Bryan Koherberger wasn’t only stalking the four University of Idaho students before he brutally murdered them almost three years ago! It turns out he also watched two other female college students while attending Washington State University!
According to copies of their interview obtained by People on Tuesday, the two women told the Idaho State Police the former criminology student visited them “daily” at their work. That’s how it started, and the situation became increasingly concerning when he began to show up at their homes unexpectedly.
The first woman, who worked at the Washington State University bookstore, said Kohberger “seemed very used to being put off by women.” The 30-year-old teacher’s assistant had many complaints about his “rude and belittling behavior toward women,” as well as for making them feel “uncomfortable,” and “discriminatory comments which were homophobic, ableist, xenophobic and misogynistic in nature.” So yeah, he was used to it.
A few months before the Idaho murders, in August or September of 2022, she claimed to police that “she was home alone one night, changing in her room, and someone knocked on her window.” She called her husband, and the person ran away. That wasn’t the end of the nightmare, though. It happened again. The report said:
“Another time, after she had started working she heard someone moving around on her porch at approximately 7:00 in the evening. Her husband came home again and saw a white car leaving the area.”
The report doesn’t specify the kind of car it was, but we know that Kohberger drove a white Hyundai Elantra. Could it have been his vehicle leaving her home? The woman seemingly thinks so.
She also shared that it seemed the convicted killer researched her because he knew personal information about her that she had never told him before — like her name. According to the woman, he once came into her work and asked for her by name. However, she told police she was “certain she never told Kohberger her name, and she doesn’t wear a name tag.” Kohberger even knew “what hours she worked and made remarks about her hours,” per the report.
Creepy!
And she wasn’t the only victim of his stalking! Another female student worked with Kohberger in the criminology department, but was an undergraduate. He tried to pursue her, but she told cops she rejected his advances, telling him she was a lesbian. However, that didn’t stop him. Kohberger continued to seek her out at work “almost daily.” The report noted that she said:
“She was not the first person to have problems with Kohberger.”
One night, she recalled, she was working late and spotted him “walking outside as she was locking up.” And what happened next will send chills up your spine. The woman alleged:
“Kohberger made eye contact with her when she looked out, which seemed strange because you would have to be looking directly at the window where she worked to make eye contact.”
When she was about to lock up, she ran and hid in the bathroom because she saw Kohberger enter the building and wanted to avoid him. Smart move! Another day, she received a call from a neighbor who said they “saw someone very close outside her window and to make sure to lock the door.” The woman found out soon after that “she lived fairly close to Kohberger.”
How chilling!
His classmate also told police she felt someone outside her window and discovered “snow footprints leading to the back window of her apartment.” She noticed “whoever had left the footprints had backtracked within the tracks.” The woman added that another student had heard someone trying to open the door of their home a few weeks before that incident.
A professor warned Kohberger would be “harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing” students if he ever became a professor in the future. But it looks like he was already doing it to several women — not just Kaylee Goncalves before he killed Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, and her.
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The family of murdered student Kaylee Goncalves says they may have uncovered a connection between the suspect, their daughter, and Madison “Maddie” Mogen. “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.
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During a recent court appearance, the attorney representing Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four students at the University of Idaho in November 2022, said that prosecutors were withholding information from the defense team.
As Kohberger’s lead attorney Anne Taylor argued that two upcoming hearings, set for May 14 and 16, should be made public, she said that Latah County prosecutors have not provided a full video that allegedly shows Kohberger’s vehicle by the residence where the four students were killed. Taylor said that the defense has only “received parts of” the video, which is described in the probable cause affidavit that was used to arrest Kohberger, and said that the video did not have sound.
“This is the video that they say places this car near the residence. We’re received little tiny pieces of that and we think Bryan’s right to a fair trial means the public needs to know that they’ve withheld the audio from a great portion of that and that it starts a long time before the little clip that we received,” Taylor said, also accusing prosecutors of keeping the defense “in a vacuum to try to control the narrative.”
Bryan Kohberger arrives for a hearing in Latah County District Court on September 13, 2023.
Ted S. Warren / Getty Images
Taylor also argued that Kohberger’s case should continue to be made public. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ashley Jennings said in a rebuttal that while the trial would be public, not all hearings should be conducted in an open forum because of the information being discussed. Three previous hearings have been public.
“I would note for the record, we had one (public) hearing regarding motions to compel … We discussed one request and it had to do with training records. That’s not what we’re contemplating discussing at this hearing on the 14th,” Jennings said.
According to CBS affiliate KREM, the upcoming hearings will “primarily address the potential relocation of Kohberger’s trial away from Latah County.” Kohberger’s lawyers have previously said that “inflammatory” publicity would make it impossible for him to have a fair trial.
Overseeing judge John Judge ruled that the upcoming hearings will be closed.
The family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the students who was killed, said in a statement that they were frustrated by how long it has taken the case to progress through the judicial system.
“This banter has been going on for 17 months. Then once you get a hearing, you have a hearing about the decision that was made at that hearing before the last hearing and there needs to be another hearing,” the family said in a statement. “This case is turning into a hamster wheel of motions, hearings, and delayed decisions.”
Kerry Breen is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News’ TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.
A delay in the trial of suspect Bryan Kohberger, originally set for October, had also delayed the demolition of the house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, which had been given to the school earlier this year. Kohberger, 28, now expected to face trial next summer over the stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, both 20.
The university had announced that teams from both the prosecution and defense would have access to the six-bedroom house before its demolition, and the FBI had gathered additional information from the house in October. Neither the prosecution nor the defense have opposed demolition.
Demolition was set for during the school’s winter break, when fewer students would be in the area, according to the school.
Heavy equipment is used to demolish the house where four University of Idaho students were killed a year earlier, on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho.
Ted S. Warren / AP
“It is the grim reminder of the heinous act that took place there,” university president Scott Green said in a statement released earlier this month. “While we appreciate the emotional connection some family members of the victims may have to this house, it is time for its removal and to allow the collective healing of our community to continue.”
“The family has stressed tirelessly to the Prosecution and the University of Idaho the importance (evidentiary and emotionally) that the King Road house carries but nobody seems to care enough,” the family said in the statement, obtained by local station KREM. It’s like screaming into a void. Nobody is listening and everyone tells you how sorry they are for the decision but the families’ opinion isn’t a priority. Victims’ families have a voice and should be heard and listened to!”
The family of Ethan Chapin, who did not live at the house, offered its support for the demolition.
“We’re supportive of the decision to take down the King Street House — for the good of the University, its students (including our own kids), and the community of Moscow,” family members said in a statement earlier this month.
The four students were found stabbed to death in the rental home in November 2022. Two other roommates were unharmed. Kohberger, a graduate student in criminology at nearby Washington State University, was arrested the next month after a search that garnered national interest. He has pleaded not guilty.
University spokeswoman Jodi Walker told The Associated Press it would take a few hours to raze the house and a few more to clear the site, depending on the weather.
“That is an area that is dense with students, and many students have to look at it and live with it every day and have expressed to us how much it will help with the healing process to have that house removed,” she said.
Allison Elyse Gualtieri is a senior news editor for CBSNews.com, working on a wide variety of subjects including crime, longer-form features and feel-good news. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and U.S. News and World Report, among other outlets.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The grand jury indictment of a man charged with killing four University of Idaho students was conducted properly and will stand, a judge has ruled.
Bryan Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves at a rental home near the university campus in Moscow, Idaho, last year. Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted.
But earlier this year, Kohberger’s team of defense attorneys filed motions asking the judge to throw out the indictment, alleging that the prosecution improperly withheld evidence from grand jurors. Kohberger’s lawyers also said the jurors were biased and that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to justify the indictment. A document detailing the basis for some of the defense claims was sealed, and the judge closed the hearing on the matter to the public.
