One of the victims, Kaylee Goncalves, said to her roommates that when she walked her dog outside, she noticed an unfamiliar man staring at her. On another occasion, the door was open and slack on its hinges when the residents returned home. To defend themselves against a potential intruder, they seized golf clubs.
Within hours after Kohberger’s sentencing on Wednesday to life in prison for the vicious stabbing deaths of Gonclaves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin early on November 13, 2022, authorities made hundreds of documents public, including those specifics.
Whether the odd events were connected to the murders is still unknown. However, the documents clearly show how law enforcement worked feverishly to track down and prosecute Kohberger by following every lead.
Here are some details taken from the documents:
Strange events at 1122 King RoadTwo roommates survived the night of the stabbings, including Bethany Funke. She told police in interviews following the killings that approximately a month prior, Goncalves had brought her dog, Murphy, outdoors when she noticed an unidentified man peering at her from “up above their house to the south.”According to Funke, it was so alarming that Goncalves “told everyone” about it and called her roommates to enquire if they would be returning home soon.
Outlining the steps involved in the investigation
The tips came pouring in. Two to three weeks prior, a white male college student had come in seeking a black ski mask to cover his face, a Walmart employee informed police.
According to the documents, investigators also investigated leads about bar patrons they had seen earlier in the evening or an Uber driver they frequently used, and people who saw online feeds of some of the victims at a food truck shared their ideas about a potential culprit.
A local woman reported to authorities that she and her daughter noticed a man who “looked nervous” in their garden in August or September of 2022. “I was pretty sure it was Kohberger,” she said.
Using a DNA sample discovered on a knife sheath at the crime scene, officers were able to identify Kohberger, a criminology doctoral student at neighbouring Washington State University.
They obtained online shopping records that revealed he had bought a military-style knife, used mobile data to track his movements that evening, and connected him to a car that passed the students’ house several times.
Memoranda detailing the subpoenas or warrants they served in order to obtain records, as well as the responses to those requests, are among the documents. In order to find accounts Kohberger might have made using certain emails and that could connect him to his victims, investigators issued a warrant on the dating app Tinder.
There was no such proof found, and the reason behind the murders is still unknown.
Kohberger had a brief conversation with cops
About six weeks after the murders, Kohberger was taken into custody at his parents’ Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, home. Officers from the FBI, Idaho State Police, and the Moscow Police Department took him to a state police barracks for an interview.
They discussed Kohberger’s doctoral studies in criminal justice, his time as a teaching assistant in college, the Washington State football team, and his aspirations to become a professor.
In the end, Kohberger acknowledged that he knew they were chit-chatting, but he would like the officers to clarify their requests. He was informed by one detective that it was due to the events in Moscow. He said, “Of course,” when asked if he was aware of what had happened.
Was he interested in discussing it? Kohberger answered, “Well, I think I would need a lawyer.” However, he went on to enquire what particular concerns they had and whether his folks and dog were alright after his incarceration.
When Kohberger finally expressed his desire to consult with legal counsel, police terminated the interrogation on the grounds that he had exercised his Fifth Amendment rights.
Kohberger behind bars
On September 16, 2024, a man who was formerly confined adjacent to Kohberger’s cell at the Latah County Jail informed a detective that Kohberger frequently questioned him about his prior criminal history and the reason he was in the maximum security wing of the jail.
The man claimed that Kohberger’s routines, such as washing his hands numerous times a day and taking a shower for 45 to an hour, irritated him. According to him, Kohberger would only nap during the day and remained up nearly all night.
The public can now read for the first time what many have been wondering for almost three years: how graphic the scenes were of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle being brutally killed early on November 13, 2022.
About 300 documents pertaining to the case were made public by the Moscow Police Department just hours after Bryan Kohberger was found guilty of the killings and given four life sentences plus ten years.
According to police accounts, when cops arrived, the kitchen door was open, and blood was splashed on the walls and floors, covering the four college students’ possessions and collecting around their bodies.
