With no motive, Idaho killings leave families, prosecutor and judge wondering why

CNN

4 days ago

Kaylee Goncalves' family expressed criticism and fury.
Xana Kernodle's aunt tried empathy and forgiveness.
Yet, despite their 'good cop-bad cop' efforts, Bryan Kohberger remained silent and 'respectfully' declined to give any insight into why he fatally stabbed four University of Idaho students in the overnight hours of November 13, 2022.
Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences and was quietly escorted out of the courtroom, leaving behind a courtroom of heartbroken families, prosecutors and a judge still unable to process that all-important yet elusive question: Why?
Why did this criminology grad student plan and carry out this heinous attack against people with whom he had no apparent connection?
'So we don't have a motive. We don't have anything that has said, 'here's why' or 'here's the reason,'' Idaho State Police Lt. Darren Gilbertson told CNN. 'We just don't have that.'
Legally, motive is not a requirement for a criminal charge. Still, understanding what motivates a mass killer can help prevent future attacks and can satisfy our natural human curiosity.
The lack of an answer from either Kohberger or investigators has cast a pall over the guilty plea and sentencing, leaving everyone but the man himself in the dark. In the face of that unclear motive, those close to the case have responded by expressing anger at him, attempting to bargain with him, or by grappling with the likelihood they may never know why.
'Even if we could get truthful insight into his why, I suspect it would not in any way quench one's thirst for actually understanding why in the first instance,' Judge Steven Hippler said in court. 'Because there is no reason for these crimes that could approach anything resembling rationality. No conceivable reason could make any sense.'
Kohberger was first arrested in December 2022 in connection with the killings, and a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. After more than two years of pre-trial hearings and rulings, he agreed to plead guilty to charges of burglary and first-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of life in prison, thereby avoiding the death penalty.
Yet, the plea agreement did not necessitate that Kohberger disclose any details about the murders or explain his actions – a decision that polarized the victims' families.
At his sentencing hearing, the victims and families repeatedly expressed their frustration at not getting any answers to their questions.
The sister of Kaylee Goncalves, Alivea, criticized Kohberger's motives as 'shallow' and listed about two dozen questions 'that reverberate violently in my own head so loudly that I can't think straight, most any day.'
'How was your life right before you murdered my sisters? Did you prepare for the crime before leaving your apartment? Please detail what you were thinking and feeling at this time,' she said.
'Why did you choose my sisters?' she asked, referring to Kaylee and her best friend, Madison Mogen.
Steve Goncalves, Kaylee's father, turned the lectern to face Kohberger in his impact statement.
'The world's watching because of the kids, not because of you. Nobody cares about you,' he said.
At the opposite end of the spectrum was Kim Kernodle, the aunt of Xana Kernodle, who offered Kohberger forgiveness in her attempt to get him to speak.
'Bryan, I am here today to tell you that I have forgiven you, because I can no longer live with that hate in my heart, and for me to become a better person, I have forgiven you,' she said.
'And anytime you want to talk and tell me what happened, you have my number. I'm here, no judgment, because I do have questions that I want you to answer. I'm here. I'll be that one that will listen to you, OK?'
Bethany Funke, a roommate of the four slain students, wrote a statement – read aloud by a friend – about her survivor's guilt.
'I hated and still hate that they are gone, but for some reason, I am still here and I got to live. I still think about this every day. Why me? Why did I get to live and not them?' Funke wrote.
It wasn't just the victims and their families who expressed frustration over the lack of motive – an investigator, prosecutor, and judge did as well.
For example, Lt. Gilbertson, the lead investigator, told CNN the question of motive was the 'biggest' of all.
'But the reality is, often we don't get the answers to the why. And I think even in some instances – and I think this certainly could be one of those – the 'why' from him may make no sense at all to us and not even be explainable or understandable,' he said.
Similarly, in issuing the sentence, Judge Hippler said, 'We may never know' the 'why' of the attacks.
'I share the desire expressed by others to understand the 'why,' but upon reflection, it seems to me, and this is just my own opinion, that by continuing to focus on 'why' we continue to give Mr. Kohberger relevance,' he said. 'We give him agency and we give him power.
'The need to know what is inherently not understandable makes us dependent upon the defendant to provide us with a reason, and that gives him the spotlight, the attention, and the power he appears to crave.'
Hippler said he cannot legally force Kohberger to speak and said any comments he would make may or may not be the truth.
'And in the end, the more we struggle to seek explanation for the unexplainable, the more we try to extract a reason, the more power and control we give to him,' he said. 'In my view, the time has now come to end Mr. Kohberger's 15 minutes of fame. It's time that he be consigned to the ignominy and isolation of perpetual incarceration.'
Speaking after the sentence, prosecutor Bill Thompson said he didn't require Kohberger to speak to the court as part of the plea deal because he didn't think he would tell the truth.
'I don't believe that there's anything that would come out of his mouth that would be the truth,' Thompson said. 'I don't believe that there's anything that would come out of his mouth that would be anything other than self-serving, and I don't believe there's anything that would come out of his mouth that would not further victimize the families.'
When asked directly by CNN's Jake Tapper why Kohberger did it, Thompson said flatly he didn't know.
'I don't know that we'll ever know,' he said. 'And I can tell you, early on, working with the behavioral experts – the profilers, if you will, from the FBI – they told us that in a case like this it's likely that we would never know the real reasons for why it happened, and even if the perpetrator shared those, it's likely they would not make sense to anybody else. It would be something that had significance only in his own mind.
'So we knew going in that the likelihood of being able to understand exactly why he did this wasn't real.'
CNN's Alaa Elassar, Maureen Chowdhury and Jean Casarez contributed to this report.