After reviewing transcripts, recordings and other evidence from the secret grand jury proceedings, Second District Judge John Judge rejected those arguments in a written ruling issued late Friday.
“The grand jury is not a trial jury. Its function is to screen whether or not there is sufficient evidence to proceed to trial,” Judge wrote in documents uploaded to the state court website on Monday. He said the grand jury met that standard and the proceeding was held in accordance with Idaho case law and the state and federal constitutions.
In Idaho, grand jury proceedings are held in secret. Generally, the prosecutor presents evidence to the jurors, who have the power to call and question witnesses and seek other evidence. The grand jurors aren’t required to hear any evidence in favor of the defendant, and neither the defendant nor their attorney has to be informed of the proceeding.
Not all Idaho criminal cases are handled by grand juries. Often, prosecutors choose to utilize a preliminary hearing instead. Preliminary hearings are public, and defense attorneys are given a chance to present their own witnesses and evidence and challenge the case presented by the prosecutor. There are no juries in preliminary hearings — instead, a magistrate judge decides is there is enough evidence to justify the sending the case to district court for trial.
Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University, which is a short drive from the scene of the killings across the state border. He was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, and the unusual details of the case have drawn widespread interest. Investigators pieced together DNA evidence, cellphone data and surveillance video that they say links Kohberger to the slayings.
A judge Thursday rejected a motion to throw out the indictment of a man charged with fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students last year, CBS affiliate KREM-TV reported.
Lawyers for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused in the slayings, had argued his indictment should be thrown out on the grounds of “error in grand jury instructions,” KREM reported.
Kohberger’s defense took particular issue with the burden of proof being established to the jury as “probable cause” instead of “beyond a reasonable doubt,” which it argued was not standard in the state of Idaho, KREM reported.
Latah County District Judge John Judge denied the motion, saying that while it was “creative,” he ultimately could not do anything to change existing law, according to KREM.
Bryan Koberger listens during a hearing to overturn his grand jury indictment on October 26, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho.
Kai Eiselein / Getty Images
Judge said Thursday that “this is certainly an issue that you would have to bring up with a higher court, like the Idaho Supreme Court,” the Idaho Statesman reported.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at a house near the Moscow, Idaho, university campus last November.
Kohberger at the time was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University in neighboring Pullman, Washington. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf earlier this year.
Kristi Goncalves: I was really hoping that, um, we could get this show on the road because the not knowing … it’s just, it’s agony. It’s agony.
Steve and Kristi, the parents of Kaylee Goncalves, haven’t left anything to chance. After the judge issued a gag order to attorneys and law enforcement “to preserve the right to fair trial,” they drilled down on their own investigation and are now sharing what they believe that investigation found. Steve says he believes transparency is the best path to justice.
Steve Goncalves: We’re not gonna just sit back and cross our fingers and pray that we’re gonna get justice.
SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS
It has been a long and painful journey for the families of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison “Maddie” Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — the four University of Idaho students who were savagely murdered by a knife-wielding assailant in the wee hours of Nov. 13, 2022, as they settled down to sleep in their off-campus house on King Road.
From top left, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle.
CBS News
Peter Van Sant: Do you ever dream of your sister?
Jazzmin Kernodle: Yeah. I’ve had some dreams of her. There’s times where I prayed and asked God to see her another time and I did and just gives me some peace knowing that I know she’s OK.
Jazzmin Kernodle, who is speaking for the first time, was a senior at Washington State University and lived only 15 minutes away from her younger sister, Xana. Often mistaken as twins growing up, she says they were best friends.
Jazzmin Kernodle: She just was always fun. She was uplifting. And she took any bad situation and turned it into a good one.
Peter Van Sant: Jeff, what did you love most about your daughter?
Jeffrey Kernodle: Everything … she cared about people. She was a people person. She cared about her friends just as much as, like, her family.
For the first time in her life, Xana had fallen in love … with fellow student Ethan Chapin, a triplet who loved his siblings, boats and working on a tulip farm.
Jazzmin Kernodle: The sweetest kid ever. They were just two happy people and they’re — just seeing the videos and photos of them you can just like tell how happy they are … they were just amazing together.
Sadly, they will now forever be linked in death. On Sunday morning Nov. 13, Xana’s friends started calling Jazzmin saying something bad had happened on King Road.
Jazzmin rushed over to Xana’s house.
Peter Van Sant: And while you’re driving that eight, nine miles over to the house, are you trying to reach your sister then?
Jazzmin Kernodle: Mm-hmm.
Peter Van Sant: How many times did you call her?
Jazzmin Kernodle: A lot. I called her a lot, called Ethan a lot.
Her next call was to her father. Jeffrey Kernodle had been visiting Jazzmin for Dad’s weekend and was on his way home.
Peter Van Sant: So, you answer the phone. What do you hear?
Jeffrey Kernodle: I hear her kind of crying and just telling me to get back to Moscow and meet me at Xana’s house. And you know, my heart drops … instantly race back down there.
The house was cordoned off and swarming with investigators. As soon as Jeffrey said he was Xana’s father, he and Jazzmin were escorted to the Moscow Police Department.
Peter Van Sant: And Jazzmin, what does the officer say to you and your father?
Jazzmin and Jeffrey Kernodle
CBS News
Jazzmin Kernodle: I don’t — I don’t remember exactly. Just that four people passed away and that one was Xana (in tears).
Jeffrey Kernodle: The worst day of your life, just your worst nightmare. This happened, you know, what do you do? You can’t do a damn thing.
One-hundred miles away, the Goncalves family also had been getting frantic calls saying something bad had happened to their daughter, Kaylee. But no one knew what.
Kristi Goncalves: I just kept saying, over and over, “What do I do? What do we do? What do we do?”
Finally, at around 4 p.m., a deputy appeared at their door.
Steve Goncalves: And we said, “what’s going on?” … “I confirmed your daughter’s died. She’s passed away.”
Kristi Goncalves Then he said there were four victims. And I said, “four?” And he said, “Yes, ma’am.” … I said, “Can you tell us if one of the victims was Maddie Mogen?” And he said, “Yes, ma’am.”
Maddie Mogen — Kaylee’s best friend from childhood.
Peter Van Sant: Give us a sense of just how close Kaylee and Maddie were in life?
Kristi Goncalves: I think that they had a very amazing relationship … the epitome of true best friends from very early. … I mean they were sisters through and through.
Alivea Goncalves: They were completely inseparable.
As soon as the news hit, Alivea, the eldest of the five Goncalves children, and her parents went into detective mode.
Alivea Goncalves: We had zero details. We just knew they were gone.
Alivea got into her sister’s call log and frantically started cold-calling recent numbers. She says a friend told her that Kaylee had been at the Corner Club bar around 1:07 a.m. and later texted a rideshare driver, who Alivea managed to track down.
Alivea Goncalves: The rideshare driver said … around 1:45 Kaylee had texted him requesting a ride from the Grub Truck, which is the local mac and cheese food truck … to take her back home to 1122 King and she had with her another female.
Alivea then uncovered one of the most important leads in the case. The rideshare driver told her about a camera mounted on the Grub Truck.
Alivea Goncalves: So, I was able to look it up and find Kaylee on the video and I saw the girl that she was with was Maddie … So, at that point, I knew Kaylee and Maddie were together. They got into the car to go home together and alone.
Kaylee Goncalves and Maddie Mogen seen in surveillance video from the Grub Truck.
Grubtruckers/Twitch
The driver told her the exact time Kaylee and Maddie were dropped off at their house on King Road, 1:56 a.m. — a timeline she says she confirmed before the police.
