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Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Idaho student murders: Killer Bryan Kohberger gets 4 life terms; who were the four victims?
Bryan Kohberger, the culprit behind 2022 University of Idaho student killings, has been sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. The sentencing took place on Wednesday in a Boise courtroom, where family members of the victims and two surviving roommates confronted Kohberger with powerful, emotional statements. Kohberger, who earlier this month pleaded guilty as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, appeared in court wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. When invited to speak, he simply said, 'I respectfully decline.' Murmurs of 'Coward' and 'Surprise, surprise' could be heard from the victims' families in the courtroom. Judge Steven Hippler, before delivering the sentence, described Kohberger as a 'faceless coward' and expressed admiration for the courage shown by the victims' families. He also admired the courage shown by the victims' families who spoke in court. He also condemned Kohberger for showing no remorse or regret for the killings. While he acknowledged he couldn't legally compel Kohberger to reveal his motive, he added that he doubted any explanation from him would be truthful, as per CBS news. The court imposed four consecutive life sentences for each of the murders, plus a 10-year prison term for a burglary charge. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Top 15 Most Beautiful Women in the World Undo Kohberger must also pay $50,000 per murder charge and a $5,000 civil penalty to each victim's family. As part of the plea deal, he has waived his right to appeal and must submit his DNA to authorities. The sentencing followed more than a dozen impact statements from devastated families and friends of the victims: Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves, who were killed in the early hours of 13 November 2022, at an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger was arrested six weeks after the killings at his parents' home in Pennsylvania. Prosecutors said they had gathered extensive evidence linking him to the crime scene, including DNA, phone data, surveillance footage of his car, and online purchase records. His motive still remains unclear. Who were the victims? Xana Kernodle Kernodle was a 20-year-old marketing major and member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, was known for her bright, positive energy. Raised in Avondale, Arizona and educated in Post Falls, Idaho, Xana was dating Ethan Chapin and shared the off-campus house with her close friends Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. Her sister, Jazzmin, described her as someone who lit up every room she walked into. Kaylee Goncalves Kaylee was a 21-year-old senior majoring in general studies, was also a member of the Alpha Phi sorority. She had grown up in northern Idaho and shared a lifelong friendship with Madison Mogen, the two were inseparable, practically like sisters. Their friendship was well-documented in a touching Instagram post by Kaylee celebrating Mogen's 21st birthday, as per Fox 13 Seattle. Madison Mogen A 21-year-old marketing major from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Madison Mogen worked at the Mad Greek restaurant in downtown Moscow, where she managed the business's social media using her marketing skills—just like her friend Xana Kernodle. Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves had been best friends since junior high and were planning to graduate and move to Boise together. Ethan Chapin Ethan Chapin, 20, was a triplet and a first-year student majoring in sports management. A member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, he was in a relationship with Xana Kernodle. Originally from Conway, Washington, he was remembered by his high school basketball coach as a cheerful and driven young man. All three Chapin siblings began their studies at the University of Idaho in 2022. Who is Bryan Kohberger? Bryan Kohberger, who was 28 at the time of the murders, was a PhD student studying criminology at Washington State University, located just a short drive from Moscow, Idaho. He had no known personal connection to the victims. His background and motive remain the focus of ongoing speculation, but prosecutors say the evidence against him was overwhelming and included DNA matching material recovered at the crime scene, cell phone tracking data, and surveillance videos. Kohberger's guilty plea spared him the death penalty but offered no answers to the families still struggling with the horror of what happened. Judge Hippler made clear that while justice had been served in terms of sentencing, true closure may forever remain out of reach.
