Bryan Kohberger's handwritten Idaho murders confession revealed amid furious speculation about his motive

Daily Mail​

08-07-2025

's signed confession admitting to slaughtering four University of Idaho students in their home has been released - but it still offers no clue about the mass murderer's motive for the attack.
In the document - a written factual basis to accompany the plea agreement - the 30-year-old killer admits to all five charges against him, including one count of burglary and four counts of first-degree murder.
He admits to breaking into the off-campus student home of 1122 King Road, Moscow, on November 13, 2022 'with the intent to commit the crime of murder.'
For all four of his victims - Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin - Kohberger admits to their 'willful, unlawful, deliberate, with premeditation and with malice aforethought, killing and murder.'
The killer signed the document in pen on July 1, with his scrawling handwriting reading: 'Bryan C. Kohberger'.
Hours after it was signed, the 30-year-old criminology PhD student appeared in Ada County Courthouse on the morning of Wednesday July 2 where he formally changed his plea to guilty in front of his victims' devastated families.
Notably absent from his signed confession as well as his comments in the courtroom was any indication about his motive for the brutal murders.
Staring stone cold ahead at Judge Steven Hippler, Kohberger offered no answers for why he decided to kill and how he chose his victims - simply answering one words of 'yes,' 'no' and 'guilty' to each question.
Bryan Kohberger's signed confession admitting to the murders and all five charges against him
To this day, there remains no known connection between Kohberger and any of the victims or their two surviving roommates, Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen.
But, during the plea hearing, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson told the court that Kohberger may have not planned to kill as many people as he did that night.
'We will not represent that he intended to commit all of the murders that he did that night, but we know that that is what resulted,' he said.
Thompson did not reveal who prosecutors believe was Kohberger's intended target that night but sources close to the investigation previously told Dateline it is believed to be Mogen, based in part on the path the killer took after entering the three-story student home.
After planning his attack - buying a KaBar knife months before as the murder weapon - Thompson said Kohberger entered the home through the back sliding door on the second floor.
He went straight up to Mogen's room on the third floor where he found Mogen and her best friend Goncalves sleeping in the same bed.
He stabbed both of them to death.
On his way back downstairs or on leaving the property, he encountered Kernodle, who was still awake and had just received a DoorDash order.
He fatally attacked her with the knife and then also murdered her sleeping boyfriend Chapin.
On his way out of the home, Kohberger passed Mortensen who had been woken by the noise and peeked round her bedroom door.
While the victims' families were left devastated by the chilling murders - and the community of Moscow reeled - Kohberger finished out his semester at WSU and meticulously scrubbed his apartment in Pullman and his car clean of evidence.
He was arrested around six weeks on from the crime at his parents' home in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania.
It is not clear if the judge will require him to provide a detailed statement to the court at his sentencing on July 23.
But, in the absence of confirmation, many theories have emerged.
Kohberger's decision to study psychology and criminal justice at DeSales University, under top serial killer expert Dr. Katherine Ramsland, and his behavior toward women have fallen under the spotlight.
Former classmates told the Daily Mail that they were taught about notorious serial killers and mass murderers including Ted Bundy and Elliot Rodger on the course.
Rodger had killed six and wounded another 13 in a violent rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara, before turning a gun on himself.
He left behind a warped 137-page manifesto laying out his incel motive - a hatred of women - and writing that a former friend named Maddy had 'eventually come to represent everything I hate and despise.'
Two of Kohberger's former classmates tell the Daily Mail they recall learning about Rodger and his manifesto in class - and wonder if Kohberger is also an incel.
Dateline previously revealed that Kohberger also made several internet searches related to Bundy - including watching a YouTube video about him and dressing up like the serial killer two days before his arrest.
His phone was also allegedly used to search for pornography along with terms like 'passed out', 'forced', 'drugged' and 'sleeping' in the weeks around November 2022.
He was then fired from his Washington State University teaching assistant role days before the murders, due to his behavior towards female students.
Some of the victims' families have demanded that Kohberger be forced to answer questions about his motive as part of the plea deal.
In a post on the family Facebook page, the Goncalves family wrote: 'At a bare minimum, please - require a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder weapon, confirmation the defendant acted alone, & the true facts of what happened that night. We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was.'
The plea deal, which came as a bombshell move just weeks before the trial was set to begin, has divided the families of the victims.
Goncalves' father Steve Goncalves refused to attend Wednesday's hearing as a sign of protest.
In a post on Facebook, the family blasted the deal, saying: 'BK literally is too afraid to die, but he wasn't afraid to kill. BK wanted a plea deal and he was given one. Kaylee wasn't offered a plea deal. The state is showing BK mercy by removing the death penalty. BK did not show Kaylee ANY mercy.'
Kernodle's aunt Kim Kernodle similarly told TMZ that the family had vehemently opposed the deal when it was suggested by prosecutors - and voiced her confusion given the state had previously told them they had enough for a conviction.
On the other hand, family members of Chapin and Mogen voiced their support for the deal.
Outside court following the hearing, an attorney representing Mogen's mom Karen Laramie and stepdad Scott Laramie said they backed the deal '100 per cent.'
'We now embark on a new path. We turn from tragedy and mourning,' Leander James told reporters.
'We turn from darkness and uncertainty of the legal process to the light of the future. We have closure. We embark on a path of hope and healing. We invite all of those who have mourned with us to join us, and we wish you well.'
The killer gave one word answers and offered no emotion or remorse in the hearing
Under the terms of the deal, Kohberger avoided the death penalty for the murders.
Instead, he will be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole and will also never have a chance to appeal his conviction or sentence.
Kohberger will now return to court for his sentencing hearing on July 23.
The families of the victims will be given the opportunity to deliver impact statements and Kohberger could also speak.