Alivea Goncalves: I immediately took it to the police officers … “Here’s her phone information … Here’s … the rideshare driver’s name.”
Alivea says Kaylee made a call to her boyfriend at 2:56 a.m., but he didn’t answer. The Goncalves’ believe Kaylee fell asleep shortly after.
According to the police affidavit, Kaylee and Maddie were stabbed to death between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m. Just as they had done since they were little girls, they were sleeping in the same bed.
Kristi Goncalves (in tears): Those two best friends since little girls, I don’t think there’s anything more terrifying than what they went through. I really don’t.
The killer took four lives in a matter of minutes. But he left behind two surviving roommates — one of whom would provide a key description of the intruder.
NEW DETAILS OF KILLER’S RAMPAGE
If there is one picture that speaks to the Idaho student murders, it’s the one of six smiling college students blissfully unaware of the carnage to come.
Howard Blum: It’s staged in a way that is almost, in a strange way, ominously predicting.
Investigative journalist Howard Blum has written extensively on the student murders for Graydon Carter’s online magazine, Air Mail. He is now writing a book on the case.
Howard Blum: On the ends of the picture are the two survivors. … in the middle … are the victims … and they’re huddled together.
“On the ends of the picture are the two survivors. … in the middle … are the victims … and they’re huddled together,” investigative journalist Howard Blum says of the group photo taken the day before the murders.
Kaylee Goncalves/Instagram
Kaylee with a beaming Maddie on her shoulders – friends for life. Ethan with his arm around Xana – young love in full bloom. A moment that should have been a memory of their idyllic college years would eternally be a reminder of the gruesome murders that put them in their graves.
Howard Blum: What makes it so tragic is … They’re … forever preserved in this moment. … they’ll never be able to leave this moment.
Hours after the photo was taken, the four friends would be murdered; their deaths so violent, even the house seemed to be bleeding.
Bryanna Fox: There was literally blood oozing out from the home. Uh, you could see it on the exterior walls.
CBS News Consultant Bryanna Fox is a former FBI agent and professor of criminology at the University of South Florida.
Bryanna Fox: That’s how bloody and gruesome the crime scene is.
According to the affidavit, which outlines law enforcement’s investigation, the bodies of Xana and Ethan, who was sleeping over, were found in or near her bedroom on the second floor.
The bodies of Kaylee and Maddie were on the third floor in the same single bed in Maddie’s room.
Peter Van Sant: How did your — your daughter die in that house? What do you know?
Steve Goncalves: We know the autopsy. We know the means of what is officially how she died. … she was assaulted and stabbed.
Kristi Goncalves: Several, several times … her death certificate is the ugliest, disgusting-est piece of paper that you will ever see in your life.
Peter Van Sant: And every line is a horror show.
Kristi Goncalves: Every line because there’s causes of death and then there’s contributions to death.
Best friends Maddie Mogen, left, and Kaylee Goncalves.
Maddie Mogen/Instagram
Kristi and Steve spoke to Coroner Cathy Mabbutt before the gag order was issued, and they say she told them how the two friends were positioned in the bed.
Kristi Goncalves: The bed was up against the wall. The headboard was touching the wall and the left side of the bed was touching the wall. And we believe that Maddie was on the outside and Kaylee was on the inside.
According to Mabbutt, the killer’s first victim was Maddie, says Steve.
Peter Van Sant: And then from Maddie, he moved on to your daughter. You believe she had awakened at that point?
Kristi Goncalves: Yes.
Steve Goncalves: There’s evidence to show that she awakened and tried to get out of that situation …
Kristi Goncalves: The way the bed was set up is what –
Steve Goncalves: She was trapped.
Kristi Goncalves: She was trapped.
We know from the affidavit that Kohberger’s cellphone pinged in the vicinity of the house 12 times prior to the murders. Steve says before the gag order, one of the lead investigators told him they believe Kohberger had been scouting out the house.
Peter Van Sant: You believe these visits were like — he was like on an intelligence mission, a scouting mission?
Kristi Goncalves: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: Looking at lifestyle patterns when they came and went, who came to the house?
Steve Goncalves: Yeah. Yeah. … he had to know when people were coming, people were going.
It makes the Goncalves’ wonder if he’d ever gone inside the house.
Kristi Goncalves:I think that he at least had opened that door, went in, tested the waters, looked around.
Steve says the coroner told him the killer’s rampage started on the third floor where both Maddie and Kaylee had their bedrooms. Kristi thinks he wasn’t expecting to find the two friends together in the same bed.
Kristi Goncalves: I do think that his plan went awry. I do think that you know … he intended to kill one and killed four.
Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
Xana Kernodle/Instagram
Bryanna Fox also believes Xana and Ethan were collateral damage. According to the affidavit, Xana received a Door Dash food delivery at 4 a.m., then went back to her room on the second floor. It’s possible, says Fox, that Xana, still awake, came face to face with the killer.
Bryanna Fox: And she sees somebody that she doesn’t expect, and I don’t think he was expecting to see her either.
One of the two surviving roommates, Dylan Mortensen, later told the police that she heard what she thought was crying coming from Xana’s room. She heard a male voice say something to the effect “it’s OK, I’m going to help you.” Not something a killer would likely say to an intended target, says Fox.
Bryanna Fox: He probably was trying to make a split-second decision: do I run away, do I kill her, what do I do? … and he decided to kill her.
At approximately 4:17 a.m., police say an outside security camera less than 50 feet from Xana’s room picked up distorted audio of what sounded like voices, or a whimper, followed by a loud thud. Shortly after, Dylan – the surviving roommate whose bedroom was near Xana’s – opened the door.
Howard Blum: According to the police affidavit, when Dylan opens the door, she saw a man dressed in black with a black mask, and she says he has bushy eyebrows. Those bushy eyebrows become very important when the police are making their identification.
The man with the bushy eyebrows kept walking to the rear of the house without harming Dylan.
Howard Blum: Why was Dylan not killed? Again … There’s no definitive answer … He — he didn’t kill her because he didn’t see her, he was sort of transfixed on getting out. … he didn’t kill her because he was satiated.
Or he was simply too depleted to kill again, says Fox.
Bryanna Fox: Even stabbing somebody for a minute and a half, not only is that overkill, but it actually would become rather exhausting.
The police believe the murder weapon – which has not been found – was a military style KA-BAR knife. The details are disturbing.
Bryanna Fox: This is not a civilian knife. … It was actually meant to tear apart bone, ligaments, organs. … So … this is extremely brutal … and something that you would never expect a person to walk in and want to commit unless they took some pleasure out of the brutality of it.
After seeing the intruder, Dylan, the surviving roommate, told investigators she locked herself in her room. It would be almost eight hours before 911 was called, causing an uproar on social media criticizing Dylan’s alleged inaction. But Bryanna Fox says it’s not unusual for people to freeze or be too afraid to intervene.
Bryanna Fox: She had no reason to, you know, know how to handle herself in that moment.
According to the affidavit, the male walked towards the back sliding glass door and presumably left the scene. But committing murder and getting away with it are two different things, says Fox.
Bryanna Fox: For an offender to get away with a crime, a murder, they have to bat a thousand. They have to be absolutely perfect — if they make one singular mistake, that’s all it takes.
And that one possible mistake in this case may have been the sheath to the KA-BAR knife — one was found on the bed next to Maddie Mogen. It would lead investigators to the door of a man studying for a career in criminology: Bryan Kohberger, the alleged killer.
INSIDE THE INVESTIGATION
Peter Van Sant: Day after day and week after week passed and there is no suspect that is arrested. What was that time like for you?
Steve Goncalves: That was the worst.