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Bryan Kohberger files reveal terrifying new evidence including signs of a practice run a MONTH before murders
Bryan Kohberger 's victims saw a man lurking in the trees outside their home and found their front door mysteriously open one month before the killer struck, according to newly-released police records. Moscow Police Department released a trove of 314 previously-sealed records related to the investigation into the November 13, 2022, murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin on Wednesday afternoon - just hours after the mass killer was sentenced to a lifetime behind bars. Within the huge document dump, new details emerged about the police investigation which ultimately led to the capture and conviction of 30-year-old criminology student. In a bombshell revelation, the records show that the roommates at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, had experienced disturbing incidents at the home just one month before the murders. Goncalves had told at least two friends that she had seen a man watching her in the trees around the home. Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen - who bravely spoke out in Wednesday's sentencing hearing - told police Goncalves described seeing the 'shadow' when she took her pet dog Murphy outside. Another friend echoed this accounts, telling police Goncalves had seen a dark figure staring at her from the tree line when taking Murphy outside. Mortensen, who was 19 at the time, also recalled one time when she came home to find the door to their three-story house open. The survivor told police Goncalves had also mentioned someone following her around two or three weeks before her murder. The other friend, whose name is redacted in the documents, told police they would make 'lighthearted talk and jokes' about a possible stalker - but that the girls 'were slightly nervous about it being a fact.' The friend also said she knew the front door of the home had issues with locking and sometimes could be unlocked without a code. Around that same time, a female student living on Queen Road - close to the King Road home - said a man tried to break into her home. At around 1am on October 14, 2022, the woman heard what she thought was a man walk up to her door and try to open it, the police records reveal. But the door was locked with the deadbolt on. It is not clear if the incidents are related and if it is possible Kohberger was carrying out a practice run for the murders one month later. It is also unclear if the man Goncalves saw was Kohberger surveilling the victims' home, or if he may have broken into the home prior to the night of his attack. But the details of these bizarre incidents come as prosecutors have been able to confirm Kohberger was surveilling the home for some time. From July 2022 through to November 13, 2022, Kohberger's phone placed him in the vicinity of the King Road home at least 23 times, mostly at night. Who Kohberger was watching and why he chose the home - and the students inside - only he knows. Despite his guilty plea and sentencing, the killer's motive and target for the murders remain a mystery. Speaking at a press conference after the sentencing, Moscow Police Corporal Brett Payne told reporters that while they know Kohberger 'targeted' that house, they still don't know why. 'The evidence suggested that there was a reason that this particular house was chosen. What that reason is, we don't know,' he said. Investigators also remain in the dark about whether one or more of the victims inside the home was his intended target. Around one month after these incidents, Kohberger broke into the student home and stabbed the four victims to death. At around 4am, he entered through the back sliding door on the second story of the property and went straight up the stairs to Mogen's bedroom on the third floor. He found her and Goncalves sleeping in her bed and fatally stabbed the 21-year-old best friends. On his way back downstairs or on leaving the property, he encountered Kernodle on the second floor, who was still awake on TikTok, having just received a DoorDash food order. Kohberger attacked the 20-year-old with his knife and then also murdered her boyfriend Chapin who was asleep in her bed. Kohberger then left through the same back sliding door of the property, passing Mortensen who had been woken by the noise and peeked around her bedroom door. Mortensen - the sole person who came face-to-face with the killer that night and made it out alive - described seeing a masked man, dressed in all black and with bushy eyebrows. Terrified, she and roommate Bethany Funke - whose bedroom was on the first floor - frantically called and text each other and their four friends. But the victims were already dead. Mortensen ultimately ran down to Funke's room where the two survivors stayed until daylight. Just before midday - still unable to contact the four victims - they called friends round to the home and the bloodbath was discovered. The newly-unsealed documents reveal harrowing new details about the injuries Kohberger inflicted on his victims. One officer on the scene described seeing Kernodle's body on her bedroom covered in blood, with defensive wounds to her hands, including a deep gash between her finger and thumb. 'It was obvious an intense struggle had occurred,' the officer wrote. 'There was blood smeared on various items in the room and all over the floor.' She had suffered more than 50 stab wounds. Chapin was partially covered with a blanket in her bed, with his jugular severed, the police files said. On the floor above, officers found the bodies of Mogen and Goncalves. As well as more than 20 stab wounds, Goncalves' face was so badly damaged she was 'unrecognizable.' Mogen had wounds to her forearm, hands and a gash from her right eye to her nose. Both were covered in blood, which had covered the pink blanket they were sharing. Kohberger left behind a Ka-Bar leather knife sheath next to Mogen's body. DNA on the clasp was traced back to the killer using Investigative Genetic Genealogy. Surveillance footage on multiple homes and businesses close to King Road had also captured his white Hyundai Elantra driving to and from the crime scene at the time of the murders. Kohberger was arrested on December 30, 2022, at his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania. After more than two years of fighting the charges, Kohberger finally confessed to the murders in a change of plea hearing earlier this month. