DoorDash driver in Kohberger case expects to testify at trial she 'saw Bryan'

BOISE, Idaho — A Moscow woman who said she worked for the DoorDash food delivery service expects to testify at Bryan Kohberger’s upcoming murder trial that she brought an order to one of the victims in the University of Idaho student homicides and saw the suspect.

The 44-year-old woman told police following a traffic stop last year in Pullman, Washington, that she delivered food to the home at 1122 King Road in Moscow moments before the four undergraduates were stabbed to death early in the morning on Nov. 13, 2022. She also told an officer with the Pullman Police Department that she may be called to the stand in the high-profile trial, according to video of the conversation in body-camera footage posted to YouTube.

“Now I have to testify in the big murder case, too,” the woman said, and clarified it was the incident involving the young college students in Moscow. “I’m the DoorDash driver. I saw Bryan ...”

“I parked right next to him,” she added.

The Idaho Statesman is not naming the woman, who hasn’t widely identified herself as the driver.

Kohberger, 30, is charged with killing the four University of Idaho students at the off-campus home. The victims were seniors Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21; junior Xana Kernodle, 20, and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20.

Kernodle received a DoorDash order at approximately 4 a.m. Nov. 13, police said in the probable cause affidavit. More recently, prosecutors said the four homicides happened within a 13-minute window, between 4:07 and 4:20 a.m., according to case filings. That’s when surveillance cameras recorded what police allege was a white Hyundai Elantra in the neighborhood of the home. Kohberger owned a 2015 white Hyundai Elantra.

Kernodle’s DoorDash order from Jack in the Box in Pullman, across the Idaho state line from Moscow, arrived at 3:59 a.m., prosecutors said in March.

“This particular evidence provides a timeline of events (for XK) before the homicides and corroborates state’s witnesses’ testimony,” they wrote, referencing victim Kernodle.

The Moscow woman’s account of delivering food for DoorDash matches that of recent court filings in the closely watched case that stated the driver’s initials are “MM.” In addition, a private investigator who worked on behalf of Goncalves’ parents told them that the DoorDash driver was female, Steve Goncalves, the victim’s father, told the Statesman in a text message Monday.

In March, Kohberger’s defense submitted a legal brief that said an expert witness for the prosecution will testify that their client had no connection to the residents of the home, including the four victims, nor the DoorDash driver, among others affiliated with the case.

Police search warrant returns from DoorDash contain photographs, a list of deliveries to 1122 King Road that date back to 2019 and also a spreadsheet of communication between the person ordering the food and the DoorDash driver, the defense detailed in another filing. The food delivery company worked with detectives in the case since at least Nov. 23, 2022, court filings showed, and provided a response the day after to a search warrant from Dec. 6, 2022.

DoorDash did not respond Monday to an emailed request from the Statesman to a corporate press contact.

Two listed phone numbers for M.M. didn’t go through, and an email to her from the Statesman went unanswered Monday.

Kohberger to appear in court this week

The long-sought information of the DoorDash driver’s identity recently surfaced in body-cam footage on the ”Officer Axon” YouTube page. The page posts videos, including of police arrests, obtained through public records requests.

M.M. was pulled over in September 2024 by a deputy with the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office for driving a pickup truck with expired registration tags, and an officer with the Pullman Police Department arrived as requested backup, according to the deputy’s incident report obtained by the Statesman through a public records request. The district court in Whitman County on Monday also provided the Statesman with records that match the September traffic stop.

The Pullman Police Department, however, didn’t immediately respond to a public records request from the Statesman for the body-cam footage posted on the YouTube page, nor the officer’s incident report or citation issued to M.M.

Lay witness lists have been filed by the prosecution and Kohberger’s defense. The lists remain sealed, preventing the ability to confirm that M.M.’s name appears.

Kohberger’s capital murder trial, which was moved from Moscow to Boise, is scheduled to start with jury selection in late July. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if jurors find him guilty.

Kohberger’s defense last week appeared to follow up on Judge Steven Hippler’s invitation to request appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate evidence leaks in the case, which may have violated the court’s gag order. Previously unreleased information about Kohberger and the homicide investigation aired in an episode of NBC’s “Dateline” last month.

A public hearing is set for Wednesday before Hippler to address the defense’s push to delay the trial, which the prosecution opposes. A closed-door portion will follow for oral arguments over whether the defense has provided the court with enough evidence to present at trial the theory of an alternate suspect killing the four victims rather than Kohberger.

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