfaced DMV video, as evidence that he was trying to avoid detection in the weeks after the killings, as per NBC News.