When police first arrived at the King Road residence, they were unable to determine whether there were any more injuries since several of the victims were covered in so much blood.
According to the police report, their faces were so severely damaged that they could not be identified. According to the police report, Kernodle suffered “defensive knife wounds” on her hands. “It was obvious an intense struggle had occurred.”
Madison and Kaylee lay together in a bed on the third level, wrapped in a pink blanket that was “covered in blood.” Blood spattered the walls, and there was a “large pool of blood” next to Kaylee’s belly.
Madison seemed like she was leaning against Kaylee. Madison appeared to have wounds on her hands and forearm. Madison had a gash beneath her right eye that seemed to extend from her nose to the corner of her eye. According to a report, Kaylee’s facial structure was severely damaged, making her unrecognisable.
According to another police report, the bodies were stiff and pallid and looked to have lost a lot of blood.
The coroner’s report states that Ethan Chapin’s “fatal injury was from a stab wound under his left clavicle which severed his subclavian vein and subclavian artery, and also his jugular vein was severed.”
Kernodle died from stab wounds to her heart and lung. According to a story, she suffered more than fifty stab wounds, “mostly defensive,”
Goncalves and Mogen were both stabbed in the liver and lung
In addition, Goncalves suffered two brain haemorrhages and a stab wound behind her clavicle that severed her artery and vein. In addition to more than 20 stab wounds, she also suffered injuries “connected with asphyxiation and blunt force trauma.”
The murder weapon “was not serrated, single edged, very sharp, and said a lot of force was used by the suspect,” the coroner concluded.
The “shape and the size” of the KA-BAR knife Kohberger bought on Amazon, she would later conclude, were “consistent as being the weapon which could have caused the injuries on all four of the victims.”
After finding that a KA-BAR knife’s tan leather sheath had been left at the crime site, authorities searched the Moscow region to see whether the murderer had purchased the weapon locally.
According to a police complaint, they made multiple unsuccessful trips to hardware and sporting goods businesses.
The investigator then discovered something else significant when looking at the blades on display at Walmart: “about two to three weeks ago, a white college-aged male asked for a black ski mask that would cover his face,” the Walmart employee assisting him stated.
She informed him that they only had camouflage ski masks available, but she “was unable to provide much detail other than he was taller than she was and maybe had tan skin complexion.” Then he “walked away.”
Dylan Mortensen, a surviving flatmate, would later tell authorities that she spotted a man intruder on the night of the killings wearing all black, with a black balaclava ski mask covering most of his face. She believed she noticed his bushy brow, though.
Investigators also interviewed Kohberger’s fellow classmates at Washington State University, where he was earning a Ph.D. in criminology, following the deaths.
A fellow teaching assistant described Kohberger as “very intelligent but also selfish,” said he “considered Kohberger a friend,” and claimed that Kohberger “would often mislead him when it came to their shared work and would have [him] complete work meant for Kohberger.” Additionally, Kohberger “frequently twenty minutes late to their classes.”
“Kohberger wanting a girlfriend on many occasions,” the colleague TA added, was another topic of conversation between the two. In addition, Kohberger “liked to discuss his area of study which was criminal decision making and burglary type crimes,” the report said.
Even though the student was “unsure of the date,” he informed authorities “about some injuries he witnessed on Kohberger’s face and hands,” claiming to have seen the injuries “on two separate occasions in October and November of 2022.” The other was a “large scratch on Kohberger’s face which [the student] described as looking like the scratches from fingernails.” After asking Kohberger what had happened, the student “also saw wounds to Kohberger’s knuckles on two separate occasions,” to which Kohberger “replied he had been in a car accident.”
The brutality of the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho college students and the lengthy investigation that ended with the life sentence of Bryan Kohberger, a former Ph.D. student from a nearby university, were further illuminated by documents made public by the Moscow Police Department on Wednesday. Following the issuance of the punishment, the department made hundreds of files public.
These are some of the documents’ most important discoveries.
