Episode Details

Anne Nord, Jade Miller and Rylene Nowlin were all forensic scientists associated with Idaho State Police Forensic Services who became part of the prosecution’s extensive forensic case against Bryan Kohberger. Nord and Miller were among a group of ISP laboratory employees identified as potential expert witnesses because they had performed or reviewed forensic testing connected to the investigation. Their work fell within the larger effort to process the enormous amount of physical evidence collected from the King Road residence and other locations, document laboratory findings, and provide the state with scientists capable of explaining those results to a jury. Prosecutors eventually identified eleven ISP forensic scientists who could potentially testify about specific laboratory reports, including Nord, Miller and Nowlin, demonstrating how heavily the case depended on specialized forensic analysis rather than a single laboratory examiner.


Rylene Nowlin had the most prominent role of the three because she was a longtime Idaho State Police forensic laboratory manager and became directly involved in disputes over the knife-sheath DNA. Nowlin testified that testing of the sheath produced a single-source male DNA profile and was expected to explain concepts involving touch DNA, direct transfer, secondary transfer and the persistence of DNA on objects. The defense aggressively challenged the limits of that testimony, arguing that science could not reliably establish exactly how or when Kohberger’s DNA was deposited on the sheath, while prosecutors maintained that Nowlin’s training and experience allowed her to discuss the relative likelihood of direct versus indirect transfer. Judge Steven Hippler ultimately permitted her testimony, making Nowlin an especially important figure in the battle over how prosecutors intended to explain the most significant piece of biological evidence tying Kohberger to the crime scene.


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