Bryan Kohberger and the Idaho College Murders: A Elephantine Timeline of the Case
What to understand about the chilling case main to Bryan Kohberger's sentencing for the murders of Idaho college students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
Bryan Kohberger's sentencing for the 2022 murders of four College of Idaho college students doesn't mean the discontinue of the difficulty for his victims' households.
But the July 23 listening to—at some level of which relatives and chums of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, spoke out about the affect of their deaths—does raise this bent smartly matched saga to a shut.
With the launch of his trial weeks away, Kohberger, 30, as a change pleaded guilty to execute and housebreaking—and waived his simply to charm—in a contend with prosecutors that allowed him to steer certain of the different of getting the death penalty if convicted by a jury.
As an different, he'll attend life in penal complex, per the terms of the deal.
Kohberger's motive for killing Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle and Chapin stays unknown. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson acknowledged in court July 2 that, whereas cell tower recordsdata placed Kohberger's phone come the crime scene 23 instances between July 9, 2022 and when the murders had been dedicated Nov. 13, 2022, investigators hadn't been ready to in my conception join him to any of the victims.
But Kohberger did confess to execute, answering within the affirmative when requested in court whether he had “willingly, unlawfully, deliberately and with premeditation and malice with forethought” killed the college students.
Autopsies concluded all four deaths had been prompted by diverse stab wounds, whereas one of the victims had defensive wounds, indicating they fought for their lives.
“This day, we’re here to preserve out what you started,” Kaylee's father Steve Goncalves told Kohberger in court July 23, studying from his sufferer affect observation, per NBC Knowledge. “We are here to cowl to the area that you just picked the rotten households, rotten suppose, the rotten cops, the rotten neighborhood.”
Apply the timeline of the execute investigation main to Kohberger's arrest and eventual guilty plea:
Who Were Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle?
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, had been College of Idaho college students who lived in an off-campus condominium.
On Nov. 12, 2022—the evening earlier than their bodies had been chanced on—Goncalves and Mogen had been at a shut by sports bar, whereas Kernodle and Chapin had been on the latter’s fraternity event. By 2 a.m. on Nov. 13, the four roommates and Chapin had been relief on the three-story rental dwelling.
Goncalves became as soon as a senior majoring infrequently learn on the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. She became as soon as anticipated to graduate in December earlier than heading to Austin, Texas, for a job at a marketing company, her buddy Jordyn Quesnell told The New York Times.
Mogen, who became as soon as studying marketing, became as soon as easiest chums with Goncalves for the reason that sixth grade. She had plans to switch to Boise after graduation, family buddy Jessie Frost shared with The Idaho Statesman.
Kernodle became as soon as a junior majoring in marketing, the College acknowledged on the time. She and Chapin—who majored in sport, sport and tourism administration—had been relationship for the reason that spring, the roommates’ neighbor Ellie McKnight told NBC Knowledge.
Were There Any Survivors?
Two roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, had been dwelling on the time of the murders. In textual thunder messages that had been unsealed March 6, 2025, Mortensen and Funke tried contacting their roommates on Nov. 13 after the celebrated seen a masked man tantalizing thru the dwelling, per documents bought by E! Knowledge.
“No one is answering,” Mortensen texted Funke at 4:22 a.m. “I'm rlly puzzled rn.”
She persevered to attain out to their roommates, urging them to acknowledge. “Pls acknowledge,” she texted Goncalves at 4:32 a.m. and all yet again at 10:23 a.m. “R u up??”
At 11:58 a.m., a 911 call became as soon as placed after Kernodle became as soon as chanced on unresponsive, per an additional accelerate bought by E! Knowledge. A girl named A1 within the transcript described the hot concern to the operator.
“One of many roommates who's passed out and she became as soon as under the affect of alcohol closing evening and she's not waking up,” she acknowledged on the phone. “They seen some man of their dwelling closing evening.”
Who Is Bryan Kohberger and How Became as soon as He Chanced on?
Bryan Kohberger, who became as soon as charged with four counts of first-stage execute and one depend of housebreaking, became as soon as a doctoral candidate at Washington Notify College. Over one month after the bodies of Gonclaves, Mogen, Kernodle and Chapin had been chanced on, Kohberger became as soon as taken into custody Dec. 30 in Monroe County, Penn. He became as soon as extradited to Idaho Jan. 4, 2023.
As for the technique authorities connected him to the killings? DNA became as soon as chanced on on a knife sheath that became as soon as left on the crime scene, prosecutors published in June 2023 court documents, per NBC Knowledge.
