Victim's sister rips into Idaho student killer Bryan Kohberger: 'You're as dumb as they come, stupid, clumsy, slow'
Article content
'Don't ever try to convince yourself you mattered just because someone finally said your name out loud,' said Alivea Goncalves, as she tore into Kohberger.
Article content
Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin were all stabbed to death while they slept in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022. Six weeks later, police arrested Kohberger at his family home in Pennsylvania. He was a 28-year-old Washington State University graduate student at the time.
Article content
Article content
A white Hyundai Elantra sedan, the same kind that Kohberger drove, was captured on video near the students' Moscow home. But DNA played the most crucial role in linking him to the scene.
Article content
Article content
Article content
Police were able to take a sample from a knife sheath left behind. They sent it to a lab to be analyzed and used a public ancestry database to search for matches. They discovered cousin matches and then narrowed it down, WPBF 25 reported. They relied on public records and online tools like Ancestry.com. Authorities eventually honed in on the Kohberger family.
Article content
Article content
Article content
The deal led to disappointment among some of the family members of the victims, and even got the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump. Ahead of the sentencing hearing, Trump urged the judge to make Kohberger explain his motive.
Article content
Article content
'These were vicious murders, with so many questions left unanswered. While Life Imprisonment is tough, it's certainly better than receiving the Death Penalty but, before Sentencing, I hope the Judge makes Kohberger, at a minimum, explain why he did these horrible murders,' wrote Trump on July 21 in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Article content
'There are no explanations, there is no NOTHING. People were shocked that he was able to plea bargain, but the Judge should make him explain what happened.'
Article content
At the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, when asked by the judge if he would like to make a statement, Kohberger said: 'I respectfully decline.' Instead, the families and friends of the victims addressed Kohberger.
Article content
While many were moved to tears while they spoke, only feet away from Kohberger, one woman — the sister of Goncalves — stood out and made headlines for her fearless and scathing remarks.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
41 minutes ago
- Global News
Texas governor orders arrest of ‘delinquent' Democrats who fled to block vote
Texas Republicans are moving to arrest a group of legislators who fled the state to restrict the government's ability to reconfigure electoral boundaries in a manner they say would diminish the voting power of minority groups. On Monday, Texas State Gov. Greg Abbott accused the defectors of abandoning their duties and breaking the law. 'By fleeing the state, Texas House Democrats are holding hostage critical legislation to aid flood victims and advance property tax relief. There are consequences for dereliction of duty,' he said in a press release. 'Speaker Dustin Burrows just issued a call of the Texas House and issued warrants to compel members to return to the chamber,' he continued. 'To ensure compliance, I ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans,' he continued. Story continues below advertisement In an additional statement, Abbott said he had ordered Texas Rangers to investigate the 'delinquent' House Democrats on 'potential violations of state law, including bribery.' View image in full screen Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a bill signing in the State Capitol on April 23, 2025, in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell / Getty Images 'Reports indicate that many absentee Texas House Democrats have solicited or received funds to evade conducting legislative business and casting votes,' he said. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Democrats who left Texas are beyond the reach of state law enforcement, and their absence means the 150-member legislature can not operate because, without them, it does not meet the minimum number of lawmakers required to function. Texas's Republican-controlled state House, therefore, could not hold a scheduled vote on the new district maps on Monday afternoon. The House planned to try again Tuesday, even with no expectation that Democrats would return. President Trump and Abbott want to redraw the Texas congressional map in the hopes of adding five more Republican seats in Texas in the midterm elections. If they succeed, it would increase the party's chance of maintaining its slim U.S. House majority, which currently sits at 219-212. Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas's 38 seats in the House of Representatives. Story continues below advertisement With limited power in the state House, Democrats fled the state to delay Trump's agenda, with many heading for Illinois and New York. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker welcomed a group of Democrats as they arrived in Chicago on Friday. Prizker, one of Trump's most outspoken critics, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state, The Associated Press reported. Last week, he publicly hosted a group of Texas Democrats to oppose the redistricting efforts, it added. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another outspoken Trump detractor, held a similar event in his state. Meanwhile, while hosting Texas Democrats in Albany, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned of the far-reaching implications of redrawing congressional lines, a process that happens every 10 years in the U.S. Story continues below advertisement 'I have a news flash for Republicans in Texas: This is no longer the Wild West,' Hochul said. 'We're not going to tolerate our democracy being stolen in a modern-day stagecoach heist by a bunch of law-breaking cowboys, ' she said. In an op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday, she wrote that the Republicans were attempting to execute 'an aggressive power grab designed to flip as many as five current Democratic seats. They've carved up diverse communities in Houston, Dallas, and along the border to silence the voters who live there.' A lawmaker refusing to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules, and they can be fined $500 for every day they aren't in attendance. — With files from The Associated Press
Toronto Star
41 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
What's known and not yet known about the Justice Department's scrutiny of Trump-Russia probe origins
