Silent killer jailed for Idaho student murders as unanswered questions linger

Boise, Idaho: Friends and relatives of four University of Idaho students murdered in their rental home by Bryan Kohberger delivered powerful statements of love, anguish and condemnation before he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“This world was a better place with her in it,” Scott Laramie, the stepfather of Madison Mogen, told the court. “Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddie.”

Bryan Kohberger in the Ada County Courthouse after his sentencing hearing for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in 2022.Credit: AP

The father of Kaylee Goncalves taunted Kohberger for leaving his DNA behind and getting caught despite being a graduate student in criminology at nearby Washington State University at the time.

“You were that careless, that foolish, that stupid,” Steve Goncalves said. “Master’s degree? You’re a joke.”

Judge Steven Hippler ordered Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole for four counts of first-degree murder in the brutal stabbing deaths of Mogen, Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin early on November 13, 2022. He was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and assessed $US270,000 ($409,000) in fines and civil penalties.

The defendant pleaded guilty this month, just weeks before his trial was to start, in a deal to avoid the death penalty.

No explanation

When it was his turn to speak in court, Kohberger said, “I respectfully decline,” shedding no light on his motive. Kohberger broke into the students’ rental home in Moscow, Idaho, through a sliding glass door in the early hours and stabbed four of the housemates, who appeared to have no connection to him.

“I share the desire expressed by others to understand the why,” Hippler said. “But upon reflection, it seems to me, and this is just my own opinion, that by continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr Kohberger relevance, we give him agency, and we give him power.”

The crime horrified the city, which had not seen a homicide in about five years, and prompted a massive search for the perpetrator. Some students took the rest of their classes online because they felt unsafe. Kohberger, a graduate student in criminology at nearby Washington State University, was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, roughly six weeks later.

A cotton bud from the garbage at his parents’ house and genetic genealogy were used to match Kohberger’s DNA to material recovered from a knife sheath found near Mogen’s body at the home, investigators said.

Surviving housemate Dylan Mortensen gets a hug after speaking at Kohberger’s sentencing hearing.Credit: AP

They used cellphone data to pinpoint his movements and surveillance camera footage to help locate a white Hyundai Elantra that was seen repeatedly driving past the home the night of the killings.

But investigators told reporters after Wednesday’s hearing that exhaustive efforts failed to find the murder weapon, the clothes Kohberger was wearing at the time or any connection between him and the students.

Within hours of the sentencing, the Moscow Police Department posted hundreds of documents about the investigation on its website.

They detailed how investigators processed the gruesome crime scene; ran down tips from people who claimed to have gone on a Tinder date with Kohberger or to have seen him walking along a highway; and tested soil and pollen found on a shovel in his car to see if they could narrow down where it had been used.

Madison Mogen (top), and her friends (lower left to right) Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were brutally killed in the early hours of November 13, 2022.Credit: Instagram

Dylan Mortensen, a roommate who told police of seeing a strange man with bushy eyebrows and a ski mask in the home that night, sobbed in court as she described how Kohberger, seated across the room in an orange jumpsuit, “took the light they carried into each room”.

“He is a hollow vessel, something less than human,” Mortensen said. “A body without empathy, without remorse.”

Mortensen and another surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, described crippling panic attacks and anxiety after the attack.

“I slept in my parents’ room for almost a year, and had them double lock every door, set an alarm, and still check everywhere in the room just in case someone was hiding,” Funke wrote in a statement read by a friend.

“I have not slept through a single night since this happened. I constantly wake up in panic, terrified someone is breaking in or someone is here to hurt me, or I’m about to lose someone else that I love.”

Alivea Goncalves’ voice didn’t waver as she asked Kohberger questions about the killings, including what her sister’s last words were. She drew applause after belittling Kohberger, who remained expressionless as she insulted him.

“You didn’t win, you just exposed yourself as the coward you are,” Alivea Goncalves said. “You’re a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser.”

Kohberger’s mother and sister also attended the hearing, sitting in the gallery near the defence table. His mother wept quietly at times as the other parents described their grief, including when Mogen’s grandmother said her heart went out to the other families, including Kohberger’s.

Xana Kernodle’s aunt, Kim Kernodle, said she forgave Kohberger and asked him to call her from prison, hoping he would answer her lingering questions about the killings.

“Bryan, I’m here today to tell you I have forgiven you because I no longer could live with that hate in my heart,” she said. “And for me to become a better person, I have forgiven you. And anytime you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number. I’m here. No judgment.”

Both the investigation and the case drew widespread attention, with online discussion groups proliferating as members eagerly shared their theories and questions about the case.

Some armchair sleuths pointed fingers at innocent people simply because they knew the victims or lived in the same town. Misinformation spread, piling additional distress on the already-traumatised community.

AP

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