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USA Today
11-07-2025
- USA Today
'One Night in Idaho' docuseries: Why the friends first to crime scene are speaking out
On July 2, a stony Bryan Kohberger took a plea deal, admitting he entered the off-campus home of University of Idaho students on November 13, 2022 and put an abrupt end to their lives. His inexpressive demeanor was a far cry from the grinning thumbs up selfie Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said the former criminology student posed for just hours after fatally stabbing roommates Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison "Maddie" Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20 and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, who'd stayed the night. Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, who also lived at the six-bedroom home on Moscow, Idaho's King Road, survived the attack. The plea marked an abrupt end to the shocking and still unexplained murders of the four students, who are the subject of three new projects, including 'The Idaho Student Murders,' a Peacock documentary that debuted July 3; Amazon Prime's four-part docuseries "One Night in Idaho: The College Murders" that began streaming July 11; and 'The Idaho Four,' a book out July 14, by Vicky Ward and James Patterson, an executive producer on 'One Night in Idaho.' In changing his not-guilty plea for the four counts of first-degree murder, Kohberger, 30, escaped capital punishment. This conclusion satisfies some of the victims' families while enraging others. For Hunter Johnson, who appears in 'One Night in Idaho' and discovered Kernodle and Chapin on that fateful day, the admission brings little relief. Timeline: University of Idaho murder case and the arrest of Bryan Kohberger 'Even if Kohberger did get the death penalty, that's honestly not even justice enough,' Johnson, a friend of the victims, tells USA TODAY, 'because (the families) still don't get to have their daughter. They don't get to have their son.' The irreversible nature of the murders, Johnson says, means justice can never actually be served. Kohberger's sentencing is scheduled for July 23. As part of the plea deal, the prosecution seeks maximum penalty for the charges, including 10 years for the burglary charge and four consecutive life sentences. Kohberger has waived his right to appeal. 'We are appreciative,' Emily Alandt, Johnson's girlfriend and close confidant of Kernodle, adds in an interview. She's happy she and Johnson, their friends and the victims' families have been spared a trial, previously scheduled for August. 'That's important to us, and that's the good part that has come out of this.' Although they once avoided interviews out of respect for the families and their own privacy, Alandt and Johnson are speaking out for the first time in "One Night in Idaho" at the request of Ethan Chapin's mom, Stacy, Alandt says. They want their friends to be thought of as more than how they met their end. 'Xana is extremely goofy and giddy all the time,' says Alandt, who remembers Goncalves as 'selfless and always smiling,' Johnson remembers Ethan Chapin's sense of humor. 'Ethan was very quirky in the sense that he could make you laugh and very witty all the time,' Johnson says. He describes Mogen as 'super caring and outgoing. 'They all had a light about them,' Johnson says, 'and we just try to carry on that light for them now.' The docuseries provides a more complete picture of the four through their social media posts and interviews with friends and family. Mogen's mom and stepdad participated; so did the parents of Chapin, a triplet, and his siblings. 'I never let Maddie cry, like never,' Karen Laramie recalls heartbreakingly in the docuseries. 'I'm not going to let you have a moment of sadness.' Maizie Chapin shares the final text her brother sent her after attending a sorority formal together on his last night alive. Maizie says Ethan texted, ''I love you,' which was also weird because we don't say that to each other.' Law enforcement officers and the two surviving roommates could not be interviewed due to gag orders, according to filmmakers. At around 11:45 a.m. on November 13, according to the docuseries, Mortensen asked Alandt to come check out their house as she'd witnessed something strange. According to an affidavit, Mortensen heard crying and saw a man dressed in black clothes and a mask walk past her. Johnson, Alandt and Alandt's housemate Josie Lauteren arrived at the King Road house to find Mortensen and her roommate Bethany Funke outside the home. Johnson was the first to see the bodies of Kernodle and Chapin and hurried Alandt and Lauteren out of the house and told them to call 911. Kohberger, according to Thompson, the prosecutor, had entered the home through the kitchen's sliding glass door, killed Mogen and Goncalves on the third floor, and then Kernodle and Chapin on the second floor. Though Kohberger's motive and connection to his victims are still unknown, Thompson said Kohberger's cell phone pinged at a tower near the residence approximately 23 times from July 9 to November 7, 2022 between 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. People magazine reported that Kohberger followed his female victims on Instagram, but they did not reciprocate. People also reported that an investigator said Kohberger 'allegedly messaged one of the three female victims repeatedly two weeks before the slayings.' Police connected Kohberger to the crime thanks to DNA discovered on the knife sheath left near Mogen's body. 'The why was a thought for a long time,' Alandt says, 'when we didn't know who the killer was … until I saw his face on the internet and had never seen him a day in my life before or ever even heard the name.' 'He's irrelevant,' she adds, 'and his story is irrelevant, is what I think.' The couple emphasize that Mortensen and Funke have also been traumatized, and should not be viewed by internet sleuths as suspects. Some believe and have shared theories on social media that the two survivors are somehow involved with the killings. 'They are just as much victims in this as the other four were,' Johnson says. 'People who are harassing them should stop because they still get harassed to this day, even though he's pleaded guilty.' 'Delete your hateful comments,' Alandt urges. 'Leave them alone.'
