July 23, 2025:
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Bryan Kohberger, the masked man who sneaked into a rental home near the University of Idaho campus and stabbed four students to death in late 2022, faced the families of his victims in court Wednesday (July 23, 2025) before he was sentenced to life in prison.
At the sentencing hearing, the families did not get any answers about why he did it or how he came to target the home on King Road in the rural college town of Moscow. But Kohberger, 30, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Ethan Chapin.
He pleaded guilty earlier this month in a deal to avoid the death penalty. He had an opportunity to speak at the sentencing but declined to do so.
The victims’ loved ones shared emotional statements, with some expressing sadness, anger and even forgiveness.
Here’s what to know about Kohberger’s sentencing.
A plea deal was reached before a trial
Mogen, Kernodle, Goncalves and Chapin were found stabbed to death on Nov. 13, 2022. The crime horrified the city, which hadn’t seen a homicide in about five years, and prompted a massive hunt for the perpetrator.
Kohberger, a graduate student in criminology at nearby Washington State University, was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, roughly six weeks later.
Police said they recovered DNA from a knife sheath found at the home, and used genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect. They accessed cellphone data to pinpoint his movements and used surveillance camera footage to help locate a white sedan that was seen repeatedly driving past the home on the night of the killings.
A Q-tip from the garbage at his parents’ house was used to match Kohberger’s DNA to genetic material from the sheath, investigators said.
Kohberger’s attorneys got the trial moved to Boise after expressing concerns that the court wouldn’t be able to find enough unbiased jurors in Moscow. But Judge Stephen Hippler rejected their efforts to get the death penalty taken off the table and to strike critical evidence — including the DNA — from being admitted in trial.
The trial had been set to begin next month.
In exchange for Kohberger admitting guilt and waiving his right to appeal, prosecutors agreed not to seek his execution. Instead, both sides agreed to recommend that he serve four consecutive life sentences without parole for the killings.
The victim’s families were split on how they felt about the plea deal.
Kohberger’s motive and many other details are unknown
If they know why Kohberger did it, investigators haven’t said so publicly. Nor is it clear why he spared two roommates who were home at the time.
Cellphone location data did show Kohberger had been in the neighborhood multiple times before the attack.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson has said that Kohberger used his knowledge about forensic investigations to attempt to cover his tracks by deep cleaning his vehicle after the crime.
Police say Kohberger’s Amazon purchase history shows he bought a military-style knife as well as the knife sheath found at the home. But the knife itself was never found.
The case drew widespread interest and judges feared the publicity could harm Kohberger’s right to a fair trial. A sweeping gag order was imposed and hundreds of court documents were sealed from public view.
After Kohberger pleaded guilty, a coalition of news organizations including The Associated Press asked that the gag order be lifted and the documents be unsealed. Hippler agreed, but said unsealing the documents will take time and that process won’t begin until after the sentencing hearing. It’s not clear how many answers they might contain.
Relatives and friends speak out
During the sentencing hearing, the families and surviving roommates of the victims described the damage the killings have done to them.
“This world was a better place with her in it,” said Scott Laramie, Mogen’s stepfather. “As for the defendant, we will not waste the words. Nor will we fall into hatred and bitterness. Evil has many faces, and we now know this, but evil does not deserve our time and attention. We are done being victims. We are taking back our lives.”
The father of Kaylee Goncalves taunted Kohberger for leaving his DNA behind 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.”
Some loved ones expressed forgiveness.
“Bryan, I’m here today to tell you that I have forgiven you because I could no longer live with that hate in my heart,” said Kim Kernodle, Xana’s aunt, turning to face Kohberger directly. “Any time you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number, no judgment because I do have questions about what happened.”
Foundations honor Kaylee, Maddie, Xana and Ethan
Friends and family members have sought to commemorate the victims’ lives by raising money for scholarships and other initiatives.
Ethan’s Smile Foundation, started by Chapin’s family, honors his “love of life, people, and new adventures by providing scholarships that enable others to follow their dreams,” its website says.
