Idaho murders suspect's alleged messages to one of his victims could be the missing 'link' for motive

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Senior forensic examiner explains the collection of evidence in Idaho student murders case

Senior Digital Forensic Examiner Giovanni Masucci joins 'Crime Stories with Nancy Grace' on Fox Nation to discuss the evidence and data collection in the Idaho student murders case.

Was there a possible link between the Idaho student murders suspect Bryan Kohberger and one of his victims? Fox Nation's "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" tackles this very question with the former prosecutor's team of experts.

While forensic evidence seems to be pointing towards Kohberger - the criminology Ph.D. student accused of ambushing a group of University of Idaho undergrads in November and who's since been charged with quadruple homicide - the case could hit a snag without a connection that indicates motive. 

"Finally, have we found the link between Bryan Kohberger and his four murder victims, according to police? Of course the state never has to prove motive, but any jury would wonder why would he target people he had never met – or had he?" crime expert Nancy Grace posited.

"There's a lot of forensic evidence, but… if you don't give them a motive or a nexus, you're going to have a problem come verdict time," the former prosecutor and Fox Nation host explained.

IDAHO MURDERS SUSPECT BRYAN KOHBERGER ALLEGEDLY SPAMMED ONE VICTIM WITH INSTAGRAM DMS: REPORT

The ‘Crime Stories’ episode explores how a source who spoke to People Magazine shared that Kohberger sent multiple direct messages (DM's) to one of the victims through the social media app Instagram, but never received a reply. 

Grace shared how DMs are sent and viewed, indicating to Fox Senior Correspondent Laura Ingle that the victim may have not even read or known about the messages from the suspect.

"It has been revealed now that it looks like there was a message coming from somebody that appeared to be Bryan Kohberger," Ingle noted.

Bryan Kohberger's booking photo with insets of his alleged victims.  (Monroe County Prison/Instagram)

"And if somebody messages me from a post that I make or great report last night or something, I will see it. But if I'm not following that person, it'll go to this kind of envelope that I forget about," Ingle went on to explain.

"So sometimes I'll go, ‘Oh yeah, I need to look at that. You need to accept the messages.’ And they'll be a long string of random strangers saying things. And sometimes I don't see it. And then you can either accept that message, you can delete that message. Sometimes they're creepy messages, as we all know, being on Instagram. So there is a very big chance that she or he, whatever victim was didn't see those messages because there wasn't a reply according to the source."

Grace posed the question about the importance of the phones involved, and how the interactions on social media between the victims and Kohberger could be the missing link for a motive.

BRYAN KOHBERGER WAS LIKELY MOTIVATED BY SEXUAL ‘AROUSAL’ AND 'HATRED': EXPERTS

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"The phone is going to be paramount for me as far as his phone. Let's start with the accused first. His searches, his pings and who he communicated with, whether or not they communicated back. Because we're not talking about what they knew. We're talking about what he knew and what he did," Forensics expert Sheryl McCollum told Grace in the episode.

"Then when you've got the victim's phones again, you're going to be able to see any communication between them." She added, "and they're going to be able to tell that from his phone." 

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