Latest news with #TheIdahoMurders
Daily Mirror
24-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
Chilling Idaho murder details finally emerge from 'motive' to horrific injuries
Three years after the brutal University of Idaho massacre, killer Bryan Kohberger has been given four life sentences without the possibility of parole. And haunting details have emerged concerning the scene that left officers 'unable to comprehend' what they were looking at In the early hours of Sunday, November 13, 2022, horror came to the University of Idaho. PhD student Bryan Kohberger broke into an off-campus rental property in the close-knit college town of Moscow, Idaho, where he ruthlessly murdered Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Xana's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20. Two other housemates were also present when the slaughter unfolded, but escaped unharmed. For years, the community has had to continue on in the shadow of an unthinkable tragedy. Number 1122 King Road, the house where the killings took place, has since been demolished, but memories of this terrible time continue to linger. Until recently, details of the shocking case have been kept under wraps to ensure that Kohberger could undergo a fair trial, leaving loved ones with many questions. Now - after taking a plea deal to avoid a death sentence - the 30-year-old has been handed four life sentences without the possibility of parole, following more than two hours of heart-wrenching statements from bereaved families. Handing down sentencing on July 23, Judge Steven Hippler said: "I'm unable to find anything redeemable about Mr Kohberger. His actions have made him the worst of the worst." Bryan Kohberger sentenced: father of murder victim damns killer in three simple words 'Bryan Kohberger butchered my flatmates while I was next door - here's how I escaped' Warped 'motive' In their book The Idaho Murders, extracts of which have been published in the Mail Online, writers James Patterson and Vicky Ward offer an insight into the warped mind of Kohberger. Nicknamed "the ghost" by classmates at DeSales University, anti-social Kohberger was known for his fascination with killers, in particular, Elliot Rodger. Regarded as an early influence on incel culture, Rodger, 22, went on a shooting rampage in 2014 as revenge against rejection by women, detailing his frustrations in a lengthy manifesto. The wealthy student killed six, before turning the gun on himself. Drawing parallels between Kohberger and Rodger, Patterson and Ward detailed how Kohberger had a hatred of women, and was infuriated by attractive girls he perceived as "Stacys" who would date handsome "Chads". One day in class, Kohberger was apparently caught unprepared by a question posed by female lecturer Dr Hillary Mellinger, a specialist in the field of gender-based violence. Humiliated and red-faced with rage, misogynist Kohberger is said to have later gone for an evening drive and headed to a restaurant he'd heard about online, the Mad Greek. It was here that Madison "Maddie" Mogen, one of the four Idaho victims, worked part-time alongside her studies. Marketing major Maddie was blonde, pretty, and interested in fashion and beauty products. In Kohberger's twisted view of the world, she was a 'Stacy' - the book claimed - and he did not take kindly when she spurned his awkward advances. In The Idaho Murders, which will be published July 31, Patterson and Ward detailed the apparent interaction that unfolded. They wrote: "Maddie wipes down a table and turns to get fresh cutlery to seat new customers. Then she notices him. Unusual-looking. Intense bulging eyes. Thin, almost emaciated. And pale, almost ghost white. He's staring at her intently. Maddie is used to male attention, but this time it feels uncomfortable. 'I'm Bryan,' he says. 'What's your name?' Maddie hesitates, then tells him. Why wouldn't she? Everyone here knows it. "He asks, 'Would you like to go out sometime?' This is an easy one, Maddie thinks. The idea of going out with this strange-looking guy is surreal. Maddie is anything but easy, even for guys she likes. And she doesn't know or like this one. She flicks back her hair. 'Uh, no,' she says. She smiles, laughs a bit. It's a nervous habit she has, especially with guys she turns down. She doesn't mean anything rude by it. "But this guy looks at her strangely, like he doesn't believe what he's hearing. He gets up slowly, still staring at her, and walks out. Maddie shakes her head and goes about her business. She doesn't see the guy walk to his car, a white Hyundai Elantra, sit in the driver's seat, and type her name into his phone." Stalking campaign Newly released police records suggest that Kohberger carried out a practice run one month before the murders. From July 2022 right through to November 13, 2022, Kohberger's phone pinged in the vicinity of the three-storey student house at least 23 times, with the timings indicating that he mostly visited under the cover of darkness. Chillingly, housemates would reportedly make "lighthearted talk and jokes" about a potential stalker, but "were slightly nervous about it being a fact". There were also a few incidents which stood out as being strange. It's understood that victim Kaylee had confided in at least two friends about having spotted a man watching her from the trees just outside the house where she would be ruthlessly murdered. Meanwhile, survivor Dylan Mortensen spoke of how Kaylee had described seeing the 'shadow' while taking her pet dog Murphy outside. Dylan also opened up about how, just two or three weeks before the tragedy, Kaylee had mentioned being followed by someone. These accounts were supported by another unnamed friend, who told officers that Kaylee had seen a dark figure staring at her from the trees while she was outside with Murphy. Devastating injuries Officers responding to the terrible scene noted that there was so much blood that it was initially difficult to determine what injuries some of the victims had suffered. In a police report seen by the Idaho Statesman, one officer said: 'I was unable to comprehend exactly what I was looking at while trying to discern the nature of the injuries." The recent Amazon Prime series, One Night In Idaho, showed blood seeping through the outside walls of the property. Kaylee and Madison were found together in the latter's bedroom on the third floor, lying on a single bed covered with a blood-soaked pink blanket. Discussing how her daughter had been "trapped" during the attack, Kristi said: 'The side where Kaylee was, was up against the wall. And if you can imagine, Kaylee in an upright sort of position – up in the corner – slumped. I mean she was trapped. The bed was the entire room. You could barely open up the door without swiping the foot of the