New York Post
03-07-2025
- New York Post
Why Bryan Kohberger committed the Idaho college murders — and the eerie similarities to an incel mass killer
Vicky Ward has investigated the dark, intricate Bryan Kohberger case since his arrest in December 2023. She conducted over 300 interviews in Idaho, Washington State, and the Poconos in Pennsylvania, where he grew up, for her new book with James Patterson, 'The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy,' to be published by Little, Brown on July 14. Here she previews the clearest profile yet of the twisted quadruple killer and his motives: There were two words Bryan Kohberger repeated calmly and coolly in the Ada County courthouse in Boise on Tuesday. They were 'yes' – he understood what he was admitting to – and 'guilty,' of five counts, including four murders and burglary. Advertisement Tantalizingly, Kohberger offered no explanation of what had driven him to stalk a house at 1122 King Road in Moscow and murder four University of Idaho murder students: Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in their bedrooms. 14 Bryan Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty to killing four University of Idaho students in their Moscow home while they slept in November 2022. AP I report in 'The Idaho Four' that the people closest to the victims believe, for all sorts of reasons, he targeted just one, Maddie Mogen. It was her room he went straight to. And it's her room you could see from the road if you parked your car at the cul-de-sac behind the King Road house, which the police believe he did multiple times. And Kohberger's actions before the murders bear eerily striking resemblances to another rampage killer, Elliot Rodger. Advertisement Rodger inspired the incel world Kohberger was deeply immersed in by the time he got to Washington State University to do his PhD in Criminal Justice. Incels, for the uninitiated, are members of a 'movement' of frustrated men, all virgins, that sprang up on 4chan in 2014 just hours after Elliot Rodger, a privileged student at Santa Barbara City College, committed mass murder and then suicide. The idea of the movement, started in Rodger's honor, is that one day the incels will succeed in their 'Beta Revolution' and overthrow women. Advertisement When Rodger lost his only childhood male friend – and after a female friend called 'Maddy' had started ignoring him – he was triggered and began to plan the diabolical end. 14 Madison Mogen was one of the students who were killed. Instagram / @maddiemogen 14 Madison Mogen is seen above with Xana Kernodle, who was also killed of 'The Idaho Four.' maddiemogen/Instagram 14 This is known to be the last picture of Kaylee Goncalves (bottom), 21, and Madison Mogen (top) before they were brutally murdered, according to reports. Instagram / @kayleegoncalves Advertisement 14 Xana Kernodle, along with her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, were both murdered in Idaho. Xena Kernodle/Instagram He intended his final act to be so performative that it would catapult him to global fame. The last words he wrote in his journal were 'Finally, I can show the world my true worth.' Here's some of what Elliot Rodger had to say about his Maddy in 'My Twisted World,' his 137-page manifesto: 'The first real friend I made in the United States was a girl named Maddy Humphreys… Maddy would eventually come to represent everything I hate and despise; everything that is against me; and everything that I am against. 'I stalked her Facebook for a bit, and I saw that she was the exact image of everything I hated in women. She was a popular, spoiled USC girl who partied with her hot, beautiful blonde-haired clique of friends … my hatred for them all grew from each picture I saw on her profile… 14 Some believe that Kohberger's actions before the murders bear eerily striking resemblances to another rampage killer, Elliot Rodger (seen above). AP 'They represented everything that was wrong with this world … I would take great delight in torturing and flaying her and every single one of her spoiled, obnoxious, evil friends.' Is it just a coincidence that Maddie Mogen was also a beautiful blonde sorority sister? Bryan Kohberger, of course, had long exhibited many incel characteristics. His father, Michael Kohberger, recently told a former neighbor, Connie Saba, that Bryan 'wasn't the same person after the drugs.' Advertisement 14 Karen and Scott Laramie, the mother and stepfather of Madison Mogen, listen as their attorney Leander James makes a statement to members of the media outside the Ada County Courthouse on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. AP 14 Ben Mogen, father of victim Madison Mogen is outside the courtroom where Kohberger plead to killing four Idaho college students. REUTERS Both Bryan and Connie's son, Jeremy Saba, a popular, athletic kid whom the young loner Bryan hero-worshipped, had become a heroin addict. Both had gone to rehab. But Jeremy had died in March 2021 of an overdose. That was the year before Bryan moved to Washington State. And nine months before, he bought a Ka-bar knife on Amazon. Advertisement Bryan's first turn to the dark side was in his mid-teens, when he stole from Connie to pay for his heroin habit. Actually, it was worse than that. He phoned her up when Jeremy had been arrested for the first time for a DUI and drug possession. 