WASHINGTON (AP) — News that Attorney General Pam Bondi is moving to criminally investigate the Obama-era origins of the Trump-Russia investigation means that one of the most studied, and politically polarizing, chapters of modern American history will be under the microscope yet again. Here's a look at what's known and not yet known about the latest Justice Department revelation:
Winnipeg Free Press
41 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
What's known and not yet known about the Justice Department's scrutiny of Trump-Russia probe origins
WASHINGTON (AP) — News that Attorney General Pam Bondi is moving to criminally investigate the Obama-era origins of the Trump-Russia investigation means that one of the most studied, and politically polarizing, chapters of modern American history will be under the microscope yet again. Here's a look at what's known and not yet known about the latest Justice Department revelation: A saga with a long backstory Perhaps no issue continues to aggravate President Donald Trump more than the assessment by intelligence officials that Russia interfered in the 2016 election on his behalf and the investigation by law enforcement into whether his campaign colluded with Moscow to tip the outcome of the contest. Robert Mueller, the former FBI director tapped as special counsel by Trump's first Justice Department to investigate, found that Russia had waged a multi-prong operation in Trump's favor and that the Republican president's campaign welcomed the aid. But Mueller did not find sufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign. As president for a second time, Trump has made no secret of his desire to use the Justice Department as a weapon of retribution against perceived political adversaries he sees as having smeared him, including by calling for Obama-era officials to be jailed. And his administration, now more broadly and across multiple agencies, has been engaged in a effort to reopen the long-accepted conclusion — including among prominent Republicans — of Russian interference and to scrutinize the officials involved in reaching that assessment. A Bondi grand jury directive Bondi, a Trump loyalist, has directed Justice Department prosecutors to present evidence related to the Russia inquiry to a grand jury. Grand juries are tools used by prosecutors to issue subpoenas for records and prosecutors and to produce indictments based on the evidence they receive. The bar is low for an indictment given that the presentation of evidence by prosecutors is one-sided, though grand juries do have the option to decline to indict and have done so in the past. A person familiar with the matter confirmed Bondi's directive to The Associated Press but key questions remain. It was not disclosed, for instance, which prosecutors are pursuing the investigation, where the grand jury that might hear evidence is located and whether and when law enforcement officials might seek to bring criminal charges. The Justice Department, in an unusual statement last month, appeared to confirm the existence of an investigation into former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director James Brennan but provided no details or specifics. Potential targets of probe remain unclear It's not clear who might be targeted in the investigation, but the Trump administration has been aggressively challenging intelligence community conclusions about Russia's actions and intentions that had long ago seemed settled. It's been a welcome diversion for the administration as it confronts a wave of criticism from Trump's base and conservative influencers over the handling of records from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation. In the last month, Trump administration officials and allies have released a series of documents aimed at casting doubt on the extent of interference and at portraying the original Russia investigation as an Obama administration frame-job. The documents have been hailed as incontrovertible proof of a conspiracy, but a close inspection of the records shows they fall well short of that. Among the documents released by Tulsi Gabbard, the administration's director of national intelligence, are emails from 2016 showing that Obama administration officials recognized in 2016 that Russians had not hacked state election systems to manipulate votes in favor of Trump. But the absence of evidence that votes were switched — something the Obama administration never alleged — has no bearing on the ample evidence of other forms of Russia interference, including a hack-and-leak operation involving Democratic emails and a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing discord and spreading disinformation. Last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a previously classified annex of a 2023 report by John Durham, the special counsel appointed by the first Trump administration to hunt for government misconduct in the Russia probe. The annex included a series of emails, including one from July 2016 that was purportedly sent by a senior staffer at a philanthropic organization founded by billionaire investor George Soros, that referred to a plan approved by then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to falsely link Trump to Russia. But Durham's own report took pain to note that investigators had not corroborated the communications as authentic and said the best assessment was that the message was 'a composites of several emails' the Russians had obtained from hacking — raising the likelihood that it was a product of Russian disinformation. Fresh scrutiny has also centered around the intelligence community assessment on Russian election interference, which was published in January 2017. An annex in a classified version of the assessment contained a summary of the so-called Steele dossier — a compilation of opposition research that included uncorroborated rumors and salacious gossip about Trump and Russia. The latest in a series of investigations Just as Russian interference has been heavily scrutinized, so too has the U.S. government's response to it. Multiple government reports, including not only from Mueller but also a Republican-led Senate intelligence committee that included current Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have documented Russia's activities in sweeping details. To be sure, reports from the Justice Department inspector general and Durham also identified significant flaws in the FBI's Russia investigation, including errors and omissions in applications the Justice Department submitted to a secretive surveillance court to eavesdrop on a national security adviser to the 2016 Trump campaign. But Durham found no criminal wrongdoing among government officials, bringing three criminal cases — two against private citizens that resulted in acquittals at trial and a third against a little-known FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty to doctoring an email. It is unclear if there is any criminal wrongdoing that exists that Durham, who launched his investigation in 2019 and concluded it four years later, somehow missed during his sprawling inquiry.