For 47 days after the murders, the families of Kaylee, Maddie, Xana and Ethan — and the country – waited and wept and weighed in.
POLICE CHIEF FRY (to reporters): We do not have a suspect at this time.
POLICE CHIEF FRY (to reporters): People of Idaho and those throughout our nation who provided information has been very impressive. We received over 19,000 tips.
Arrest paperwork filed by Pennsylvania State Police in Monroe County Court, Friday, Dec. 30, 2022, said Kohberger, 28, was being held for extradition in a criminal homicide investigation in the killings of four University of Idaho students.
Monroe County (Pa.) Correctional Facility via AP
On Dec. 30, 2022, Bryan Kohberger was arrested in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania. At the time, his attorney said Kohberger looked forward to being exonerated.
Peter Van Sant: What goes through your mind when you see the face of the alleged killer?
Jeffrey Kernodle: Awe. I wonder, why – who is this? Why, you know? Never heard of the person before … it still is confusing. Why?
At this point, the families knew as much about Kohberger as the public did: a PhD candidate studying criminology just 10 miles away at Washington State University.
Alivea Goncalves: I remember thinking I only have a few minutes … to look up this individual and to try and get any credible information before things start getting wonky.
Some of Alivea Goncalves’ online discoveries of Kohberger made her uneasy.
Alivea Goncalves: He had made a few posts on Reddit in which he was conducting — seems like a questionnaire to people in prison or jail who had committed crimes … “how did you pick … your victim or your target?”
For seven weeks, the families and the country were left wondering.
Bryanna Fox: I think for this type of an investigation, 47 days is actually quick.
Criminologist and CBS News consultant Bryanna Fox says the Moscow police kept things moving, starting with a video canvass which produced footage from those early morning hours showing a white car making three passes by the girls’ house starting around 3:30 a.m. Less than an hour later, investigators say thekiller struck.
Bryanna Fox: They noticed that this car approached King Road, left, came back, almost did a U-turn, finally went there around 4:06 in the morning, and that car then departed in about 25 minutes … and sped off.
Multiple surveillance cameras then captured that white car as it traveled what appeared to be a less direct route back to Pullman, Washington, arriving around 5:30 a.m.
That information helped investigators identify the make and model of the vehicle.
Howard Blum: Washington State Police find the car parked outside graduate housing. They get the license plate … and they get Bryan Kohberger’s name. … They then get driver’s license, and they see the bushy eyebrows that, in the eyes of one of the Moscow detectives, must be the eyebrows of the killer.
Now armed with a warrant, investigators retrieved cell tower data from that morning which captured Kohberger’s phone around 2:47 a.m. in Pullman when it suddenly stopped connecting to the network. According to the affidavit, this was also around the time cameras caught a white Elantra leaving his apartment complex.
Bryanna Fox: There was also an indication that he turned off his cellphone … which is something that a lot of people do when they wanna avoid law enforcement knowing their whereabouts.
His cellphone signal was picked up again two hours later south of Moscow as it traveled back toward his apartment building.
The affidavit described a deeper dive into Kohberger’s phone history that revealed this was a familiar neighborhood to him going back several months.
Bryanna Fox: Cellphone records … indicated that he has traveled, passed, and was very near the vicinity of this crime scene on 12 separate occasions.
The off-campus residence where the four students were found dead on Nov. 13, 2022. Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves shared the residence with two other roommates, who were unharmed.
AP Images
And towers actually captured a 13th trip just hours after the murders.
Bryanna Fox: Anecdotally, a lot of killers … they like revisiting the memory … of the crime … you know, I won, I was able to get away with this and you guys won’t catch me.
Howard Blum: But they had one secret weapon to make their case. They had the knife sheath … and there was a microscopic spot of … DNA on this. Could they tie this DNA to Kohberger?
According to the affidavit, the DNA was found on the button snap of the sheath but when investigators ran it through the national database, there were no matches.
It’s unclear if Bryan Kohberger knew law enforcement was watching when he left Washington in mid-December. Kohberger and his father, who had flown in from Pennsylvania, drove back home together in his white Elantra.
Howard Blum: Kohberger, from what I’ve heard, tells his father he’s in trouble with his job.
Howard Blum: He’s concerned enough about his son to wanna make the drive back with him.
Police released body cam video of Bryan Kohberger and his father being pulled over in Indiana on a December road trip home to Pennsylvania. The video was taken more than two weeks before Kohberger’s arrest at his family’s home.
Howard Blum: What’s also interesting is Kohberger’s reaction to the police. He’s pretty calm and cool.
Father and son made it home to Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, where Blum says investigators initiated a stealth operation.
Howard Blum: What they did is they sent a team of Pennsylvania state troopers to Kohberger’s family’s house.
Law enforcement recovered Kohberger’s father’s DNA from the trash outside their home, which tested as a high probability it was the biological father of whoever left DNA on the knife sheath.
Howard Blum: So, that was the eureka moment which they decided they could get an arrest warrant.
Bryanna Fox: At that point they made the arrest of Bryan Kohberger, and they got a separate — essentially a search warrant for his DNA.
And when investigators compared his DNA to the DNA on the knife sheath, they say it was a statistical match, at least 5.37 octillion times more likely to be Kohberger’s than anyone else.
POKING HOLES IN THE CASE
Peter Van Sant: Where you sit today, are you certain that Bryan Kohberger is the killer?
Kristi Goncalves (to Steve) With what you know.
Steve Goncalves: I don’t trust anybody or anything, so I have to see it myself. I have to see everything.
Kristi and Steve Goncalves with “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant.
CBS News
As the months pass, Steve and Kristi Goncalves remain a united front in wanting justice, but their wait has brought different perspectives.
Peter Van Sant: Your mind is still open to the potential —
Steve Goncalves: Of course.
Peter Van Sant: — that it could have been someone else?
Steve Goncalves: Of course. Yep, I go into that 100 percent. Yep, course.
Peter Van Sant: That’s not where you are?
Kristi Goncalves (looking at Steve): No.
Steve Goncalves (to Kristi): Yeah, that’s fine.
Brian Kohberger during a court hearing.
Pool
Bryanna Fox: I don’t think there’s any slam dunk.
Criminologist Bryanna Fox says with the gag order in place, any hint of Kohberger’s defense has come from court documents.
Bryanna Fox: It seems that the defense is alleging there was a rush to judgment, law enforcement made an arrest too fast, and they focused on their client too quickly.
A defense filing did reveal Kohberger’s alibi for the night of the murders. It simply stated, “Mr. Kohberger was out driving alone.”
Bryanna Fox: The defense is not necessarily having to prove that he’s innocent, they just have to raise doubt.
Both Fox and Howard Blum think the defense can find ways to poke holes in the prosecution’s case, challenging some of the key evidence presented in the affidavit – including the cellphone location data and the white Elantra.
Bryanna Fox: There’s other concerns such as whether Bryan Kohberger’s car was accurately identified at the onset … or if that was revised after knowing what Bryan Kohberger drove.
Howard Blum: The cellphone data … makes one suspicious of Kohberger, but it’s not convincing … It’s not putting … someone at someone’s doorstep, it’s putting … someone in someone’s neighborhood.
Howard Blum: If you can raise doubts about the validity and the accuracy of the cellphone data, I think you’re halfway there … to getting the case against Kohberger, either a hung jury or a not guilty verdict.
And there’s more according to the defense.
Bryanna Fox: That there is no DNA or forensic evidence found from the crime scene at the apartment, car, office or on Bryan Kohberger’s person. So, they were basically alleging how could he have committed such a brutal murder and yet have no evidence found on him of that.