'I'd like to go visit Jeremy in jail; when are you going?' he asked her. She told him the time and was surprised when he didn't show up. But when she got home and discovered that someone had broken into her house and stolen her iPad, she was less surprised. She knew who the culprit was. Advertisement A year or so later, he showed up, suddenly, in her kitchen to admit to stealing from her, and she understood immediately what was going on. He was in rehab. Atonement is a key part of the process. It seemed as if he had made a full recovery from addiction. But appearances can be deceptive. The interviews I did revealed that no one person had full visibility into Kohberger during his years getting bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology. His fellow students at De Sales University referred to him as The Ghost because he'd show just before class started, coffee cup in hand, and vanish immediately after, muttering about all the jobs he was working. Advertisement They knew nothing about him, other than he was intense and had a strangeness to him. His eyes looked as if they were 'bugging out,' one classmate said. He was obviously on the Autism Spectrum. Students who hung at the Seven Sirens brewing company in the nearby town of Bethlehem saw a very different side of him. He was a nuisance, especially to women. I met a recent De Sales graduate who told me Kohberger had come and sat down with him and his girlfriend, uninvited, said nothing, and then followed the girlfriend around all night. 14 Kohberger has been held in maximum security at Ada County Jail in Boise since the trial was moved to the state capital. AP 14 A makeshift memorial for the four Idaho students was set up in front of their home. Kai Eiselein It was creepy. Kohberger did this sort of thing often. The bar's owner, Jordan Seruleck, told him to leave and not come back. But Kohberger, as Connie Saba, knew firsthand, was manipulative. He took his last year of his master's remotely because of COVID-19. Via Zoom, he impressed one of the professors, Michele Bolger, who recommended him as a PhD student. When Kohberger got to Washington State University, for the first time, people got a glimpse into a mind that was full-blown misogynistic. In class, he interrupted the women students, mansplained, eye-rolled them, winking at the guys as if they must be in on his joke. 14 Blood oozes out of the side of an off-campus home where the four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death on November 30, 2022. James Keivom And in the classes he taught, there were also problems. One time, he followed a female student out the door to her car. Other women complained he was discriminating against them, grading them worse than the men. The WSU administration noticed and the school began to issue him warnings about his teaching position, which was funding his time there. It began to look fragile… Finally, one evening, when Ben Roberts, a classmate, reluctantly accepted a ride from Kohberger, the guy laid out what he really felt. Here's the latest coverage on Bryan Kohberger: He told Roberts in a conversation that went on for hours that women belonged in the kitchen and bedroom. Not the classroom. AND he told Robert, they were easy. He could walk into any social gathering and have any of them he wanted sexually. Roberts told me he just wanted this conversation to stop. Kohberger had studied Elliot Rodger long before that tirade. When he was a psychology student at De Sales University, he was part of a course about serial killers taught by leading criminologist Dr Katherine Ramsland. 14 Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty to the heinous on July 2, 2025, in Boise, Idaho. AP And, like Kohberger — who lived in Pullman in Washington State, but drove ten minutes to Moscow, Idaho, where the campus of the University of Idaho was more buzzy — Rodger also went back and forth between two college towns. As he wrote in his manifesto: 'In all the times I went out by myself to Isla Vista, none of the beautiful blonde girls showed any interest in having sex with me. 'For a while, I had been deciding on whether I would exact my retribution in Isla Vista or at Santa Barbara City College.' 14 'The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy' is written by James Patterson. When Kohberger was arrested, the police took a book from him with underlinings on page 118. 'Do you think it was Elliot Rodger's manifesto?' Steve Goncalves, Kaylee's dad, asked me the other night. Steve has read my book. Of course, I don't know for sure. But you do have to wonder. On that page, Rodger wrote of how he came to select the date of his 'day of retribution.' 14 The four University of Idaho students who were found dead in off-campus housing are Madison Mogen, 21, top left, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, bottom left, Ethan Chapin, 20, center, and Xana Kernodle, 20, right. After ruling out Halloween because of the heavy law enforcement presence, he decided it 'would have to be on a normal party weekend, so I set it for some time during November.' Elliot Rodger got what he wanted – infamy – from his horrendous acts. It's an awful irony and striking parallel – that now that he's pleaded guilty, so too has Bryan Kohberger.