When the DNA didn't match anyone within the FBI database, authorities ran the DNA thru public ancestry websites to accomplish a checklist of doubtless suspects, per the filings. After studying that Kohberger had pushed to his fogeys' dwelling in Monroe County, local officers then went thru their trash and chanced on DNA that tied him to that chanced on on the sheath.
What Became as soon as Kohberger’s Preliminary Protection?
For the time being, a motive for the attack has not been detailed and a gag describe prevents many tantalizing by the case from speaking publicly, NBC Knowledge reported. Nonetheless, the unsealed documents equipped some insight into their preliminary arguments.
Kohberger's attorneys argued in a accelerate bought by E! Knowledge to strike the death penalty that Kohberger—who at the initiating confronted death penalty if chanced on guilty on all counts—has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and that executing him would violate the Eighth Modification's prohibition on “merciless and peculiar punishment.”
His protection argued that Kohbereger “shows extremely rigid pondering, perseverates on divulge issues, processes recordsdata on a piecemeal basis, struggles to devise ahead, and demonstrates small insight into his have behaviors and feelings.”
“This potential that of his ASD, Mr. Kohberger simply can not comport himself in a device that aligns with societal expectations of normalcy,” the accelerate acknowledged. “This creates an unconscionable possibility that he will most certainly be done thanks to his incapacity rather than his culpability.”
The place Became as soon as the Trial Space?
First and main, Kohberger had a pick enter a not-guilty plea to the first-stage execute charges on his behalf after last soundless at his May maybe well also simply 2023 arraignment. Despite the incontrovertible fact that his trial became as soon as region to launch Oct. 2, 2023, Kohberger waived his simply to a fast trial in August 2023.
His trial date—which became as soon as scheduled to happen in Ada County, extra than 300 miles from Latah County, where the killings took space—became as soon as region to launch Aug. 11, 2025.
Latah County Resolve John Resolve beforehand dominated in favor of the switch request made by Kohberger's protection in September 2024 primarily primarily based on “presumed prejudice” if the trial remained in Latah County.
Ada County Resolve Steven Hippler denied the protection's request to suppress key DNA and diversified evidence, including cell phone and email recordsdata, surveillance images, previous Amazon purchases and DNA evidence within the trial.
What Became as soon as the Verdict within the Trial?
Kohberger's execute trial became as soon as canceled after he took a plea deal from prosecutors on June 30, 2025. In accepting the deal, Kohberger agreed to plead guilty to four counts of execute and one depend of housebreaking, besides to waive his rights to charm and search recordsdata from for a extra lenient penal complex sentence.
He entered his guilty plea on July 2, 2025, confirming with a “yes” after the pick requested if he killed all four victims “willingly, unlawfully, deliberately and with premeditation and malice with forethought.”
Did Kohberger Hold a Selfie After the Murders?
A selfie Kohberger took the morning after the murders took space became as soon as equipped in March 2025. The photograph, which sees him in entrance of a bathe showing a thumbs up, shows how he also can simply match the description a to find identified as “D.M.” gave in filings, who acknowledged the perpetrator had “bushy eyebrows.”
Steve Gonclaves, the father of sufferer Kaylee, later reacted to the image calling it a “trophy” in an interview with Fox and Mates.
“I know the timeline, I know that he had correct returned to the crime scene and he had near relief,” Gonclaves acknowledged. “He had realized that no-one had called 911.”
As he assign it, “To him, that’s his small trophy to let him know like, ‘Howdy, I bought away with it, no one’s on me.’”
What Did Kohberger Google Sooner than the Murders?
In a 2025 Dateline documentary about the murders, a celebrated classmate of Kohberger’s detailed a “peculiar” textual thunder she bought from him after making his acquaintance at a event.
“I undoubtedly felt pretty obligated to chat with him, because to me, he gave the affect pretty awkward,” the pupil—identified as Holly—defined. “More or much less like which you will most certainly be able to request for a PhD pupil who didn't know anyone on the event and became as soon as per chance attempting his easiest to roughly procure out there and be social and operate chums.”
The next day, Holly acknowledged she bought a textual thunder from him, which she described as overly formal.
“Howdy, I’m ravishing certain we spoke about hiking journeys the day gone by,” Bryan’s textual thunder from July 10, 2022 at 1:19 p.m., learn, per Dateline. “I the truth is delight in that exercise, so please let me know. Thanks!”
In utterly different places within the Dateline documentary, Kohberger’s hunting historical previous became as soon as chanced on to have integrated searches for Ted Bundy, Britney Spears’ song “Felony,” and the term “College of Idaho Murders.”
Source credit : eonline.com