After consulting their own investigators, Kristi and Steve Goncalves theorize that Kohberger likely brought what they call a “kill kit” with him.
Peter Van Sant: What do you mean by a kill kit?
Steve Goncalves: I think he had a backpack.
Kristi Goncalves: A change of clothes … We don’t know if it was coveralls, pants, hood, we don’t know.
A defense filing also claimed the presence of other, unidentified, male DNA was found on the premises.
Bryanna Fox: Three separate and distinct male DNA profiles were found from the crime scene. Two were inside the house, one was outside on a glove.
Howard Blum: The defense wants to know … who are these people, and what role could they have played in this whole story?
Howard Blum: So, what the defense is doing now is trying to look for other narratives that make sense.
Howard Blum has written extensively about this case, including a piece on a possible alternative defense theory involving drugs.
Howard Blum: Maybe someone had reneged on a drug payment, and this was … a retribution of vengeance for people not paying for drugs they had ordered.
Peter Van Sant: I want you guys to respond to one thing that’s out there … this speculation that somehow drugs were involved in this attack?
Steve Goncalves: That’s just Hollywood nonsense. I just dismissed that because I understand our society wants to believe in some of these movies that they watch … they don’t have these crazy lives where they’re crossing paths with people like that.
Kristi Goncalves: That storyline of it being drugs, gives people a reason to think why it happened, because nobody knows why. And the reason I think it happened is because he wanted to. That’s what he wanted to do. He wanted to commit a murder.
Bryan Kohberger’s defense attorneys argue there’s a lack of evidence linking their client to the students.
Bryanna Fox: The defense is claiming that the defendant, Bryan Kohberger, and the victims have absolutely no connection. There’s no motive.
In the minutes after Bryan Kohberger was publicly named, the Goncalves family went online.
Kristi Goncalves: They told us the name and we immediately started Googling.
The Goncalves family provided “48 Hours” screenshots of an Instagram account they believe belonged to Bryan Kohberger. Those screenshots include what they say is Kohberger’s Instagram profile, and a list of people he was following, including Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves.
Steve Goncalves
Kristi Goncalves: From our investigation of the account, it appeared to be the real Bryan Kohberger account.
Among the people this account was following were Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves — in addition to several people with the name Kohberger.
Steve Goncalves: But when we looked through there, it appeared to have other family members that were related to him.
The Goncalves’ say they discovered “digital evidence” they say showed a tie of Bryan Kohberger to two of the victims: Maddie and Kaylee.
Steve Goncalves
At first, Steve Goncalves, who works in IT, was skeptical — thinking someone created a fake account in the minutes following Kohberger’s arrest. But according to the family, they uncovered more possible connections.
Kristi Goncalves: You would go to Maddie’s Instagram account and look at her pictures, and he “liked” them … Bryan’s name was under a lot of Maddie’s pictures. … liked her pictures, liked that picture, and that picture and that picture, and that picture. So, he was actively looking at the Instagram account.
Peter Van Sant: And the importance of that is what?
Steve Goncalves: Just digital evidence … that this particular account … had some type of connection with the victims.
“48 Hours” has not confirmed the authenticity of this account, which has since been deleted, and the gag order prevents investigators from commenting.
After dedicating months looking for their own answers, the Goncalves’ say they are mentally prepared for trial — no matter when it begins.
Kristi Goncalves: I think he is done. … He’s going to feel all of us just staring at the back of his head. And he’s going to know that we are the Goncalves family. And he knows, you know, what he did to our daughter.
COPING WITH THEIR GRIEF
Steve Goncalves: How could this happen to the group of kids that are … doing everything the way they’re supposed to do?
Kristi Goncalves: To not know is what keeps you awake at night. … and it’s every day, all day. It never stops. Why, why, why? There is no why.
From left: Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
It is as unexplainable today as it was the day Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were murdered.
Jazzmin Kernodle (in tears): I wish — I wish we knew. They were — all four of them were just such great people and made such an impact on the lives around them.
For now, the families are left with thoughts of what might have been.
PROVOST AND EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT (University of Idaho graduation): Kaylee Jade Goncalves has been recommended … to receive a posthumous bachelor’s degree. Her family will receive the diploma of the University of Idaho.
On May 13, 2023, exactly six months from the day of the murders, an occasion that would have been a cause for celebration, graduation, was, instead, another reminder of what was lost.
Kristi Goncalves (wiping tears): Seeing all those graduation photos, it just — they should be here.
Graduation is just one of many milestones that will be missed.
Jazzmin Kernodle: She would’ve been my maid of honor and I probably would’ve been hers. And it’s, like, sad to have to go through those life moments without her.
Alivea Goncalves: The memories that we share … we don’t do it lightly, because they are very private memories and sometimes it feels like I’m giving away a part of them. … But I do it for the importance … to realize, how great of a loss it is. … because nothing is going to bring them back.
Jazzmin Kernodle planned to work side by side with her sister Xana, creating their own marketing business.
Jazzmin Kernodle It’s just not the same without her because she just brought like such a crazy different energy than anybody else I’ve ever met.
Kaylee Goncalves’s future was in sight. She had accepted a job in Austin working for an IT firm. Kaylee not only pushed herself, say her parents, but pushed them.
Steve Goncalves: We lost that person that would force us to make new memories and force us to go and take on something that seems a little daunting at first
For the Goncalves,’ amid all the loss, there was an addition to the family. In February, Alivea gave birth to a baby girl.
Alivea Goncalves: So, her name is Theodora MaddieKay. Obviously, MaddieKay is after Maddie and Kaylee.
And if one were to believe in signs, there were, says Alivea, several with Theodora MaddieKay’s arrival. In the hospital, her room number, 1113, was the same as the date of the murders: November 13. And eerily, the time of birth, 4:21 a.m., is in the timeframe that Kaylee and Maddie are believed to have been killed.
Alivea Goncalves: To have birth and life and firsts … first giggles, first walks … that they would be there somehow, you know, even if it’s just a namesake.
The families of Kaylee, Maddie, Xana and Ethan have all searched for ways, sometimes together, to cope with a horrible new normal.
Jazzmin Kernodle: We all are always gonna be there for each other and it’s just, difficult. We all — we’re all going through it in our own ways.
Jim and Stacy Chapin created a foundation, Ethan’s Smile, raising money for scholarships by selling tulips planted in honor of their son, Ethan, who had worked at a tulip farm.
For Ethan’s parents, Stacy and Jim Chapin, one way of coping involves creating a foundation, Ethan’s Smile, raising money for scholarships by selling tulips planted in honor of Ethan, who had worked at a tulip farm.
Jim Chapin: Ethan had a great smile, smiled all the time.
Stacy Chapin: So, Ethan will live on through the foundation … that’s what motivates us to, to do this.
Peter Van Sant: How do you live with this, Jeff?
Jeffrey Kernodle: It’s not easy. You just got to keep going, you know.
Jazzmin Kernodle: I think just like living our lives like Xana would want us to. … I know that she would want us to talk about the life that she lived and to be her voice right now.
Kristi Goncalves (looking at photos): She had a beautiful smile. Her and Maddie …
Alivea Goncalves: The memories that we share … we don’t do it lightly, because they are very private memories and sometimes it feels like I’m giving away a part of them. … But I do it for the importance … to realize, how great of a loss it is. … because nothing is going to bring them back.
Produced by Liza Finley, Mary Noonan and Ruth Chenetz. Michael McHugh is the producer-editor. Greg Fisher and Elena DiFiore are the development producers. Hannah Vair is the field producer. Jud Johnston, Greg Kaplan and Diana Modica are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
Among the never-ending questions surrounding the November 2022 murders of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison “Maddie” Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — was did they know their killer?