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in an emotional hearing on Wednesday, where the families and friends of the victims were finally able to confront the man who slaughtered their loved ones while they slept. Dressed in orange prison garb with his wrists and ankles shackled, the 30-year-old stared blankly at the families showing not even a flicker of emotion or remorse. When it was his chance to speak, he maintained his silence. 'I respectfully decline,' he said boldly when asked by Judge Hippler if he would like to take the opportunity to address the court. Those were the only three words he spoke, keeping the victims' families in the dark about the murders. Kohberger has now been transferred to the custody of the Idaho Department of Correction, which will determine which prison will become home for the rest of his life. Due to the severity of his crime - and the high-profile nature of the case - Kohberger is expected to be sent to the state's only maximum security facility, Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bryan Kohberger gets life in prison but leaves loved ones of Idaho students he killed wondering why
APTOPIX Four Killed University of Idaho BOISE, Idaho (AP) — One after another, the friends and family of the four University of Idaho students killed in their home by Bryan Kohberger vented their emotions in sobs, insults and curses before a packed courtroom Wednesday as he was sentenced to life in prison. Ben Mogen, the father of Madison Mogen, credited her with helping keep him alive through his fight with addiction. He called her 'the only thing I'm proud of.' Dylan Mortenson, a roommate of the victims who told police of seeing a strange man with bushy eyebrows and a ski mask in the home that night, called Kohberger 'a hollow vessel, something less than human.' She shook with tears as she described how Kohberger 'took the light they carried into each room.' 'Hell will be waiting,' Kristi Goncalves, the mother of Kaylee Goncalves, told the killer. Judge Steven Hippler ordered Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole for first-degree murder in the killings of Mogen, Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. Kohberger was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and assessed $270,000 in fines and civil penalties. Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty weeks before his trial was to start in a deal to avoid the death penalty. Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed on the sentence. Kohberger gives no explanation When it was his turn to speak in court, Kohberger said, 'I respectfully decline,' shedding no light on why he slipped into the rental home in Moscow through a sliding glass door early on Nov. 13, 2022, and stabbed four of the students inside. 'I share the desire expressed by others to understand the why,' Hippler said. '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, we give him agency and we give him power.' The crime horrified the city, which had not seen a homicide in about five years, and prompted a massive search for the perpetrator. Some students took the rest of their classes online because they felt unsafe. Kohberger, a graduate student in criminology at nearby Washington State University, was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, roughly six weeks later. A Q-tip from the garbage at his parents' house and genetic genealogy was used to match Kohberger's DNA to material recovered from a knife sheath found at the home, investigators said. They used cellphone data to pinpoint his movements and surveillance camera footage to help locate a white sedan that was seen repeatedly driving past the home the night of the killings. But investigators told reporters after Wednesday's hearing that exhaustive efforts failed to find the murder weapon, the clothes Kohberger was wearing at the time or any connection between him and the students. Within hours of the sentencing, the Moscow Police Department posted hundreds of documents about the investigation on its website. They detailed how investigators processed the gruesome crime scene; ran down tips from people who claimed to have gone on a Tinder date with Kohberger or to have seen him walking along a highway; and tested soil and pollen found on a shovel in his car to see if they could narrow down where it had been used. Loved ones express loss and fury 'This world was a better place with her in it,' said Scott Laramie, Mogen's stepfather. 'Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddie.' Goncalves' father, Steve, taunted Kohberger for getting caught despite his education in forensics. 'You were that careless, that foolish, that stupid,' he said. 'Master's degree? You're a joke.' Kernodle's father, Jeff, recalled that his daughter had not been feeling well that night and he thought about driving the 7 miles (11.3 km) to the rental home to be with her. He decided against it because he had been drinking. Mortenson and another surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, described crippling panic attacks afterward. 'I slept in my parents' room for almost a year and had them double lock every door, set an alarm and still check everywhere in the room just in case someone was hiding,' Funke said in a statement read by a friend. Alivea Goncalves's voice did not waver as she asked Kohberger questions including what her sister's last words were. She drew applause after belittling Kohberger, who remained expressionless. 'You didn't win, you just exposed yourself as the coward you are,' Alivea Goncalves said. 'You're a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser.' Chapin's family did not attend. Kohberger's mother and sister sat in the gallery near the defense table. His mother quietly wept at times as the other parents described their grief. She sobbed briefly when Mogen's grandmother said her heart goes out to the other families, including Kohberger's. Xana Kernodle's aunt, Kim Kernodle, said she forgave Kohberger and asked him to call her from prison, hoping he would answer her lingering questions about the killings. 'Bryan, I'm here today to tell you I have forgiven you, because I no longer could live with that hate in my heart,' she said. 'And for me to become a better person, I have forgiven you. And any time you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number. I'm here. No judgment.' ___ Johnson reported from Seattle.
