New facts on Idaho murders after Kohberger’s sentencing suggest ‘intense struggle’, odd behavior leading up
More than 300 documents released by the Moscow Police Department on Wednesday revealed grisly new details about the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students and the exhaustive investigation that led to Bryan Kohberger’s apprehension.
Kohberger, 30, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to fatally stabbing college seniors Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21; junior Xana Kernodle, 20; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, to death in an off-campus home in the early hours on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022.
The former Washington State University Ph.D student pleaded guilty to the crimes in exchange for avoiding a death sentence, circumventing a lengthy trial and allowing authorities to release information on the case once bound by a gag order. Shortly after Kohberger’s sentencing, where family members of the victims provided emotional impact statements, the vast trove of documents was released to the public.
The new documents shed light on the brutality of the slayings, details about the days and weeks that led to the murders, and the extensive pool of evidence investigators gathered against Kohberger.
Here are some of the never-before-revealed details of the barbaric killings the new documents reveal.
Bodies found brutally savaged
When police entered Xana Kernodle’s bedroom after the murder, the responding officer detailed that “it was obvious an intense struggle had occurred,” according to one of the reports.
“There was blood smeared on various items in the room and all over the floor,” the document reads. “There was blood cast-off on the walls in various places, including above Xana’s body.”
Police found Kernodle lying face down on the floor in the center of the room in her underwear and a gray sweatshirt, covered in blood, according to the document. The officer logged that he saw “what appeared to be defensive knife wounds on Xana’s hands” and a “deep gash on Xana’s left hand between her pointer finger and thumb.”
An autopsy later revealed that Kernodle’s body was found with more than 50 stab wounds, according to the documents.
Officers found the other three college students similarly covered in blood, according to the document. In addition to wounds on Mogen’s forearm and hands, her face was found mutilated.
“Madison had a gash under her right eye which appeared to go from the corner of her eye to her nose,” the document reads.
Goncalves was found “unrecognizable as her facial structure was extremely damaged,” according to the document.
Moments leading to the 911 call
Bethany Funke, one of the two surviving roommates, told investigators that her door was locked when she went to sleep in the early hours of November 13, according to one of the police reports.
Funke told police that she woke up after falling asleep to hearing what she thought was “a firecracker” go off, and “she thought she saw a sparkler going off through the crack under her door,” the report, which identifies her as “B”, states.
Funke said she then called the other surviving roommate, Dylan Mortensen, or Mortensen called her — the report states she could not recall — who told her “she thought she had just seen someone dressed in all black in the house” and a ski mask, according to the report.
Mortensen, who is identified in the report as “D,” later said “the male in black was walking out the back door and they had made eye contact with each other,” that he was “white with a big nose” and holding “a small vacuum type of object,” Funke told detectives, according to the report.
According to the report, Funke then told Mortensen to come down to her room, and Mortensen obliged. Funke then called the four victims’ phones, but nobody answered, which Funke said she thought was normal given how late it was.
Funke told detectives the pair did not call 911 at the time because Funke thought Mortensen thought she may have been mistaken, and that they were both still drunk and groggy. She also said she thought one of Chapin’s frat brothers could have been playing a prank on them.
When Funke woke up at 7:30 a.m., she called her parents about a toothache before falling back to sleep, according to the report. She then woke up again around 11:00 am and noticed no one else in the house was awake. She added that Goncalves’ Snapchat location was not on, “and it should have been.”
The pair then called two of their friends and asked them to come over because they were scared, the report said. When one of the friends arrived and went upstairs to check things out, the friend told the pair to get out of the house and call for help.
Funke told detectives that through Goncalves’ slightly opened door, she saw Goncalves on the floor in her underwear and sweatshirt, the report states.
Funke then called 911.
Goncalves thought she was being followed
In the weeks before she was killed, Goncalves recounted a series of unnerving events to the two surviving roommates, according to the police reports.
Goncalves mentioned that she believed someone was following her two or three weeks before the stabbing, one of the surviving roommates told investigators.
The same roommate recalled Goncalves’ saying that she saw a shadow while she was outside with her dog about a month before the murders, according to a separate report.
The second surviving roommate told investigators that, around the same time, Goncalves saw an “unknown male” above their off-campus house, staring at her when she took the dog outside.
The documents did not tie Kohberger to the events.
Kohberger had scratch marks around the time of the killings, his friend told detectives
One of Kohberger’s friends, a WSU student whose name was redacted, told detectives that he noticed scratch marks on Kohberger’s body on two separate occasions in October and November 2022, according to one of the police reports.
The friend stated that one injury was a large scratch mark on Kohberger’s face, which the friend “described as looking like the scratches from fingernails,” according to the report. The friend added that he also saw wounds to Kohberger’s knuckles on two separate occasions.
When the friend asked Kohberger about the marks, Kohberger “replied he has been in a car accident,” the report states.
Tinder match recounts chilling conversation with Kohberger
A woman who matched with Kohberger on the dating app Tinder in the fall of 2022 made a tip to authorities in March 2024 and was later interviewed by detectives, according to one of the police reports.
The woman, whose name was redacted, told detectives that the pair discussed the murder of one of her friends and horror movies, after Kohberger told the woman that he was a criminology student at WSU, according to the report.
At one point throughout their conversation, Kohberger asked what she thought would be the worst way to die, according to the report. She said she thought it would be by a knife.
To that, “Kohberger then asked her something to the effect of ‘like a Ka Bar?'” according to the report.
Prosecutors said that Kohberger purchased a Ka-Bar knife and sheath on Amazon before the murders. The sheath was found at the crime scene, but the knife was never recovered, according to officials.
Kohberger’s Tinder match stopped talking to Kohberger “because his questions made her uncomfortable,” according to the report.
Unanswered questions remain
The police reports do not reveal if authorities were ever able to pin down a motive for the killings. Nor do they establish a clear link between Kohberger and his victims.
At the sentencing hearing, Ada County District Court Judge Steven Hippler called Kohberger a “faceless coward.” Hippler said that he shared the desire to understand why Kohberger carried out the killings, but that doing so gives Kohberger more power and control.
“There is no reason for these crimes that could approach anything resembling rationality,” he said. “In my view, the time has now come to end for Mr. Kohberger’s 15 minutes of fame.”
Authorities said at a press conference on Wednesday that they never found the weapon or the clothes Kohberger used that night.