In an affidavit outlining the case, investigators say DNA, cellphone records and surveillance camera evidence link the accused murderer, Bryan Kohberger, to the crime. But his defense attorneys say in a court filing that “there is no connection between Mr. Kohberger and the victims.”
Criminologist and CBS News consultant Bryanna Fox adds that “the defense is claiming that the defendant, Bryan Kohberger, and the victims have absolutely no connection. There’s no motive, there’s no reason for this crime to take place. So, essentially, it’s raising additional doubt in jurors’ minds.”
From left, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison “Maddie” Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
CBS News
But Kaylee Goncalves‘ parents, Steve and Kristi, believe they have proof of a connection.
In the minutes after learning Kohberger’s name, Kristi Goncalves says, “We went online and immediately started Googling.”
Steve Goncalves adds, “He was a PhD student at Washington State they told us. We’re like PhD? What the heck is going on? Who?”
Steve and Kristi Goncalves talked with “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant for “The Night of the Idaho Student Murders.”
They say they discovered “digital evidence” they say showed a tie of Kohberger to two of the victims.
The Goncalves family provided “48 Hours” with screenshots of an Instagram account they believe belonged to Bryan Kohberger. Those screen shots include what they say is Kohberger’s Instagram profile, and a list of people he was following, including Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves (pictured).
Steve Goncalves
In the interview with Van Sant, the Goncalves family provided screenshots of an Instagram account they believe belonged to Kohberger. Those screen shots include what they say is Kohberger’s Instagram profile, and a list of people he was following, including Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves.
“48 Hours” has not been able to confirm the authenticity of this account.
Kristi Goncalves says when they attempted to cross-reference the accounts of Kaylee, Maddie, Xana and Ethan, it appeared that this Kohberger account had interacted with Maddie’s Instagram.
“You would go to Maddie’s Instagram account and look at her pictures, and he liked them,” Kristi said. “He had liked them. Bryan’s name was under a lot of Maddie’s pictures. Liked her pictures, liked that picture and that picture, and that picture, and that picture. So, he was actively looking at the Instagram account.”
The Goncalves’ say the account is no longer active. It disappeared shortly after Kohberger’s arrest, on the same day as a “Celebration of Life” ceremony for Kaylee and Maddie.
“By the time we got home from the “Celebration of Life”, it was gone … the Instagram account was gone,” Kristi Goncalves says.
The parents of slain University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle believe their daughters were awake and put up a struggle the morning they and two other students were killed in the bedrooms of home near campus.
“There’s evidence to show that she awakened and tried to get out of that situation,” Kaylee’s father, Steve Goncalves, told CBS News for an upcoming special on the murders. “She was assaulted and stabbed.”
The victim’s mother, Kristi Goncalves, supported her husband’s account of what happened on Nov. 13, 2022, when their daughter was pinned between a wall and her best friend Maddie Mogen, who was killed while sleeping next to her.
“The way the bed was set up … she was trapped,” Kristi Goncalves told CBS.
Xana’s father, Jeffrey Kernodle, told CBS he also has reason to believe his 20-year-old daughter fought with her killer before being fatally stabbed one floor lower in the same house.
August Frank/Lewiston Tribune via AP
Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom during a hearing Tuesday, June 27, 2023, at the Latah County Courthouse in Moscow, Idaho.
Bryan Kohberger, a criminal justice grad student at nearby Washington State University, has since been charged with killing Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle and Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin. No motive has been established.
The Nov. 13, 2022, murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, students at the University of Idaho, left the nation stunned and the families of the victims searching for answers.
Bryan Kohberger, charged in the case, faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. A judge has entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. As attention turns to Kohberger’s trial, the murders remain unexplainable, with questions lingering.
“I don’t know why it happened,” Jazzmin Kernodle, sister of Xana Kernodle, told “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant in her first interview. “I wish we knew. They were, all four of them were, just such great people and made such an impact on the lives around them.”
Jazzmin and her father, Jeffrey Kernodle, spoke with Van Sant in “The Night of the Idaho Murders,” airing Saturday, Sept. 16, at 10/9c on CBS, and streaming on Paramount+. Van Sant asked Jeffrey Kernodle about reports that his daughter, Xana, fought back against the attacker.
“I believe so,” Kernodle replied. “It’s upsetting to think about.”
Also interviewed were Kaylee Goncalves’ parents, Kristi and Steve Goncalves, and Kaylee’s sister, Alivea Goncalves.
Clockwise from top left: Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Moden, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle.
CBS News
“We’re not going to just sit back and cross our fingers and pray we’re going to get justice,” Steve Goncalves said. That desire for justice led the Goncalves family to undertake their own investigation, in addition to speaking with authorities, before a gag order was put in place.
Steve Goncalves says, according to the coroner, the first victim was Mogen. Both Mogen and Goncalves were sleeping in the same bed in a room on the third floor of the house. After killing Mogen, the assailant then went on to kill Kaylee, Steve Goncalves said.
“There’s evidence to show that she awakened and tried to get out of that situation,” says Goncalves, “she was assaulted and stabbed.”
Kristi Goncalves explains her daughter had several fatal wounds and that the way the bedroom was set up, made it difficult to escape. “The bed was up against the wall. The headboard was touching the wall and the left side of the bed was touching the wall. And we believe that Maddie was on the outside and Kaylee was on the inside,” she says. “The way the bed was set up … she was trapped.” Kristi Goncalves believes the assailant was not expecting to find the two best friends together in the same bed. ” I do think that his plan went awry. I do think that, you know, he intended to kill one and killed four.”
Steve and Kristi Goncalves say investigators’ information also led them to believe that Bryan Kohberger may have made scouting trips to the students’ house where the murders occurred. “He had to know when people were coming, people going,” says Steve Goncalves.
Kristi Goncalves wonders if Kohberger had ever gone inside the home, saying, “I think he at least had opened that door, went in, tested the waters, looked around.”
The Goncalves’ also think they may have found a possible connection, through Instagram, between Bryan Kohberger, their daughter, and Maddie Mogen. They believe they found Kohberger’s Instagram account and he had been following Kaylee’s and Maddie’s Instagrams. “From our investigation of the account, it appeared to be the real Bryan Kohberger account,” says Kristi Goncalves.
However, Bryan Kohberger’s defense team has stated in court filings, that, “There is no connection between Mr. Kohberger and the victims.” Investigative reporter Howard Blum, who has written extensively about the case for Air Mail, a digital newsletter, explains in an interview with “48 Hours,” “the prosecution would like … everyone to believe that it’s an open-and-shut case … but I think the facts they have make the case perhaps more open, than open-and-shut.” Blum also says if no connection between Kohberger and the victims can be established, “then there is no motive. And if there’s no motive, then it becomes very hard to make the case that he is the killer.”
With the gag order in place, information is restricted, but the filings do provide some insight into the defense’s case, says CBS News consultant Bryanna Fox, a professor of criminology at the University of South Florida and a former FBI special agent. “I don’t think there’s any slam dunk,” Fox tells “48 Hours.” “It seems that the defense is alleging there was a rush to judgment, law enforcement made an arrest too fast, and they focused on their client too quickly.”
The defense filings have tried to poke holes in some of the information alleged in the affidavit released after Kohberger’s arrest, such as cellphone data that picked up Kohberger’s movements near the victims’ house and security cameras that captured his Hyundai Elantra near the murder scene. The defense has pointed to concerns, says Fox, whether Bryan Kohberger’s car was accurately identified at the outset, or if that identification was affected after authorities learned the model of the car he drove.