Associated Press
6 hours ago
- Associated Press
Families of slain University of Idaho students share emotions at Bryan Kohberger's sentencing
The families and loved ones of the four students stabbed to death in a home near the University of Idaho campus faced Bryan Kohberger during his sentencing in a Boise court Wednesday in an outpouring of grief, anger and even forgiveness. Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Kohberger to four life sentences without parole for four counts of first-degree murder in the brutal deaths of Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Ethan Chapin early on Nov. 13, 2022. He was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and assessed $270,000 in fines and civil penalties. He has waived his right to appeal. Kohberger pleaded guilty early this month, just weeks before his trial was to start, in a deal to avoid the death penalty. Prosecutors and defense attorneys had agreed on the sentence. Kohberger had a chance to speak in court but declined to do so. Many loved ones spoke through tears as they gave their emotional statements during Wednesday's hearing. Some addressed Kohberger directly, while others said they did not want to 'waste the words' on him. The prosecutor and judge also choked up at times as they spoke of the victims. Here's a look at the hearing in their words: Surviving roommates speak of their trauma Bethany Funke was one of two roommates to survive the night of the stabbings. In a statement read by a friend, she said the killings terrorized her and prompted her to sleep in her parents' room for almost a year. 'I have not slept through a single night since this happened. I constantly wake up in panics, terrified someone is breaking in or someone is here to hurt me, or I'm about to lose someone else that I love,' Funke's statement said. 'For a long time I could barely get out of bed. But one day, I realized I have to live for them.' Dylan Mortensen, the other surviving roommate, similarly said she had to sleep in her mom's bed and described panic attacks that hit her 'like a tsunami.' 'Sometimes I drop to the floor with my heart racing, convinced something is very wrong. It's far beyond anxiety. It's my body reliving everything over and over again,' she said, sobbing. What Kohberger couldn't take from her was her voice and her memories of her roommates, she said. 'Those things are mine. They are sacred, and he will never touch them.' Families express array of emotions Scott Laramie, Mogen's stepfather, said the 'emotional wound will never fully heal.' 'Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddie,' he said, referring to his wife, Maddie's mother. 'As for the defendant, we will not waste the words. Nor will we fall into hatred and bitterness.' An attorney for the family read a statement from Karen Laramie. 'Some may offer forgiveness for what the defendant has done. However, we cannot at this time, or perhaps ever,' the statement said. 'Nor will we ask for mercy for what he has done. His acts are too heinous.' Some other family members, meanwhile, said they forgave Kohberger. 'Bryan, I'm here today to tell you I have forgiven you because I no longer could live with that hate in my heart,' said Kim Kernodle, Xana's aunt. 'Any time you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number. I'm here, no judgment, because I do have questions that I want you to answer.' Cara Northington, Xana's mother, emphasized the importance of her faith. 'Jesus has allowed me to forgive you for murdering my daughter, without you even being sorry,' she said. The father of Madison Mogen read the last thing she had written him — a Father's Day card. In it, she said she couldn't wait to 'hang out again soon' and that she was proud of him. 'When I wasn't wanting to live anymore, she was what would keep me from not caring anymore,' Ben Mogen said, describing struggles with addiction. 'Knowing that she was out there and that she was just such a beautiful person kept me alive a lot of rough moments.' Steve Goncalves, Kaylee's father, taunted Kohberger for leaving his DNA on a knife sheath left near Mogen's body and getting caught despite being a graduate student in criminology at nearby Washington State University at the time. 'You were that careless, that foolish, that stupid,' Steve Goncalves said. 'Master's degree? You're a joke.' Kohberger declines to speak When asked by the judge whether he wanted to speak, Kohberger responded: 'I respectfully decline.' Prosecutor chokes up showing photos of victims Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson's voice caught in his throat as he displayed photos of the victims, including one of all the roommates taken the day before the killings. Sobbing was heard in the courtroom and the judge used a tissue to dry his eyes. 'You can see all six of these dynamic, vibrant, loving, special, innocent faces, taken together just across the street from their residence and barely 12 hours before four of them would be brutally murdered in their sleep,' he said. Thompson acknowledged that the victim's families were split on how they felt about the plea deal. 'I respect the fact that of these fine, suffering people here, not everybody agreed with the decision we made,' he said. 'I accept that. It's my responsibility in the end. I recognize that that's the duty of the office that I hold.' Judge reflects on not knowing the motive 'No parent should ever have to bury their child,' Judge Steven Hippler said. 'Parents who took their children to college in a truck filled with moving boxes had to bring them home in hearses lined with coffins.' Hippler said he shared 'the desire expressed by others to understand the why,' while also wondering whether focusing on the motive gave Kohberger agency and 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,' he said. 'Yet even if I could force him to speak, which legally I cannot, how could anyone ever be assured that what he speaks is the truth?'
