Episode Details

The State opposed Bryan Kohberger’s effort to suppress evidence connected to investigative genetic genealogy, arguing that the IGG process had functioned only as an investigative lead and had not produced the DNA evidence prosecutors ultimately intended to use against him at trial. Prosecutors maintained that the genealogy work pointed investigators toward Kohberger, but that law enforcement then independently collected trash from his family’s Pennsylvania home and later obtained a direct buccal swab after his arrest. According to the State, those later samples established the evidentiary comparison to the male DNA recovered from the knife sheath. Because prosecutors were not planning to introduce the family-tree research, genealogy database information or the identities of genetic relatives as proof of guilt, they argued that Kohberger was trying to suppress an investigative technique rather than evidence that would actually be presented to the jury.


The State also rejected the defense argument that Kohberger’s constitutional rights had been violated by investigators searching genetic genealogy databases. Prosecutors argued that Kohberger had no reasonable expectation of privacy in DNA information voluntarily uploaded by distant relatives to third-party genealogy services and therefore lacked standing to challenge those searches on their behalf. They further maintained that even if the court found some problem with the IGG investigation, suppression still would not automatically follow because investigators had developed additional evidence linking Kohberger to the crime and ultimately obtained his own DNA through lawful means. The prosecution’s position was essentially that IGG helped generate a name, not courtroom evidence, and that the defense was attempting to transform a genealogical lead into a Fourth Amendment violation capable of excluding the later DNA comparison.


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