Details About Idaho College Murders Emerge as Gag Order Lifts: What Bryan Kohberger Did
On November 13, 2022, Kohberger entered the residence of 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho and stabbed college students Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin to death. He was arrested more than one month after the killings and initially pleaded not guilty.
In July 2025 — one month before his trial was set to start — Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary as part of a deal that took the death penalty off the table. He was sentenced to four lifetimes in prison without the possibility of parole later that month.
Ada County District Court Judge Steven Hippler lifted the gag order on the case amid Kobherger's sentencing. While several key players in the investigation are now able to speak publicly, some documents regarding the case are still sealed. The Moscow Police Department has, however, released investigatory records related to the case.
Bryan Kohberger Sentenced to 4 Lifetimes in Prison: Who Were the Idaho Murder Victims?
Keep scrolling for everything to know:
Who Is Bryan Kohberger?
Prior to his conviction, Kohberger was studying for a PhD at Washington State University in Pullman. He was spotted outside the King Road house 23 times before the murders.
What Did Bryan Kohberger Do?
Kohberger used a Ka-Bar knife with 'a lot of force' while murdering the four college students, documents reveal. While the murder weapon has never been recovered, a knife sheath recovered at 1122 King Road helped lead to Kohberger's arrest.
Kohberger asked for a lawyer during his first interview with police in December 2022. He has not spoken about the motive for the crime. When asked if he had words for the victim's families in his July 2025 sentencing hearing, Kohberger replied: 'I respectfully decline.'
What Happened to Xana Kernodle?
Documents released by the Moscow Police Department reveal that 'it was obvious an intense struggle had occurred' between Kernodle and Kohberger based on the 'defensive knife wounds' on her hands. Her body was discovered with more than 50 stab wounds on the floor of her bedroom.
What Happened to Ethan Chapin?
Chapin was found dead in Kernodle's bed, the documents reveal, noting that he had 'stab wounds' and was 'covered in blood.'
What Happened to Maddie Mogen?
Both Mogen and Goncalves were also found dead in the same bed, the Moscow Police Department documents revealed. Mogen had wounds to her arms, hands and face.
New Docuseries Tries to Answer Why 4 College Students Were Murdered in Idaho: Biggest Revelations
What Happened to Kaylee Goncalves?
The documents reveal that Goncalves was 'unrecognizable' following the 'damage' to her face — according to multiple accounts from the police officers on scene. She had more than 20 stab wounds.
Were There Any Surviving Roommates?
Yes. Both Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke survived the attack. The new documents reveal that Mortensen misidentified two of her deceased roommates because of the severity of their wounds. Mortensen saw Kohberger walk through the house but 'was intoxicated and didn't want to believe what was going on.' Transcripts of her interview with the police reveal that Mortensen heard what she believed to be a man's voice say, "You're gonna be fine. I'm gonna help you."
Mortensen spoke publicly for the first time during Kohberger's sentencing hearing in July 2025.
'What happened that night changed everything," she said, in part. "Because of him, four beautiful, genuine, compassionate people were taken from this world for no reason."
Mortensen added, 'Living is how I honor them. Speaking today is to help me find some sort of justice for them, and I will never let him take that from me. He may have taken so much from me, but he will never get to take my voice.'
Funke also wrote a letter for the hearing, but it was read in court by a friend.
How Long Will Bryan Kohberger Be in Prison?
Kohberger received four life sentences without the possibility of parole.