CTV News
7 hours ago
- CTV News
Police release documents detailing investigation of Idaho student murders
Bryan Kohberger, charged in the murders of four University of Idaho students, appears at the Ada County Courthouse, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Kyle Green) BOISE, Idaho -- Police released documents Wednesday detailing their investigation into the murders of four University of Idaho students. Police in Moscow, Idaho released dozens of pages of documents just hours after Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the years-long case. In one of the documents, Moscow Police Department's lead detective, Brett Payne, described walking through the crime scene and discovering the victims, each of whom had multiple stab wounds. Other documents describe police interviews with friends and acquaintances of the victims. Some names have been redacted from the documents. During a sentencing hearing earlier Wednesday, one after another, the friends and family of the four University of Idaho students murdered by Bryan Kohberger vented their emotions in sobs, insults and curses before a packed courtroom Wednesday as he was sentenced to life in prison. Ben Mogen, the father of Madison Mogen, credited her with helping to keep him alive through his fight with addiction. He called her 'the only thing I'm proud of.' Dylan Mortenson, a roommate of the victims who told police of seeing a strange man with bushy eyebrows and a ski mask in their home that night, called Kohberger 'a hollow vessel, something less than human.' She shook with tears as she described how Kohberger 'took the light they carried into each room.' 'Hell will be waiting,' Kristi Goncalves, the mother of Kaylee Goncalves, told the killer. Judge Steven Hippler ordered Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole for first-degree murder in the deaths of Mogen, Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. The defendant was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and assessed US$270,000 in fines and civil penalties. Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty just weeks before his trial was to start in a deal to avoid the death penalty. Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed on the sentence. Kohberger chooses not to explain his motive When it was his turn to speak in court, Kohberger said, 'I respectfully decline,' shedding no light on why he slipped into the rental home in Moscow, Idaho, through a sliding glass door early on Nov. 13, 2022, and brutally stabbed four of the students inside. 'I share the desire expressed by others to understand the why,' Hippler said. '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, we give him agency, and we give him power.' The crime horrified the city, which hadn't seen a homicide in about five years, and prompted a massive search for the perpetrator. Some students took the rest of their classes online because they felt unsafe. Kohberger, a graduate student in criminology at nearby Washington State University, was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, roughly six weeks later. A Q-tip from the garbage at his parents' house and genetic genealogy was used to match Kohberger's DNA to material recovered from a knife sheath found at the home, investigators said. They used cellphone data to pinpoint his movements and surveillance camera footage to help locate a white sedan that was seen repeatedly driving past the home on the night of the killings. But investigators told reporters after Wednesday's hearing that exhaustive efforts had failed to find the murder weapon, the clothes Kohberger was wearing at the time, or any connection between the killer and the students. Loved ones express loss and fury 'This world was a better place with her in it,' Scott Laramie, Mogen's stepfather, said. 'Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddie.' Goncalves' father, Steve, taunted Kohberger for getting caught despite his education in forensics. 'You were that careless, that foolish, that stupid,' he said. 'Master's degree? You're a joke.' Kernodle's father, Jeff, recalled that his daughter hadn't been feeling well that night, and he thought about driving the 7 miles (11.3 km) to the rental home to be with her. He decided against it because he had been drinking. Mortenson and another surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, described crippling panic attacks after the attack. 'I slept in my parents' room for almost a year, and had them double lock every door, set an alarm, and still check everywhere in the room just in case someone was hiding,' Funke wrote in a statement read by a friend. Alivea Goncalves's voice didn't waver as she asked Kohberger questions, including what her sister's last words were. She drew applause after belittling Kohberger, who remained expressionless. 'You didn't win, you just exposed yourself as the coward you are,' Alivea Goncalves said. 'You're a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser.' Chapin's family did not attend. Kohberger's mother and sister sat in the gallery near the defense table. His mother quietly wept at times as the other parents described their grief. She sobbed briefly when Mogen's grandmother said that her heart goes out to the other families, including Kohberger's. Xana Kernodle's aunt, Kim Kernodle, said she forgave Kohberger and asked him to call her from prison, hoping he would answer her lingering questions about the killings. 'Bryan, I'm here today to tell you I have forgiven you, because I no longer could live with that hate in my heart,' she said. 'And for me to become a better person, I have forgiven you. And any time you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number. I'm here. No judgment.' Rebecca Boone, The Associated Press