The Made With Kindness Foundation honors the legacy of Mogen, Goncalves, and Kernodle through scholarships, wellness support and empowerment initiatives. “Our mission is to inspire and uplift the next generation, turning their dreams into realities in a world that values compassion and community,” its website says.
The University of Idaho built the Vandal Healing Garden and Memorial in memory of all students who passed away while enrolled at the school.
July 3, 2025:
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The man charged with killing four University of Idaho students in 2022 pleaded guilty, capping a mystifying murder case that’s long captured the nation’s attention. The hearing Wednesday (July 2, 2025) described new details of the moments when Bryan Kohberger entered a home and stabbed the four students to death. Kohberger then worked to hide the crime, scrubbing his apartment, office and car before investigators looked over them. It’s still unknown why Kohberger decided to kill those students, or if he was targeting all four of them. The now 30-year-old will be sentenced in July, and is facing life in prison.
Story
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The lead prosecutor tasked with finding justice for four University of Idaho students killed in a grisly quadruple stabbing more than two years ago laid out his key evidence Wednesday (July 2, 2025) at a court hearing for Bryan Kohberger, who agreed to plead guilty earlier this week to avoid the death penalty.
The evidentiary summary — recited by lead prosecutor Bill Thompson before Kohberger entered his pleas — spun a dramatic tale that included a DNA-laden Q-tip plucked from the garbage in the dead of the night, a getaway car stripped so clean of evidence that it was “essentially disassembled inside” and a fateful early-morning Door Dash order that may have put one of the victims in Kohberger’s path.
These details offered new insights into how the crime unfolded on Nov. 13, 2022, and how investigators ultimately solved the case using surveillance footage, cell phone tracking and DNA matching. But the synopsis leaves hanging key questions that could have been answered at trial — including a motive for the stabbings and why Kohberger picked that house, and those victims, all apparent strangers to him.
The small farming community of Moscow, in the northern Idaho panhandle, had not had a homicide in about five years when Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were found dead at a rental home near campus.
Kohberger, now 30, had begun a doctoral degree in criminal justice at nearby Washington State University — across the state line from Moscow, Idaho — months before the crimes.
“The defendant has studied crime,” Thompson said, as the victims’ family members dabbed at their tears. “In fact, he did a detailed paper on crime scene processing when he was working on his Ph.D., and he had that knowledge skillset.”
What we learned from the hearing
Kohberger’s cell phone began connecting with cell towers in the area of the crime more than four months before the stabbings, Thompson said, and pinged on those towers 23 times between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. in that time period.
A compilation of surveillance videos from neighbors and businesses also placed Kohberger’s vehicle — known to investigators because of a routine traffic stop by police in August — in the area.
On the night of the killings, Kohberger parked behind the house and entered through a sliding door to the kitchen at the back of the house shortly after 4 a.m., Thompson said. He moved to the third floor, where Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were sleeping.
After killing both of them with a knife, Kohberger left a knife sheath next to Mogen’s body. Both victims’ blood was later found on the sheath, along with DNA from a single male that ultimately helped investigators pinpoint Kohberger as the only suspect.
On the floor below, another student was still awake. Xana Kernodle had ordered Door Dash not long before, and as Kohberger was leaving, he crossed paths with her and killed her with a large knife, Thompson said. He then killed her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, who was sleeping in Kernodle’s bedroom.
Kohberger left two others in the house alive, including one roommate who was expected to testify at trial that sometime before 4:19 a.m. she saw an intruder there with “bushy eyebrows,” wearing black clothing and a ski mask.
Roughly five minutes later, the car could be seen on the next-door neighbor’s surveillance camera. speeding away so fast “the car almost loses control as it makes the corner,” Thompson said.
What did Kohberger do next?
After Kohberger fled the scene, Thompson said, his cover-up was elaborate.
Prosecutors believe he drove backroads to his apartment in Pullman, Washington, to avoid surveillance cameras on the major roads and didn’t turn his cell phone back on until 4:48 a.m. By 5:26 a.m., he was back in Pullman, Thompson said.