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Fox News
4 hours ago
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Bryan Kohberger's Idaho murder scene unveiled through detailed 3D replica after death penalty struck
Officials in Idaho released a 3D model of the house where Bryan Kohberger killed four University of Idaho students following his guilty plea. Kohberger pleaded guilty on July 2 to the murders of Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Kaylee Goncalves, in a deal which took the death penalty off the table. The four University of Idaho students were found dead on Nov. 13, 2022 at their house in Moscow, Idaho, located near campus. In exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table, Kohberger will serve four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the four counts of first degree murder and one count of felony burglary. The Latah County Prosecutors Office on Friday released images of a 3D model of 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, where the murders took place. The King Road house was torn down in December 2023, but prosecutors planned on using the 3D replica during the now-canceled murder trial. During a June hearing, Thompson described the 3D house as a "dollhouse," but later said that word was inappropriate and then referred to it as a "model house." Images released by the prosecutor's office show a 3D model version of 1122 King Road, showing the exterior and interior of the house. The model replica includes rooms inside the house, but isn't furnished. According to the Idaho Statesman, the model house was approved by Hippler for use during trial, despite objections from Kohberger's defense team. However, Hippler approved the model house only for demonstrative purposes, so it couldn't be used as evidence. Following Kohberger's sentencing on July 23, Judge Steven Hippler lifted the gag order previously imposed on anyone involved with the quadruple murder case, which allowed for the release of investigative documents. Police documents released after Hippler released the gag order revealed that Goncalves and Mogen were both found together side by side. The police report said both women were "covered by a pink blanket which was covered in blood." "It was obvious an intense struggled had occurred," police wrote in another report, describing the crime scene. Authorities noted that they saw "what appeared to be defensive knife wounds on Xana's hands," adding that a tan leather knife sheath was also found.
The Hill
4 hours ago
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Bryan Kohberger versus George Santos: Whom should we imprison?
An Idaho court just sentenced Bryan Kohberger to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022. He will serve his time in the state's only maximum-security prison. In the world of American prisons, IMSI, as it is called, is relatively new, having opened in 1989. The oldest operating maximum security prison in the U.S. is the New Jersey State Prison, which dates back to 1798. In 1817, New York opened the Auburn Correctional Institution — the first prison to house inmates in individual cells. Famous for the Auburn System, which focused on stripping inmates of their 'sense of self,' the prison had a strict silence policy and made them wear striped uniforms. Although the mechanisms have changed, prisons throughout the U.S., including Idaho's, still don't want the incarcerated individuals to retain their individuality. Coincidentally, on the same day Kohberger was sentenced, former Representative George Santos reported to the Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in Fairton, N.J. He will be there for up to eighty-seven months, having entered a guilty plea to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Fairton is a medium security prison that houses 800 inmates. Criminals sent to medium-security federal prisons include people 'convicted of federal drug offenses, white-collar crimes, sexual offenses, and others. As such, there are no specific medium-security prison crimes.' Nearly one-third of the federal prison population is held in medium security facilities like the one where Santos will serve time. Sentencing people like Kohberger or Santos to prison is so much a part of American life that few question whether that mode of punishment still serves us well, more than three hundred years after it came on the scene. That is a very long time to be doing the same thing to punish offenders. 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This suggests that two people receiving the same punishment might experience it with vastly different levels of distress. As law professor Adam Kolber argues, it is therefore 'a mistake to believe that' both more sensitive and less sensitive offenders 'receive punishments proportional to their desert,' even if they receive exactly the same punishments. Imprisonment is also a very costly endeavor. The median yearly expenditure is almost $65,000 per prisoner, with wide variations — Massachusetts spends more than $300,000 per prisoner per year and Arkansas just under $23,000. Multiply those numbers by 10, 20, 30, or more years, and you get a sense of the financial costs of imprisonment. One estimate puts the cost at $64 billion just among state governments. And the returns on this investment have not been terrific. The Sentencing Project argues that long prison terms 'are counterproductive for public safety as they result in incarceration of individuals long past the time that they have 'aged out' of the high crime years' between the late teens and early 20s. This may shift resources to housing older and less dangerous inmates instead of 'more promising crime reduction initiatives.' Over the last two decades, New Jersey, Alaska, New York, Vermont, Connecticut, California, and Michigan have reduced the number of people in their prisons by more than twenty percent. According to the Sentencing Project, 'these reductions have come about without adverse effects on public safety.' Moreover, this may be a good time to rethink the place of imprisonment in our system of criminal punishment, since incarceration rates are dropping almost everywhere. This is the result of a dramatic decline in crime rates that started three decades ago. Now, instead of building new prisons, like Idaho did 1989, states are having to shutter some of their facilities. Locking up Kohberger may still make sense even if the U.S. scales back on a long-outdated method of punishment. Santos, however, maybe not so much. Going forward, when the government wishes to incarcerate someone, it should carry the burden of proving that it is necessary and that there is no alternative effective punishment. That burden would, as it should, spur new things about why and how we punish as we do and about ways to do it that those who were there at the birth of the penitentiary could not have imagined.
Yahoo
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Convicted Idaho murderer Bryan Kohberger moved to solitary confinement, KTVB reports
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