While the alleged cellphone data makes one suspicious of Kohberger, says Blum, “it’s not putting someone at someone’s doorstep, it’s putting … someone in someone’s neighborhood. And there’s a large difference. And if you can convince a jury of this, if you can raise doubts about the validity, and the accuracy of the cellphone data, I think you’re halfway there to getting the case against Kohberger, either a hung jury — or a not guilty verdict.”
Kristi Goncalves says regardless of the defense claims, she remains steadfast in her belief that Bryan Kohberger is responsible for the murders, and that whenever the trial begins, her family will be there. “He’s going to feel all of us just staring at the back of his head,” says Kristi Goncalves. “And he knows… what he did to our daughter.”
The trial for a man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death late last year will not happen as scheduled on Oct. 2.
Bryan Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial during an appearance in Latah County Court Wednesday afternoon, CBS affiliate KBOI-TV reported. His attorney, Anne Taylor, spoke on his behalf, and said she may not be ready for the trial by October.
Bryan Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at a house near the Moscow, Idaho, university campus last November.
Kohberger at the time was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University in neighboring Pullman, Washington. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf earlier this year.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson has said he intends to seek the death penalty. Taylor said Wednesday her team will file a motion to strike the death penalty, and will file another motion seeking to ban cameras in the courtroom.
Latah County District Judge John C. Judge asked Kohberger Wednesday if he was comfortable waiving his right to a speedy trial.
Kohberger responded, “Absolutely.”
Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for a hearing on Aug. 18, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022.
August Frank / Getty Images
Under Idaho law, a trial has to take place six months from an arraignment unless the defendant waives that right. Kohberger was arraigned on May 22 after being indicted by a grand jury.
A new trial date will be set after Kohberger’s next hearing scheduled for Sept. 1.
Last week, Kohberger’s defense questioned the validity of DNA found on a knife sheath at the crime scene that authorities allege connected him to the four murders. Defense attorneys demanded more information from prosecutors about the DNA.
“They have provided full DNA discovery for the sheath, the knife sheath, but not the other three unidentified male DNA samples,” Taylor told the judge.
Prosecutors countered that they have handed over what they have.
“We have given the defense everything that we have received from the lab. They’ve asked for DNA work-ups on other people. To the extent that they don’t have them, they weren’t done,” Thompson said. “We can’t produce something that doesn’t exist.”
In court documents filed in June, prosecutors said that a DNA sample taken from Kohberger following his arrest was a near-match to the DNA on the sheath.
In court filings earlier this month, Kohberger’s attorneys argued that he is innocent and was out driving alone at the time of the murders.
In June, prosecutors said that if he is convicted of the murders, they will pursue the death penalty against him.
Moscow, Idaho — Uncuffed and in plain clothes, Bryan Kohberger walked into a courtroom Friday as the families of the four University of Idaho college students he is accused of murdering last year watched from feet away.
In the hearing, Kohberger’s defense questioned the validity of DNA found on a knife sheath at the crime scene that authorities allege connected him to the four murders. Defense attorneys demanded more information from prosecutors about the DNA.
“They have provided full DNA discovery for the sheath, the knife sheath, but not the other three unidentified male DNA samples,” defense attorney Anne Taylor told the judge.
Prosecutors countered that they have handed over what they have.
“We have given the defense everything that we have received from the lab. They’ve asked for DNA work-ups on other people. To the extent that they don’t have them, they weren’t done,” Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson said. “We can’t produce something that doesn’t exist.”
Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for a hearing on Aug. 18, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022.
August Frank / Getty Images
On Nov. 13, 2022, the four victims were found stabbed to death at an off-campus home in Moscow. Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle resided in the house, while Ethan Chapin was a friend and fellow student.
Kohberger, a Ph.D. criminology student at Washington State University, was arrested in late December following an extensive six-week investigation. In May, the 28-year-old was indicted by a grand jury on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
According to an affidavit from Moscow police, on Dec. 27, 2022, just three days before Kohberger’s arrest, investigators collected trash from Kohberger’s family’s home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, from which they obtained his father’s DNA profile. They compared the DNA collected from Kohlberger’s father to a DNA profile from the knife sheath, determining it to be a familial match.
In court documents filed in June, prosecutors said that a DNA sample taken from Bryan Kohberger following his arrest was a near-match to the DNA on the sheath.
In court filings earlier this month, Kohberger’s attorneys argued that he is innocent and was out driving alone at the time of the murders.
“Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone,” his attorneys said, adding that he “is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time.”
Criminal defense attorney Joe Tamburino, who is not part of the case, calls it a weak argument.
“An alibi defense is not, ‘I simply wasn’t there at the time,’” Tamburino told CBS News. “It’s, you must provide specifically where you were, time, place. Also, if you have any witnesses.”
The judge Friday denied a request by Kohberger’s defense to delay the trial, which remains slated to begin as scheduled in October. At his arraignment in May, the judge entered not guilty pleas on Kohberger’s behalf when he refused to enter pleas himself, staying silent.
In June, prosecutors said that if he is convicted of the murders, they will pursue the death penalty against him.
— Aliza Chasan, S. Dev, Cara Tabachnick, Gina Martinez and Lilia Luciano contributed to this report.
In an email to students and employees, President Scott Green said that the university had reversed course on its decision to demolish the rental house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, where Madison “Maddie” Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were killed on Nov. 13. Bryan Kohberger, a former criminology student at Washington State University, in nearby Pullman, has been charged with four counts of murder and is facing the death penalty if convicted.
“We will revisit this decision in October,” said Green, who noted that the university still “fully” expected to demolish it.
The Moscow, Idaho, residence where students Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Kaylee Goncalves were found dead on Nov. 13 is roped off amid investigations in January.
“Thank you to the University of Idaho for honoring the wishes of the families by not demoing the King Rd. house,” the Goncalves family said in a statement provided to HuffPost by their attorney, Shanon Gray.
The owner of the house donated it to the university earlier this year. The university had initially planned to tear it down this spring, long before the murder trial was set to begin, with the permission of both the prosecution and defense teams, which Green noted in his email. That did not sit well with some of the victims’ family members, specifically the Goncalveses, who were vocal in their objections.
“The university asked for the families’ opinions on the demolition and then proceeded to ignore those opinions and pursue their own self-interests,” Gray said in an early July email to The Idaho Statesman.
Gray told the Statesman that members of the Mogen and Kernodle families also opposed the demolition of the property until after the trial, which is scheduled to start Oct. 2. The trial could be delayed, however, after a judge on Monday granted the defense’s request to stay the proceedings.
“The home itself has enormous evidentiary value as well as being the largest, and one of the most important, pieces of evidence in the case,” Gray told the Statesman.
Prosecutors have disputed that the house would play a role in the trial; unlike other high-profile cases, they did not plan for the jury to tour the scene of the killings.
“The scene has been substantially altered from its condition at the time of the homicides including removal of relevant property and furnishings, removal of some structural items such as wallboard and flooring, and subjected to extensive chemical application creating a potential health hazard,” Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said in an email to the university that was viewed by CNN. “These are some of the reasons that we have concluded that a ‘jury view’ would not be appropriate.”
In his original Feb. 24 announcement, Green had called the proposed demotion a “healing step” that would counter “efforts to further sensationalize the crime scene.”
He echoed that sentiment Wednesday, saying, “It is a constant reminder of the heinous acts that went on inside it. It is also a place that continues to draw unwanted attention from media, YouTubers and others.”
Still, Green acknowledged Wednesday that the house “elicits deep emotional responses from those who are working through grief and who fear that its destruction could impact the court case.”
“We hear all these arguments, take them seriously and weigh them against the greater good for our university. … This is why the decision about what to do with the King Road house is so difficult,” he said.