Later, Kohberger changed his car registration from Pennsylvania to Washington State — significant for investigators who were combing through surveillance camera footage because Pennsylvania law doesn’t require a front license plate, making it harder to identify the vehicle.
And by the time investigators did catch up with him weeks later, his apartment and office in nearby Pullman were scrubbed clean.
“Spartan would be a kind characterization. There was nothing there, nothing of evidentiary value was found,” Thompson said of Kohberger’s apartment.
The car, too, “had been essentially disassembled inside,” he added. “It was spotless. The defendant’s car had been meticulously cleaned inside.”
The Q-tip that broke the case
Investigators had honed in on Kohberger, but they needed to prove he was their suspect.
With the DNA of a single mystery male on the knife sheath, they worked with the FBI and the local sanitation department to secretly retrieve garbage from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger’s parents, seeking a DNA match to their suspect.
“They conducted what’s called a trash pull during the nighttime hours,” Thompson said, and “took trash that had been set out on the street for collection” and sent it to Idaho’s forensics lab.
The pile of garbage yielded investigative gold: A Q-tip that contained DNA identified “as coming from the father of the person whose DNA was found on the knife sheath that was found by Madison Mogen’s body on the bed,” he said.
With that, Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, where he had gone for the holidays, and ultimately was extradited to Idaho for prosecution.
The mysteries that remain
Even while prosecutors detailed that night, a key question remains: Why did Kohberger target that house and those victims? Did he know them? And what was his motive?
“We do not have evidence that the defendant had direct contact with 1122 or with residents in 1122, but we can put his phone in the area on those times,” Thompson said, referring to the house number where the murders took place.
Some of that evidence may have come out at trial, and may yet be contained in documents related to the case that have been sealed by the court until after a July 23 sentencing hearing. A gag order in place for all attorneys in the case is still in effect as well.
Those documents include witness lists, a list of exhibits, an analysis of the evidence, requests for additional discovery, filings about mitigating factors and various unsuccessful defense motions that sought to introduce alternative suspects, among other things.
The families of the victims are split over the plea deal
With the case solved, families remain divided over its resolution.
The deal stipulates that Kohberger will be spared execution in exchange for four consecutive life sentences. He also waived his right to appeal and to challenge the sentence.
Chapin’s and Mogen’s families support the deal.
“We now embark on a new path. We embark on a path of hope and healing,” Mogen’s family said in a statement.
The family of Kaylee Goncalves publicly denounced the plea deal ahead of Wednesday’s hearing and her father refused to attend the proceedings.
Goncalves 18-year-old sister, Aubrie Goncalves, said in a Facebook post that “Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world.”
“Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever,” she wrote.
July 2, 2025:
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Bryan Kohberger has pleaded guilty (July 2, 2025) to the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students. His plea Wednesday comes after prosecutors pursued the death penalty and his attorneys failed to block it. The 30-year-old faced charges for fatally stabbing the students in a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho. The killings shocked the small community, which hadn’t seen a homicide in five years. His lawyers unsuccessfully argued against the death penalty on multiple grounds, including his autism diagnosis and challenges to DNA evidence. The plea deal would allow Kohberger to avoid execution just weeks before his trial.
April 25, 2025:
UNDATED (AP)- A judge has ruled that prosecutors can pursue the death penalty against Bryan Kohberger if he is convicted of murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022. This is despite the defendant’s recent autism diagnosis. Thirty-year-old Kohberger is charged in the stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves at a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022. Defense attorneys have also filed several other motions challenging the death penalty, including one based on purported violations by the state in providing evidence. Prosecutors say they intend to seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted at his trial. The trial is set to begin in August 2025.
JUNE 9, 2023:
UNDATED (AP)- A judge overseeing the case against a man charged with killing four University of Idaho students is set to hear arguments over a gag order that largely bars attorneys and other parties in the case from speaking with news reporters. A coalition of more than 30 media organizations has challenged the order, saying it violates the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech and a free press. A lawyer for one of the victim’s families has also made that argument in the case set to be heard Friday (June 9, 2023). But prosecutors and the defendant’s lawyers insist it’s needed to prevent prejudicial news coverage that could damage Bryan Kohberger’s right to a fair trial.
