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2022 University of Idaho murders
Mass stabbing in Moscow, Idaho, U.S. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In the early morning of November 13, 2022, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, all University of Idaho students, were fatally stabbed in an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho. On December 30, Bryan Christopher Kohberger was arrested in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.[1] At the time of the murders Kohberger was a PhD student completing his first semester at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, located less than eight miles (13 km) west of Moscow.[2]
Moscow
Location in the United States
Moscow
Location in Idaho
Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty.[3][4] On July 2, 2025, Kohberger entered a guilty plea to all charges against him as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty.[5][6] Three weeks later, he was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 10 years for burglary.[7][8][9]
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Lives and background
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During the fall 2022 semester, five female University of Idaho students lived in a rented off-campus residence in the rural college town of Moscow, Idaho.[10][11] The town of Moscow had not had a murder since 2015.[12] The three-story house had six bedrooms, two on each floor.[13][14] Built on a hillside, the house had entrances on both the first and second floors.[15]
Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen had their bedrooms on the third floor.[15] Goncalves had recently moved out, but returned to show Mogen her new car.[16] On the night of the murders Mogen and Goncalves slept in Mogen's room.[15] The second floor had the house's kitchen and the bedrooms of Xana Kernodle and surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen. On the night of the murders, Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, was staying at the house in her room. The first floor of the house had the bedroom of another surviving roommate, Bethany Funke.[17]
Mogen and Goncalves both grew up in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and had been best friends since childhood.[18] Mogen, age 21, was a senior majoring in marketing. She was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority and had a part time job working at the Mad Greek restaurant in Moscow. Twenty-one-year-old Goncalves was a senior majoring in general studies and a member of the Alpha Phi sorority.[19] She was set to graduate the following month, finishing her studies a semester early. She had already lined up a job with an IT firm in Texas and was planning to move shortly after graduating.[20]
Kernodle, age 20, grew up in Avondale, Arizona and later lived in Post Falls, Idaho. She was a junior majoring in marketing. Like Mogen she was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority and had a part time job working at the Mad Greek restaurant in Moscow. Chapin, age 20, grew up in Mount Vernon, Washington and was a triplet close to his siblings and parents. He was a sophomore majoring in recreation, sport and tourism management.[19] Chapin was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity[21]
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Murders
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All five roommates and Chapin were in the house by 2:00 a.m on November 13, 2022.[13] Chapin and Kernodle had returned from an on-campus party at the nearby Sigma Chi fraternity, arriving home at 1:45 a.m.[13][22] Mogen and Goncalves had gone to a downtown sports bar called Corner Club and then a food truck called Grub Truck,[13][23][22][24] arriving home at 1:56 a.m.[25] Between 2:26 to 2:52 a.m., the phones of Goncalves and Mogen made several unanswered calls to the former long-time boyfriend of Goncalves, a fellow student.[13][26]
Detectives believe all four murders occurred between 4:00 and 4:25 a.m.[27] Kernodle appears to have been awake when the killer entered the house,[28] as she had just received a DoorDash food order at around 4:00 a.m, and was using the TikTok app on her phone at 4:12 a.m.[29][30] Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen, who was asleep in her bedroom on the second floor, told investigators that she was awakened by a noise on the third floor that she initially thought was Goncalves and her pet dog. She stated she later heard someone saying something to the effect of "there's someone here."[30][27] Mortensen believed this was Goncalves, although investigators believe it may have been Kernodle.[27]
Mortensen looked out her door but did not see anything. She stated she then heard what sounded like crying from Kernodle's room. She opened her door again and heard an unfamiliar male voice say, "It's okay; I'm going to help you."[30][27] Security cameras near the house picked up the sound of whimpering, a loud thud, and a dog barking numerous times starting around 4:17 a.m.[30] Mortensen opened her door a third time and saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered his mouth and nose walking towards her. The man, whom Mortensen stated she did not recognize, walked past her and exited through a sliding glass door in the kitchen.[31] Mortensen stated she stood in a "frozen shock phase" and then locked herself in her room.[30][31] She later told authorities she did not immediately call 911 after seeing a masked stranger in the house because she "was intoxicated and didn't want to believe what was going on."[32]
