Victim’s sister speaks out about killer
The sister of a University of Idaho murder victim has revealed how she felt confronting the killer, who she had described as “sociopath”.
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The sister of University of Idaho murder victim Kaylee Goncalves said everything in her body told her to “run” as she came face-to-face with Bryan Kohberger during his sentencing – but instead delivered a powerful, blistering take-down of her sibling’s killer.
“I’m not intimidated by him, truly, I’m not,” she said, “But when I tell you, there’s a primal sense of alarm. My body was telling me, ‘Run, get out. This is a threat,” Alivea Goncalves told NewsNation about the chilling moment she delivered her impact statement in front of Kohberger at his sentencing.
“The best description I can give you is as if I came face-to-face with an alien,” she said. “Behind [his eyes], there’s no human being, there’s no humanity.”
Still, Goncalves remained determined to decimate Kohberger, who has dominated headlines since the November 2022 murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in their off-campus Moscow, Idaho, home.
“There was nothing that was going to make me back down from the moment … and all I felt was rage, almost from the very, very beginning,” she said.
“My whole purpose of that speech was taking back this power,” she said. “It’s been focused around him, his name, his actions … but in my shoes, it pisses me off at times. They have names: Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin. Say it.”
Goncalves savaged the monster as a “sociopath” and even ordered him to “sit up straight,” in the courtroom.
“You want the truth? Here’s the one you’ll hate the most: If you hadn’t attacked them in their sleep, in the middle of the night like a pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your f – king ass,”
“Disappointments like you thrive on pain, on fear, and on the illusion of power. And I won’t feed your beast,” she told Kohberger
“Instead, I will call you what you are: Sociopath. Psychopath. Murderer,” she said, adding, “Sit up straight when I talk to you.”
Goncalves said her father’s remarks, which came before her own and “shifted” the energy of the courtroom, gave her the strength to deliver her own.
“I feel like my dad spread his wings so I could fly,” she said. “I basically said, screw it. You felt confident in this, you’ve worked hard on this, you’re going to get up there and you’re going to do this.”
“I was ready to stand on business,” she said.
At one point during her victim impact statement, Kohberger appeared to take sick pleasure in the verbal lashing — flashing a slight grin at Alivea.
Other than that brief moment, he wore a blank expression on his face through the entire proceeding despite Alivea’s powerful statement.
When it came time for the failed PhD criminology student to speak — and potentially answer the question every family member was asking: why he did it — Kohberger stayed silent.
When a judge asked him if he had any comments, Kohberger stood and said, “I respectfully decline.”
Kohberger, 30, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole or appeal at the hearing.
This story originally appeared on the New York Post and is reproduced here with permission
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