Following the removal of hazardous asbestos and lead, Green said, “personal items from the residents will be removed and families will soon be able to retrieve their loved ones’ possessions to the extent they wish to do so. We will continue to work discretely and respectfully with the families on this.”
Brian Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students, appeared on court Tuesday, just one day after prosecutors said they would be seeking the death penalty in the case. Jonathan Vigliotti has the latest developments in the case.
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According to new court documents, the DNA of Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students last year, matched DNA found on a knife sheath discovered at the crime scene.
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Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students, appeared in court Monday and faced family members of his alleged victims. A judge entered a plea of not guilty for Kohberger. Lilia Luciano has more.
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The man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students remained silent during his arraignment Monday. Bryan Kohberger, 28, did not respond when the judge asked him in court how he pleaded to the charges brought against him — four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary — which led the judge to enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.
Prosecutors allege that Kohberger broke into an off-campus house and fatally stabbed Ethan Chapin, a 20-year-old from Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, a 21-year-old from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, from Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, from Rathdrum, Idaho.
Goncalves’ family had planned to be at the courthouse in Moscow, Idaho, for the arraignment.
“He knows, you know, what he did to our daughter,” Kaylee Goncalves’ mother, Kristi Goncalves, told “48 Hours” last week.
“He’s going to feel all of us just staring at the back of his head because he won’t even turn around,” she said.
It is unlikely that Kohberger will be offered a plea deal. It could be up to six months or even longer before his case goes to trial.
Kohberger is waiting to learn whether prosecutors in the high-profile case will pursue the death penalty.
Kristi Goncalves said that at the end of the trial, she hopes Kohberger will “be put to death like an animal, like he is.”
According to prosecutors, the alleged crimes occurred in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, when Kohberger broke into the victims’ off-campus residence. Using a large military-style knife, he allegedly inflicted multiple stab wounds on Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle and Chapin. Authorities believe the victims were likely asleep during the attack.
Following an extensive investigation, Kohberger was arrested nearly seven weeks after the murders at his family’s home in eastern Pennsylvania. Prosecutors have presented various pieces of evidence, including DNA traces matching Kohberger found on a knife sheath at the crime scene and surveillance footage showing a vehicle similar to the one owned by the accused repeatedly passing by the students’ house on the night of the killings.
Kohberger, who was pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University and residing in Pullman, Washington, at the time of the murders, has been the subject of intense scrutiny. Although the police confiscated several items from his apartment, including potential evidence, no murder weapon has been recovered. The absence of a clear motive and the lack of a weapon could potentially pose challenges to the prosecution’s case, according to CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson.
“Having a defendant who is at least ostensibly an expert in the criminal justice system does add an additional layer. It will be really interesting to see if the prosecution would use that to argue he knew exactly what he was doing,” Levinson said.
Last weekend, the University of Idaho posthumously awarded degrees to Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, honoring their academic achievements.
The University of Idaho will buy one of the nation’s best-known for-profit colleges — even though the controversial purchase carries risks for the institution’s credit rating as well as its academic reputation.
Nevertheless, the Idaho State Board of Education on Thursday unanimously approved the $550-million purchase of the University of Phoenix. The approval came only one day after the potential deal was announced to the public, and with little input from Idaho’s faculty.
Adding to the drama, the University of Arkansas system had been considering for months a similar proposal to purchase the University of Phoenix. Arkansas administrators, faculty members, and trustees had debated Phoenix’s debt burden, the potential governance structure of the new entity, and academic quality.
Since the buyer would have been a nonprofit affiliate of the Arkansas system — and not the institution itself — the university’s board didn’t have to sign off on the deal. But the board took up the matter last month anyway and, in a symbolic vote, narrowly rejected the idea, with a top trustee complaining that the University of Phoenix had a “terrible reputation.”
After Arkansas seemed to shut the door, Phoenix found an eager partner in Idaho.
Further Reading
Under the deal, which still faces review by accreditors, the University of Phoenix will be converted to a nonprofit institution that Idaho officials referred to as “New U.”
The new college would pay the University of Idaho at least $10 million annually, and Idaho officials said those payments could add up to as much as $170 million by 2030.
But there is also a risk that the University of Idaho would have to contribute financially if the joint endeavor struggled to turn a profit.
The $550-million purchase price breaks down this way: The University of Phoenix will contribute $200 million to the new college, and the new institution will finance the remaining $350 million with bonds.
Brian Foisy, the University of Idaho’s vice president for finance, told the State Board of Education that the university’s credit rating might drop from A1 to A2 as a result of the purchase, although he added “that’s only one notch,” and the lowered rating “is still well within investment grade.”
Just before the board’s vote, the University of Idaho’s president, C. Scott Green, said that the sale negotiations had been subject to “pretty strict” nondisclosure agreements, which he said had prevented the university from disclosing information sooner.
Green said Faculty Senate leaders had been invited to help evaluate the proposal.
“I regret it, but there’s not a lot we could have done differently, so I just want our faculty to know that,” said Green. He added that an extensive FAQ page, posted by the university on Wednesday, showed that campus officials were still being “very transparent.”
A Blistering Attack
The Idaho Statesman newspaper did not agree: It blasted the secretive process in a blistering editorial, noting that “while the vote to create the entity to acquire the University of Phoenix had not yet taken place, the Q&A treated the matter as a fait accompli — giving us serious concerns about whether the outcome of the vote had been determined in nonpublic meetings beforehand.”
In a statement, University of Phoenix representatives expressed optimism about this new chapter.
“The university has focused on student outcomes, support, and upskilling, as well as understanding and reacting to marketplace trends from employers, and innovating ways to make online higher education more accessible and achievable,” said Chris Lynne, the president. “We are excited to build on the great legacy of our institution by working with University of Idaho, one of our nation’s leading public universities.”
Idaho’s announcement comes as colleges across the country feel increasing urgency to respond to the so-called demographic cliff, in which the number of college-going students is projected to decline in many states. A top University of Arkansas official said as much last month at a board meeting to discuss the Phoenix deal: “The enrollment cliff is coming.”
The University of Phoenix was once the largest university in the United States, with a staggering enrollment of nearly 470,000 in 2010. The university became a symbol of the for-profit college boom, which was fueled by online courses, slick marketing materials, and a surge of students who weren’t 18-year-old residential undergraduates but were working parents, military veterans, and immigrants.
Students are wary about taking a chance on universities that have had some reputational problems in the past.
But more recently, many students who attended for-profit colleges — including the University of Phoenix — alleged they had been deceived by admissions recruiters and lured into poor-quality degree programs that left them with a lot of student-loan debt and no meaningful job prospects.
Enrollment at the University of Phoenix declined in recent years, and now stands at about 85,000.
In 2019 the university agreed to pay a record $191 million to settle with the Federal Trade Commission after being accused of deceptive advertising.
The FTC alleged that the university’s ads had falsely implied its graduates would have future job opportunities with large companies such as AT&T, Microsoft, and Yahoo. As part of the settlement, the university did not admit wrongdoing.
That settlement, combined with other accusations of unethical business practices, took a toll on the University of Phoenix’s ability to attract new students.
“Students are wary about taking a chance on universities that have had some reputational problems in the past,” said Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a think tank. “And so we’ll see if the University of Idaho can turn that around.”
Green, the Idaho president, told the state board that he was impressed with the upper managers at the University of Phoenix.
That management team is expected to stay on board at the new nonprofit.
“We found them,” Green said, “to be good, caring people who are focused on providing a quality educational experience to their students.”
Bryan Kohberger, a former teaching assistant at Washington State University, was indicted Wednesday by a grand jury on murder charges in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students at an off-campus home last November.
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Police bodycam video released this week shows Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, talking his way out of a ticket during a traffic stop in October, several weeks for the slayings.
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