At approximately 4:26 a.m., Mortensen went downstairs to join the other surviving roommate, Bethany Funke. On the way, Mortensen saw Kernodle lying on the floor of her bedroom. She later told police that she believed at the time Kernodle may have been intoxicated.[33]
The two surviving roommates then locked themselves in Funke's bedroom and spent several hours attempting to contact their other housemates.[33] The following morning they still had not heard anything from the other housemates, and Mortensen called friends over for help.[34] Soon after arriving, one of the friends went to the second floor where he discovered that Chapin and Kernodle did not have a pulse. He told the others to exit the home, and Funke called 911 at 11:58, requesting aid for an "unconscious person."[35]
All four victims were pronounced dead at the home that afternoon.[22] Kernodle and Chapin were discovered in her second floor bedroom, with Kernodle lying on the floor and Chapin in bed.[36] Mogen and Goncalves were found in the single bed in Mogen's room on the third floor.[37][38] All four were stabbed to death. The victims were not gagged or restrained[39] and none had been sexually assaulted.[13][40] Goncalves had more than 20 stab wounds in addition to injuries "connected with asphyxiation and blunt force trauma."[41][42] Kernodle had more than 50 stab wounds, many of them defensive wounds.[43] Upon searching the residence, officers discovered Goncalves' dog — which she shared with her ex-boyfriend — alive and unharmed on the third floor.[44]
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Response
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On the evening of November 13, the university canceled classes for November 14;[45] it also scheduled a candlelight vigil on the UI administration building lawn on the evening of November 16, then postponed it for two weeks.[46] From the day of the killings, investigators initially said that there was no risk to the community. Three days later, however, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said: "We cannot say that there is no threat to the community."[47]
Fall break was scheduled to begin after November 18, with classes resuming on November 28.[48] Many students and Moscow residents, not trusting initial police assurances and fearing for their safety, began an early Thanksgiving holiday exodus from the area. Other residents who stayed were anxious and cautious, and some professors canceled their classes.[49][50][51] Due to weather concerns, the candlelight vigil was moved indoors to the Kibbie Dome and held on the evening of November 30.[52]
Goncalves’ and Chapin's fathers criticized the limited flow of information from police and the university to the victims' families.[53][47] TikTokers, self-proclaimed psychics, and social media users began to speculate and spread rumors and misinformation about the case on social media.[54][55][56] In response, the Moscow Police Department criticized the Internet sleuths for creating rampant online rumors and disrupting investigations, and in a December 2 news release stated: "There is speculation, without factual backing, stoking community fears and spreading false facts."[56] Moscow Police Captain Roger Lanier said, "Tracking down rumors and quelling rumors about specific information and specific events that may not have happened is a huge distraction... We are not releasing specific details as we do not want to compromise the investigation."[57] They also warned that "people harassing or threatening those potentially involved with the case could face criminal charges."[56][54]
Investigation
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The Moscow Police Department (MPD) led the investigation of the stabbings with support from the Idaho State Police (ISP) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).[58][24][59][60] Nearly 130 law enforcement personnel worked on the case.[25]
On November 19, Moscow police requested the public provide any video of the house that was recorded the night of the killings.[61] A phone tip line and email address were created through the FBI for the public to submit information to officials. As of December 5, 2,600 emailed tips, 2,700 phone calls, and 1,000 digital media submissions were reportedly submitted to the tip lines.[62][47] On December 24, investigators reported receiving over 15,000 tips regarding the case.[56]
The police initially left open the possibility of multiple perpetrators.[13] Police stated that they believed it was "a targeted attack but have not concluded if the target was the residence or its occupants."[63]
In a November 23 press conference, the Moscow police chief said that authorities received a number of tips, including one indicating that Goncalves had a stalker, but could not verify that claim or identify any such individual by the time of the press conference.[64] While this claim received much press attention at the time, it has yet to be mentioned in the case against the eventual suspect.