MAY 22, 2023:
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A judge has entered not guilty pleas for a man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students. The pleas potentially set the stage for a trial in which he could face the death penalty. Bryan Kohberger declined to enter pleas on his own behalf in Monday’s (May 22, 2023) arraignment. He was arrested late last year and charged with burglary and four counts of first-degree murder in connection with with the Nov. 13, 2022, killings. Prosecutors have 60 days to announce whether they will seek the death penalty. The deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin left the rural community of Moscow, Idaho, reeling. At the time, the 28-year-old Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminology at nearby Washington State University.
MAY 17, 2023:
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A grand jury has indicted a man who was already charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, allowing prosecutors to skip a planned week-long preliminary hearing that was set for late June. Bryan Kohberger was arrested late last year and charged with burglary and four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Nov. 13, 2022, slayings of four students at a rental home near the University of Idaho campus. At the time, Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminology at nearby Washington State University. A preliminary hearing had been scheduled for June 26, 2023, but now that will be skipped and the case will go directly to a district judge.
MAY 5, 2023:
PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — Newly released body camera video shows the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students being pulled over for allegedly running a red light about a month before the killings. The Idaho Statesman reported Thursday (May 4, 2023) that the video shows Washington State University campus police stopping Bryan Kohberger on Oct. 14, 2022, in Pullman. During the video, officer Isobel Luengas parks behind Kohberger’s 2015 Hyundai Elantra in a parking lot. She tells him he ran a red light and asks for Kohberger’s license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance. Kohberger says he was stuck in the middle of the intersection. He was let off with a warning.
JANUARY 6, 2023:
UNDATED (AP)- Authorities say a key piece of evidence in the case of four University of Idaho students stabbed to death in November turned out to be surveillance footage showing a white sedan driving past the victims’ home. According to a police affidavit unsealed Thursday (Jan. 5, 2023), the car drove past three times before the stabbings early on Nov. 13, 2022, and was recorded speeding away afterwards. Investigators said they later tracked the car — and eventually, DNA evidence — to Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old graduate student in criminology at Washington State University, just across the state border. Kohberger made an initial appearance in an Idaho courtroom Thursday after being extradited from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week.
JANUARY 3, 2023, UPDATE:
STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A criminology graduate student charged in the slayings of four University of Idaho students has agreed to be extradited to Idaho to face charges. Twenty-eight-year-old Bryan Kohberger was arrested on first-degree murder charges early Friday by state police at his parents’ home in eastern Pennsylvania. Wearing a red jumpsuit with his hands shackled in front of him, Kohberger showed little emotion during Tuesday’s (Jan. 3, 2023) brief hearing in a Pennsylvania courtroom in which he acknowledged facing four counts of first-degree murder and a burglary charge. He waived his right to fight extradition. His attorney says Kohberger is eager to be exonerated and should be presumed innocent.
JANUARY 3, 2023:
STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man facing first-degree murder charges in the slayings of four University of Idaho students is not expected to fight extradition at a hearing Tuesday (Jan. 3, 2023) in Pennsylvania. Twenty-eight-year-old Bryan Kohberger was taken into custody early Friday by state police at his parents’ home in eastern Pennsylvania. His attorney said his client is eager to be exonerated and should be presumed innocent and “not tried in the court of public opinion.” Kohberger’s family expressed sympathy for the victims’ families but vowed to support him and promote “his presumption of innocence.”
This photo provided by Monroe County (Pa.) Correctional Facility shows Bryan Kohberger. Arrest paperwork filed by Pennsylvania State Police in Monroe County Court, Friday, Dec. 30, 2022, said Kohberger, 28, was being held for extradition in a criminal homicide investigation in the killings of four University of Idaho students, based on an active arrest warrant for first degree murder issued by the Moscow Police Department and Latah County Prosecutor’s Office. (Monroe County (Pa.) Correctional Facility via AP)
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