Fox News
01-07-2025
- Fox News
Family of victim in Bryan Kohberger case say they were sent into 'panic mode' after plea deal
The family of Kaylee Goncalves — one of the victims of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger — said Monday they were sent "scrambling" and "jumped into panic mode" after Kohberger accepted a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. Kohberger, 30, is accused of killing Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, in a 4 a.m. home invasion attack on Nov. 13, 2022. Goncalves' 18-year-old sister, Aubrie, said she refuses to stay silent and reaffirmed her family support for the death penalty in this case. She said she was unable to attend the family's meeting with prosecutors in person to make her case. She said what the victims' families have endured since the murders is "beyond comprehension," pointing to delays and the relocation of proceedings that made it harder for loved ones to attend. She argued that the justice system has placed "heavy burdens" on people "already carrying unimaginable grief" but that they have attempted to hold on to hope. "We've believed in the process. We've had faith in the system. But at this point, it is impossible not to acknowledge the truth: the system has failed these four innocent victims and their families," Aubrie wrote on the family's Facebook page. "These are not just names or headlines. Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, and Xana Kernodle were beautiful human beings who touched countless lives," she continued. "They are not just 'The Idaho Four.' They were sons, daughters, siblings, and friends—real people with real dreams. They deserve to be remembered for who they were in life, not only for the tragedy of their deaths. But before that can truly happen, they deserve justice. Nothing less." The introduction of the plea deal weeks before the scheduled trial is "both shocking and cruel," she said, adding that the families could have had time to "process, discuss and potentially come to terms with the idea of a life sentence" if it had come sooner. "Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world," she said. "Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever. That reality stings more deeply when it feels like the system is protecting his future more than honoring the victims' pasts." She said the justice system "was created to serve and protect—not to retraumatize grieving families," adding: "time and time again, we find ourselves blindsided, unheard, and unsupported." "This last-minute plea deal feels less like an act of justice and more like an afterthought," she said. "We are not asking for vengeance. We are asking for accountability. We are asking for dignity for our loved ones. And we are asking—pleading—for a justice system that truly lives up to its name." The family said in another post that they vaguely spoke to prosecutors Friday about the possibility of a plea deal but that it was a "hard no" for them. They said the majority of the conversation was about the upcoming trial and nothing prepared them for the next steps. They said they received an email Sunday night that sent them "scrambling" and they "immediately jumped into panic mode and started making phone calls and sending emails." The family met with the prosecution again on Monday to reiterate their support for Kohberger receiving the death penalty. "Unfortunately all of our efforts did not matter," the family said. "We DID OUR BEST! We fought harder than anyone could EVER imagine." The four victims had all been stabbed multiple times with a large knife, according to prosecutors. Police recovered a Ka-Bar sheath that they allege had Kohberger's DNA on it near Mogen's body.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Idaho murder case runs into problems but suspect set for August trial
Bryan Kohberger, the suspect accused of killing four young University of Idaho students in 2022, is set to go to trial in August in a case that could see him sentenced to death. He is charged with the murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – who were together in the same house when someone broke in at night and stabbed them to death. But the case is running into problems, not least a failure by prosecutors to ascribe a motive for the killings, which terrified a region and shocked the US amid a media frenzy around the crime. Last week, Kohberger's attorneys requested a trial delay, citing in part intense publicity around the case generated in part by a recent NBC Dateline special they claim was prejudicial to their client because it contained apparent prosecution leaks in violation of a non-dissemination order. The leaks included information that the phone belonging to Kohberger connected 23 times in four months to a cellphone tower near the rented home where the four students were killed. And also that he searched the internet for information about serial killer Ted Bundy as well as for pornography with the keywords 'drugged', 'sleeping' and 'passed out'. The