After receiving hundreds of tips from the public, on December 15 police announced they were searching records of approximately 22,000 fifth-generation Hyundai Elantras made between 2011 and 2013.[61] A camera in the area captured video of a white or light-colored Elantra around the time of the murders, which investigators noticed made multiple passes along the same route near the residence.[30] Another surveillance recording obtained by investigators also showed an Elantra passing the victims' home three times, beginning around 3:29 a.m.[29] At 4:04 a.m., the Elantra returned for a fourth time. At 4:20 a.m., the car was seen speeding away from the victims' neighborhood.[29]
Investigators in neighboring Pullman, Washington — a college town adjacent to Moscow — began investigating a white Elantra owned by 28-year-old PhD student and teaching assistant Bryan Christopher Kohberger, who drove it home to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania for the holidays with his father. Kohberger's Elantra was of a later year than the original police description. In Indiana, Kohberger was pulled over twice in a nearly five-mile (8 km) radius by the state police on Interstate 70 outside Greenfield for following too close (tailgating);[65][66] the FBI denied that it directed the state police to make the stops.[67] Investigators obtained cell phone data showing that Kohberger's phone stopped connecting to the network in Pullman around 2:47 a.m. on November 13 before reconnecting around 4:48 a.m. near Blaine, Idaho,[29] which is near U.S. Highway 95 south of Moscow.[68] Cell phone data also shows that his phone connected to a cell tower near the victims' residence around 9:00 a.m., approximately five hours after the killings and pinged from the cell phone tower nearest the residence at least twelve times between June 2022 and November 13.[30][69]
Investigators found DNA on a tan leather knife sheath on Mogen's bed. The DNA had no matches in the national law enforcement database CODIS, and law enforcement decided to use genealogical DNA matching to identify a suspect. On November 22 investigators gave a DNA sample to forensic genealogy company Othram. The company began building potential trees, but the closest DNA match shared only 70.7 centimorgans of DNA with the suspect, a relationship the equivalent of sharing a great-great grandparent. Othram suggested contacting one of four brothers who were potential relatives in order to narrow the pool, but the potential relatives declined. On December 10 Othram was asked to stop its work, and the FBI took over the investigation.[70]
Investigators at the FBI opted to utilize ancestral genealogical websites GEDmatch and MyHeritage, which the bureau acknowledges included DNA samples of people who had not opted into law enforcement searches. This was done contrary to a Justice Department policy that investigators only use DNA samples from databases "that provide explicit notice to their service users and the public that law enforcement may use their service sites." The FBI identified a match with 250 shared centimorgans of DNA, a much closer relative. A few days later investigators began monitoring Kohberger's parents' home.[70]
Before the arrest, investigators monitored Kohberger outside his parents' Pennsylvania home in Monroe County.[71] He was seen multiple times wearing surgical gloves and placing trash bags inside a neighbor's garbage can; the items were sent to the Idaho State Lab for testing.[71] Authorities also said Kohberger "cleaned his car, inside and outside, not missing an inch [of area]."[71] According to authorities, a search of the home where Kohberger was arrested revealed a knife, a pistol, and a black face mask,[72] as well as ID cards inside a glove in a box.[73]
Kohberger was taken into custody by Pennsylvania State Police SERT (Special Emergency Response Team) and the FBI on December 30 at his parents' home;[74] authorities found Kohberger in the kitchen dressed in a shirt and shorts, wearing examination gloves, and putting trash into separate zip-lock baggies.[75]
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Perpetrator
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Bryan Christopher Kohberger was born on November 21, 1994.[76] After graduating from Pleasant Valley High School in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, in 2013, he attended Monroe Career and Technical Institute in Bartonsville but dropped out a year later.[77] In 2015, he began work as a security officer for the Pleasant Valley School District. Kohberger later attended Northampton Community College's campus in Tannersville, where he earned an associate degree in psychology in 2018. Kohberger then attended DeSales University in Center Valley, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2020 and a master’s degree in criminal justice in 2022.[78]
