Bryan Kohberger Case: New Details of Victim's Grisly Murder Revealed
Content warning: This story contains graphic details.
More shocking details about the quadruple homicide of four University of Idaho students and the man suspected of murdering them, Bryan Kohberger, have been revealed.
On Nov. 13, 2022, police found roommates Ethan Chapin, 20, his girlfriend Xana Kernodle, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Madison Mogen, 21, deceased inside their Moscow, Idaho home. The victims died after suffering multiple wounds made with a large knife, prosecutors said in a March court filing obtained by Dateline and cited in its May 9 special "The Terrible Night on King Road."
Chapin appears to have been the last of the four to be targeted by the killer. Sources close to the investigation told the outlet he was believed to be asleep in bed before his death and that the perpetrator "carved" the victim's lower legs with a blade. Before targeting Chapin, the attacker stabbed Kernodle, who was still awake after ordering food from DoorDash, the sources said.
It was Mogen who may have been the killer's intended target because the intruder had gone directly to her bedroom first, the sources. A tan leather sheath for a large Ka-Bar knife was found on the bed, next to her body. Goncalves was with her at the time.
Security footage obtained by Dateline shows a car that investigators believe resembles Kohberger's white Hyundai Elantra circling past the house's block multiple times the early morning of the murders.
Kohberger, a Washington State University criminal justice doctoral student, was arrested at his parent's home in Pennsylvania in late December 2022 and charged with murder in connection with the killings. In 2023, a judge entered a not guilty plea to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary on his behalf.
E! News has reached out to Kohberger's legal team for comment on the Dateline special and has not heard back.
In a probable cause affidavit released at the time of Kohberger's arrest, police stated that the knife sheath that was found in the victims' house contained male DNA, which investigators linked to the 28-year-old after comparing it to DNA samples obtained from the trash at his family home.
An FBI cellphone expert examined Kohberger's phone data, which Dateline obtained. The records allegedly indicated that later in the morning after the killings, a call was made to a number registered to his dad's account, under which several other family phones are registered.
The data also showed the suspect's phone was in Moscow just after 9 a.m. before prosecutors say he returned to his apartment in Pullman, where he took a mirror selfie while giving a thumbs up.
The device contained dozens of pictures of female students at Washington State and the University of Idaho, including some linked to the three murdered women, Dateline said.
Kohberger's alleged browsing activity included Google searches for "University of Idaho Murders" and a program about serial killer Ted Bundy, Britney Spears' song "Criminal," according to Dateline.
Kohberger's trial is set to begin in August. If found guilty of all counts, he could face the death penalty.
Read on for more about the case.
(E! and Dateline are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were University of Idaho students who lived in an off-campus apartment.
On Nov. 12, 2022—the night before their bodies were found—Goncalves and Mogen were at a nearby sports bar, while Kernodle and Chapin were at the latter’s fraternity party. By 2 a.m. on Nov. 13, the four roommates and Chapin were back at the three-story rental house.
Goncalves was a senior majoring in general studies at the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. She was expected to graduate in December before heading to Austin, Tex., for a job at a marketing firm, her friend Jordyn Quesnell told The New York Times.
Mogen, who was studying marketing, was best friends with Goncalves since the sixth grade. She had plans to move to Boise after graduation, family friend Jessie Frost shared with The Idaho Statesman.
Kernodle was a junior majoring in marketing, the University said at the time. She and Chapin—who majored in recreation, sport and tourism management—had been dating since the spring, the roommates’ neighbor Ellie McKnight told NBC News.
Two roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, had been home at the time of the murders. In text messages that were unsealed March 6, 2025, Mortensen and Funke tried contacting their roommates on Nov. 13 after the former saw a masked man moving through the house, according to documents obtained by E! News.
"No one is answering," Mortensen texted Funke at 4:22 a.m. "I'm rlly confused rn."
She continued to reach out to their roommates, urging them to respond. "Pls answer," she texted Goncalves at 4:32 a.m. and again at 10:23 a.m. "R u up??"
At 11:58 a.m., a 911 call was placed after Kernodle was found unresponsive, per an additional motion obtained by E! News. A woman named A1 in the transcript described the current situation to the operator.
"One of the roommates who's passed out and she was drunk last night and she's not waking up," she said on the phone. "They saw some man in their house last night."
Bryan Kohberger, who has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder, was a doctoral candidate at Washington State University. Over one month after the bodies of Gonclaves, Mogen, Kernodle and Chapin were discovered, Kohberger was taken into custody Dec. 30 in Monroe County, Penn. He was extradited to Idaho Jan. 4.
As for how authorities connected him to the killings? DNA was found on a knife sheath that was left at the crime scene, prosecutors revealed in June 2023 court documents, per NBC News.
When the DNA didn't match anyone in the FBI database, authorities ran the DNA through public ancestry websites to create a list of potential suspects, according to the filings. After learning that Kohberger had driven to his parents' home in Monroe County, local officials then went through their trash and found DNA that tied him to that found on the sheath.
At the moment, a motive for the attack has not been detailed and a gag order prevents many involved in the case from speaking publicly, NBC News reported. However, the unsealed documents provided some insight into their arguments.
Kohberger's attorneys argued in a motion obtained by E! News to strike the death penalty that Kohberger—who could face the death penalty if found guilty on all counts, a judge ruled in November 2024—has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and that executing him would violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishment."
His defense argued that Kohbereger "displays extremely rigid thinking, perseverates on specific topics, processes information on a piecemeal basis, struggles to plan ahead, and demonstrates little insight into his own behaviors and emotions."
"Due to his ASD, Mr. Kohberger simply cannot comport himself in a manner that aligns with societal expectations of normalcy," the motion said. "This creates an unconscionable risk that he will be executed because of his disability rather than his culpability."
Kohberger had a judge enter a not-guilty plea to the first-degree murder charges on his behalf after remaining silent at his May 2023 arraignment. Although his trial was set to begin Oct. 2, 2023, Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial in August 2023.
His new trial date—which will take place in Ada County, more than 300 miles from Latah County, where the killings took place—is set to begin Aug. 11, 2025.
Latah County Judge John Judge ruled in favor of the transfer request made by Kohberger's defense in September 2024 based on "presumed prejudice" if the trial remained in Latah County. Ada County Judge Steven Hippler—who is now presiding over the case—denied the defense's request to suppress key DNA and other evidence, including cell phone and email records, surveillance footage, past Amazon purchases and DNA evidence in the trial.
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