After two agonising years of court hearings, headlines and documentaries, Bryan Kohberger has admitted to the “wilful, unlawful, deliberate” murder of four US college students inside their Idaho home.
Sitting expressionless in an Idaho courtroom, he admitted to circling the neighbourhood in the early hours of the morning on November 13, 2022.
He admitted to entering the off-campus residence at 1122 King Road, Moscow, at 4.05am.
He admitted to killing Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21 years old, in a third-floor bedroom.
He admitted to then going downstairs and stabbing Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20 years old.
He admitted to leaving through the sliding kitchen door and driving away at speed through the back roads of Moscow, leaving two surviving roommates terrified and hiding in the home.
He admitted to going back to his apartment and taking a selfie of himself giving a thumbs up.
He will never have to explain any of it.
Happy, funny, young and loved — the four lives taken in Idaho
Before they were living together at the University of Idaho, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen were lifelong best friends.
Kaylee, the “tough and fair” 21-year-old majoring in general studies, was just a month out from graduating.
She was planning a trip to Europe. She had just bought a 2016 Range Rover. She was expecting to move to Texas after graduation.
“Kaylee was, is, and always will be our defender and protector,” her family said in a statement sent to local media.
“Kaylee was the ultimate go-getter and constantly wanted an adventure.”
Madison, a marketing major, was working at a Greek restaurant in town, she had taken on a social media campaign for the business to bring in customers.
She loved the colour pink and planned to move to Boise.
According to her family, it was an “understatement” to say she was loved by all.
“Maddie was known for her ability to make others smile and laugh with her offbeat and hilarious sense of humour,” they wrote.
Madison and Kaylee had moved in with Xana Kernodle — all three were members of the same sorority.
[ethan xana insta]At her 2020 high school graduation, she had decorated a board with flower and butterfly cutouts, along with the words: “For The Lives I Will Change”.
She planned to launch a marketing business with her sister and “best friend”, Jazzmin.
“[She] was one of the happiest, funniest people I’ve ever met,” Jazzmin Kernodle told CBS.
“She would have been my maid of honour, and I probably would have been hers.”
Ethan Chapin, a lifelong athlete and lover of country music, was majoring in recreation, sport and tourism management.
He had been friends with Xana before the pair began dating.
On that last day in November, Ethan, one of a set of triplets, spent the last day with his siblings at a dance organised by his sister’s sorority.
“They all spent their last day together, all dressed up, and had a great time,” his mother, Stacy Chapin, said in a statement.
“We’re all thankful that they spent that time together.”
A man in black seen stalking through the Moscow home
At 4am on November 13, one of two surviving roommates in the King Road home opened her bedroom door.
She had heard “strange noises and crying”. She thought she heard someone say “there’s someone here”, according to court documents.
Frozen “in shock” in the doorway, she said she watched as a man in black clothes and a ski mask walked down the hall towards the house’s sliding glass door.
She then closed the door and tried to call and text her roommates — but only one of the five others in the house answered.
“No-one is answering,” she wrote, in text messages released in court documents.
“I’m freaking out rn … Like he had soemtbinf [sic] over [his] head and little nd [sic] mouth.
“I’m not kidding o [sic] am so freaked out … My phone is going to die [expletive].”
The other girl, from the ground floor bedroom, urged her: “Come to my room”.
“Run … down here … it’s better than being alone”.
The two girls locked themselves in the bedroom and continued to try and contact Kaylee, Madison and Xana over the following hours.
Finally, at 11.50am, they called friends for help, and found Xana Kernodle on the floor.
“And I just started bawling because I thought she had just like, I don’t even know,” she told police.
“I thought maybe she was still just drunk and all asleep on the floor.”
Kernodle and Chapin were found in a second-floor bedroom. The bodies of Goncalves and Mogen were discovered in a bedroom on the third floor.
All four had been stabbed multiple times. The Latah County Coroner reported they had likely been asleep when attacked.
It would be another month before police arrested their suspect — 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger.
What we know about the criminology student turned killer
Bryan Kohberger had moved to Pullman, Washington, from Pennsylvania, pursuing a PhD in criminology at Washington State University.
Posts in an online forum allegedly written by Kohberger described him feeling emotionless and detached from other people.
“As I hug my family, I look into their faces, I see nothing,” he wrote in forum posts seen by the New York Times, then aged 16.
Less than two weeks before the killings, he had been called in to discuss troubling behaviour with members of the university faculty.
Female students had reported he made them uncomfortable, including one who told a professor he had followed her to her car, according to the New York Times.
Documents described “altercations” with the professor he was assisting in the weeks before and after the killings.
The university did not find him guilty of any wrongdoing, but he was ultimately removed from his teaching assistant position that December.
A police affidavit revealed he had applied for an internship with a police department, but it was not confirmed whether his application was successful.
Police said they linked DNA taken from a knife sheath found in Madison Mogen’s bedroom to a Q-tip taken from the Kohberger’s garbage in Pennsylvania.
A car matching the description of his white Hyundai Elantra was seen driving in the area around the house and speeding away from the scene.
His phone had been either turned off or switched to airplane mode at 2.47am on November 13, according to court documents.
It would not connect to the network again until 4.48am.
After 900 days, the prosecution strikes a controversial 'deal with the devil'
Kohberger’s trial was set to begin next month.
According to prosecutors, he had made multiple visits to the neighbourhood where the murders occurred.
He had also, they said, planned to cover up the crime — including disposing of the knife, which has never been found.
[statement] No link has been established between Kohberger and any of the four victims.
Late last week, the prosecution announced Kohberger had agreed to plead guilty in order to avoid the death penalty.
The move would mean avoiding a lengthy and potentially traumatic trial process.
Kohberger also waived his right to appeal, and agreed to spent the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
More than 900 days after the killings, the courtroom was silent as families of Kaylee, Madison, Xana and Ethan entered.
The four families had been split on the deal.
For the family of Kaylee Goncalves — who have been outspoken to media throughout the investigation — it meant the state was giving up on answers.
“This plea did not represent the victims’ families,” the Goncalves family said in a statement.
“It represented an easy way out and no answers.
“Today was the day, the day for answers, the day to find out what happened, to find out really anything about what the defendant did that night and why he took the lives of four beautiful people.”
Kaylee’s father, Steve Goncalves, said outside court the prosecution had made a “deal with the devil”.
“This is the opposite of our will,” Mr Goncalves told NewsNation, adding the families had not been consulted about the deal beforehand.
“[Prosecutors] decided to play God and decide what this man’s decision should be, and not a jury, not his peers.”
But for others the deal represents the “best possible outcome”.
The Mogen family said via their attorney they were accepting of the agreement “100 per cent”.
“We now embark on a new path,” their attorney Leander James said.
“We turn from tragedy and mourning, we turn from the darkness and uncertainty of the legal process to the light of the future.
“We have closure. We embark on a path of hope and healing. We invite all of those who have mourned with us to join us, and we wish you well.”
At times emotional, the judge and prosecution both detailed the facts of the case and the names of all four victims.
Kohberger’s parents sat behind him in the courtroom in tears.
Bryan Kohberger showed no emotion.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 23. Both he and the victims’ families will be allowed to address the court at that time.
