An unsealed trove of documents has revealed horrifying new details about the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students by Bryan Kohberger, who was sentenced Wednesday to four consecutive life terms without parole.
The documents, released by Moscow police, paint a clearer picture of the brutality of the attack and Kohberger’s behavior before and after the killings.
Highlights
- Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without parole for the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students.
- Xana Kernodle was stabbed over 50 times with fatal heart wounds, showing intense struggle and defensive injuries.
- Kaylee Goncalves’ body was unrecognizable due to over 20 stab wounds, blunt force, and asphyxia injuries.
- Two surviving roommates saw a masked man inside the house but didn’t call 911 immediately due to shock and intoxication.
Kohberger, 30, used what investigators believe was a Ka-Bar knife to kill Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, and Ethan Chapin in their off-campus Moscow, Idaho, home on November 13, 2022.
New details reveal the brutality of Brian Kohberger’s attack on four University of Idaho students
Image credits: Maddie Mogen/Instagram
According to police reports, Kohberger attacked the victims with “a lot of force,” leaving behind one of the most gruesome crime scenes in Idaho history.
The documents detail that Kernodle, 20, was stabbed more than 50 times, including two fatal wounds to her heart.
Police said they found her lying on her back in her blood-stained underwear and shirt, with defensive knife wounds to her hand.
They believe she fought back, as she suffered deep defensive injuries, including a large cut between her fingers.
“I looked inside the bedroom Xana was lying in, and it was obvious an intense struggle had occurred,” one of the police officers at the scene said.
She was found next to Chapin, also 20, who was covered by a blanket. Investigators reported “arterial blood spray” near his body.
On the third floor, Goncalves and Mogen, both 21, were discovered together.
Image credits: Kaylee Goncalves/Instagram
Goncalves had been stabbed more than 20 times, leaving her “unrecognizable,” according to police.
“Kaylee was unrecognizable as her facial structure was extremely damaged,” the police records said. She also sustained blunt-force and asphyxia injuries, with stab wounds to her lung, liver, and several arteries.
Mogen’s body was partially covered with a blood-soaked pink blanket.
The victims’ families learned that Goncalves’ dog, Murphy, was found unharmed but “scared” inside the house.
Two surviving roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were also interviewed.
Mortensen admitted she saw a masked man dressed in black inside the house but didn’t immediately call 911, because “she was intoxicated and didn’t want to believe what was going on,” the court filing said.
Kernodle was stabbed more than 50 times, and Goncalves’ body was unrecognizable
Image credits: Kyle Green/Getty Images
Instead, she locked herself in her room with Funke, terrified, and texted a friend to come over. That friend never arrived, and police later discovered the victims’ bodies.
Her description of Kohberger being a masked man with “bushy eyebrows” was instrumental in linking him to the crime.
While investigators found the sheath of the murder weapon at the scene, the knife itself has never been recovered.
The documents also include new insights from people who interacted with Kohberger after his arrest.
A fellow inmate in Latah County Jail described Kohberger as a “f*****g weirdo,” who washed his hands dozens of times a day and took showers lasting nearly an hour.
“Kohberger would be awake almost all night and would only take a nap during the day,” a detective wrote, and would video chat with his mother “for hours each day.”
A teaching assistant at Washington State University, where Kohberger was studying for his Ph.D., reported that Kohberger had “scratches from fingernails” shortly after the murders.
Image credits: Kyle Green/Getty Images
Kohberger claimed the injuries were from a car accident.
The teaching assistant also told police that Kohberger’s behavior had changed after the killings: he talked more than usual and made inappropriate comments to female students.
Police reports also revealed that in January 2025, a refrigerator storing evidence from the case broke, affecting dozens of blood, hair, and other swab samples. However, no DNA evidence was stored in that refrigerator, and investigators said a separate freezer remained secure.
In their first interview with Kohberger after his December 29, 2022, arrest in Pennsylvania, Idaho State Police said he initially chatted casually about school, and when the conversation turned to the murders, Kohberger invoked the Fifth Amendment and asked for an attorney.
Kohberger accepted a plea deal earlier this month, avoiding the death penalty but receiving four life sentences. He did not explain why he had committed the killings.
At his sentencing, he spoke only three words—“I respectfully decline”—when asked if he wished to address the families of the victims.
Family members gave emotional impact statements, calling Kohberger “stupid,” “soulless,” and a “psychopath.”
Kaylee’s father, Steve Goncalves, told him, “You’re a joke. You were that foolish, that careless, that stupid. Today, you have no name. Nobody cares about you. You’re not worth the time, the effort to be remembered. In time, you’ll be nothing but two initials forgotten to the world.”
Chapin’s parents did not attend the hearing, saying they had found “big-time closure.”
Kohberger was also ordered to pay about $200,000 in restitution to the victims’ families.