defense is arguing it now requires more time to prepare for trial because of the publicity around that information. Related: Judge bans use of 'psychopath' and 'sociopath' in Idaho student murder trial Further problems may arise in July with the pre-trial publication of The Idaho Four, by the crime writer James Patterson and the journalist Vicky Ward, who ran afoul of a judge in South Carolina after obtaining crime-scene photos and documents in a civil claim related to that state's notorious Alex Murdaugh double murder case. Kohberger's attorneys have said the blurb for the book 'suggests that the apparent Dateline leak was not the only violation of this court's non-dissemination order' and a delay might mitigate the 'prejudicial effects of such inflammatory pretrial publicity'. Idaho judge Steven Hippler has said he is open to appointing a special prosecutor to question people under oath to determine the origin of the leaks. But whether or not a delay is granted, a number of recent court rulings have been going against Kohberger, who has pleaded not guilty. His defense team has tried to keep considerable evidence, including a 911 call alerting police to the crime; the description of a man with 'bushy eyebrows' at the house around the time of the murders; and his Amazon shopping history, including the purchase of a knife similar to the one the alleged assailant was said to have used, out of the trial. Amazon records show that an account under Kohberger's name and email address bought a Ka-Bar knife, sheath and sharpener in March 2022, eight months before the murders, and had them shipped to his parents' home in Pennsylvania, where he was later arrested. A brown leather Ka-Bar knife sheath was found, police said, next to one victim's body and DNA on the clasp matched to Kohberger. Kohberger's defense team claims his Amazon purchase history was 'out of context, incomplete and unfairly prejudicial', but Hippler ruled it was 'highly relevant' and 'establishes significant connection between the defendant and Ka-Bar knife and sheath'. In another ruling against the defence, Hippler turned down a request to exclude the criminology student's 12-page master's essay from being presented as evidence in the trial. In it, Kohberger assessed how to handle a crime scene where a woman has been found stabbed to death. Other rulings going against the suspect involve evidence about his white Hyundai Elantra – a similar make and model of car that prosecutors say the killer drove and which was captured on security video near the home before the murders and leaving soon after. Nor has the judge allowed defense requests that the death penalty option be dropped because their client was once diagnosed with autism. Hippler instead ruled that the defense can only introduce the diagnosis if Kohberger testifies in his own defense or as a mitigating factor is he is convicted. But Hippler has also ruled that Kohberger's defense was permitted to keep a court filing 'in support of … alternate perpetrators' sealed from public view. It is not yet clear if defense claims of another perpetrator, or perpetrators, claimed to be in the documents will be permitted at trial. Absent from the prosecutors' filings to date are any attempts to ascribe a motive for Kohberger's alleged actions. Forensic psychiatrist Carole Lieberman has said she believes Kohberger's decision to study psychology and then criminology was because he was 'trying to calm the demons inside of him' and simultaneously 'trying to learn how to commit the perfect crime'. To the Guardian last week she went further, arguing that the bloody crime scene and use of a knife was evidence that Kohberger harbored rage against young women. Kohberger, she claimed, had held this rage since at least middle school, when he had a crush on a cheerleader – said to have looked like Kaylee Goncalves – only for her to reject him. 'I think that's why he stalked and killed them,' she said. Related: Man accused of murdering four Idaho students fights against death penalty According to some reports, Kohhberg followed Mogen and Goncalves on Instagram. The defence denies the claim and argues there is no motive to find because Kohberger did not commit the crime. Louis Schlesinger, a professor of psychology at John Jay College, said it should be noted that Kohberger's alleged crime was a targeted mass killing, not a serial killing, because there were two others in the home at the time, including a surviving roommate, who reported seeing an intruder with 'bushy eyebrows', and were not attacked. 'This seems to be situationally based, so you can rule out psychosis or impulsivity,' Schlesinger said, 'and it doesn't appear to be sexually motivated. It could be jealousy or a feeling of rejection or humiliation. But we really don't know the motive was.' But that doesn't mean a jury would not want prosecutors to at least imply a motive. 'Jurors want to hear a motive before they send someone to the execution chamber,' he said. 'They will want to know why he did it.'