bed - and it was wall. The headboard was up against the wall.' It's been theorised that evil Kohberger had only intended to target Madison, and hadn't expected to find her close friend Kaylee in her bed. It was noted that Madison had a wound to her face, as well as lacerations to her upper body, with fatal injuries to her liver and left lung. During an appearance on the Today show, Kaylee's father, Steve Goncalves, described the stabbing injuries his daughter suffered as comparable to "drowning". Appearing alongside Kaylee's mother, Kristi Goncalves, Steve shared: 'She had definitely been stabbed multiple times, and they kind of described it as a drowning that can occur. But she did say gagging; [Kohberger] struck her in the face.' Kristi also detailed how Kaylee had sustained a broken nose, septal hematomas, asphyxial injuries and defence wounds to her arms during the attack. She said: "She [was] stabbed many, many times. But how many, we don't know." As explained in a police report obtained by ABC News, Kaylee's injuries had 'made her unrecognisable." The report asserted: "Madison appeared to be laying up against Kaylee. Madison had what appeared to be wounds to her forearm and hands. Madison had a gash under her right eye, which appeared to go from the corner of her eye to her nose. Kaylee was unrecognisable as her facial structure was extremely damaged." Xana and Ethan, who were in a relationship, were found in Xana's bedroom. It was determined that Ethan suffered a fatal stab wound to the neck, severing his jugular vein, subclavian vein and artery. Xana, who was stabbed more than 50 times, died from lacerations to the heart and lungs. The medical examiner concluded that the majority of her wounds were defensive, sustained while fighting off the killer. Faulty lock Known as a party house, it reportedly wasn't unusual for students to pop in and out of Number 1122 King Road at all hours. Friends of the housemates knew that they could easily get access via the sliding doors by the kitchen, which had a broken lock. All party guests had to do to release the door was lift up the mechanism.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New Docuseries Reveals the Untold Story of the Idaho Murders
In the early morning of Nov. 13, 2022, four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their off campus home. Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were all members of the school's Greek life and beloved by their campus community, which turned the weeks after their murders into a frenzy of national media attention and online speculation surrounding one topic: The Idaho Murders. Despite releasing little information about the investigative process, police in Moscow, Idaho eventually arrested primary suspect Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology graduate student at Washington State University. Now, three years later, with Kohberger's trial finally set to begin in August after numerous delays, filmmakers Matthew Galkin and Liz Garbus are releasing a new Amazon docuseries taking an in depth look at how the people closest to the case dealt with their tragic losses and the media storm that followed them. One Night In Idaho: The College Murders premieres July 11 on Amazon Prime. More from Rolling Stone 5 Things We Learned From 'Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie' Docuseries Mexican Beauty Influencer Shot and Killed on TikTok Live A Bullet Killed Him. AI Brought Him Back to Life in Court Galkin and Garbus first began working on the project in the spring of 2023, doing outreach to the family members that led to a sit down meeting with the Chapin family. Both of the filmmakers are known for past projects that center around the ethical consideration of true crime — including using projects to highlight stories of people on the margins that can typically be ignored by the media and police. (Garbus is perhaps best known for her work on Netflix's Gone Girl: The Long Island Serial Killer — the story of how LISK escaped police capture by targeting young sex workers. Galkin is the director of Showtime miniseries Murder In Big Horn, a series centered on the disappearances and murders of indigenous women in Montana.) The trailer features several interviews from family members and friends closest to the Idaho victims, including the Chapin and Mogen families. 'I've never been involved in a documentary about a case this large and with this many sort of complicated aspects that converge,' Galkin tells Rolling Stone. 'Yeah,' Garbus agrees. 'The whole thing was on steroids in a way I've never seen.' Because the Moscow Police Department gave the public little to no information during their investigation, the national media fury only intensified in online spaces like TikTok's true crime community. Videos about the murders received millions of views, comments, and shares across platforms, with true crime accounts publicly speculating about close friends or people who could have killed the students. Several publicly accused people of the crime, leaving dozens of Idaho students and close friends of victims fearing for their public safety and mental health. Galkin and Garbus tell Rolling Stone they were focused on telling a story that gave viewers an inside look at what was happening behind closed doors. 'In the first conversation with the Chapins, one of the things that truly struck me was their description of being swept up in this circus from the inside. All of the Tiktok videos and hypothesizing and having their son's name dragged through the mud unfairly, obviously, because none of [the conspiracy theories] turned out to be true,' Galkin says. 'I felt like we had never seen that story told from that perspective. Major crime in 2025 has all of these layers of attention and social media and speculation where that didn't exist a few decades ago, but now it's what all of these families have to deal with on a daily basis.' For Garbus, the director says she was focused on unearthing the story that people had missed in the mayhem, avoid sensationalism, and instead giving the families of the victims a chance to tell the world who their loved one actually was — both as a form of memory and as an opportunity to possibly heal. 'What is the side that is untold?' she says. 'At the end of the day, these kids are victims. And their families deserve their stories to be told in fulsome, loving ways.' { pmcCnx({ settings: { plugins: { pmcAtlasMG: { iabPlcmt: 1, }, pmcCnx: { singleAutoPlay: 'auto' } } }, playerId: "d762a038-c1a2-4e6c-969e-b2f1c9ec6f8a", mediaId: "7936b823-4004-4c31-9d66-c2a1c3fe2d78", }).render("connatix_player_7936b823-4004-4c31-9d66-c2a1c3fe2d78_1"); }); Best of Rolling Stone Every Super Bowl Halftime Show, Ranked From Worst to Best The United States of Weed Gaming Levels Up