In the summer of 2022, Kohberger moved to Washington to pursue a PhD at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman; its campus is less than eight miles (13 km) west of Moscow.[2][79][80][81] At the time of the killings, he was a doctoral student in criminology and had completed his first semester there just nine days before his arrest.[82][83] Kohberger had been a teaching assistant at WSU, and less than two weeks before the murders, faculty members met with him to discuss growing concerns and complaints about his behavior and conduct toward women. Kohberger was terminated from his teaching assistant role on December 19, in a decision based on his behavior and performance overall.[84][85]
Kohberger's defense team claimed that he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.[86] However, the judge stated he had never seen any odd behavior from Kohberger during the hearings he had presided over in the last several months, noting Kohberger “by all accounts is highly-functioning,” and that he would not allow a jury to hear testimony on an autism diagnosis unless Kohberger himself took the stand. Kohberger wrote online that he faced mental health challenges, suffers from tinnitus, and has a condition called visual snow syndrome.[87]
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Legal proceedings
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Arrest and charges
On December 30, 2022, Kohberger was arrested on four counts of first-degree murder and one felony count of burglary, was appointed a public defender, and was detained without bond at the Monroe County Correctional Facility in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. On his return to the county courthouse on January 3, 2023, he agreed to extradition.[88] On January 4, he was flown to Pullman, driven to the Latah County jail in Moscow, and held without bail.[89][90]
Kohberger made his first appearance in the Latah County Courthouse on January 5 and was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, for breaking into a home with the intent to commit a felony.[91] One week later on January 12, Kohberger made his second appearance for a status conference in the same room at the courthouse.[92]
On May 17, 2023, the Latah County District Court announced that Kohberger was indicted by a grand jury on five charges: four counts of first degree murder and one count of felony burglary.[93] A preliminary probable cause hearing scheduled for June 26 was canceled after the indictment.[94] In May 2023, Kohberger refused to enter a plea during his arraignment. His attorney said that Kohberger was "standing silent" on the charges. The judge entered a 'not guilty' plea for him.[95]
On June 26, 2023, the Latah County Prosecutor's office announced they were seeking the death penalty given the aggravating circumstances of the first-degree murder charges.[3] Kohberger was denied bond.[96] In January 2024, the judge granted the defense access under seal the results of the investigative genetic genealogy testing which used a "touch" sample from the knife sheath left behind at the crime scene which first led to the investigation of Kohberger.[97]
Plea deal and sentencing
On September 9, 2024, the judge granted the defense's motion for a change of venue; the trial was scheduled to take place in Boise, with Judge Steven Hippler presiding over the case.[98][99][100] Kohberger was flown south to Boise on September 15, and held at the Ada County jail.[100] Judge Hippler tentatively set the start date for jury selection as August 4, 2025, with the jury trial beginning on August 18.[101]
On June 30, 2025, it was announced that Kohberger had agreed to a deal to plead guilty to all counts against him and would be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, avoiding the death penalty. Pending approval by the judge, Kohberger would also give up his right to any future appeals, guaranteeing that he will remain in prison until he dies.[102] On July 2, Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.[103] On July 23, 2025, he was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences in prison without parole, as well as another 10 years for burglary.[7][104] He also has to pay a combined fine of $250,000 ($50,000 per count) and $20,000 combined in restitution ($5,000 per victim).[105][106]
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Aftermath
On February 24, 2023, University of Idaho president C. Scott Green announced that the house where the killings occurred was donated to the university; it was demolished 10 months later on December 28.[107][108][109]
A memorial garden for the victims on the University of Idaho campus opened in 2024 as the Vandal Healing Garden.[110] Scholarships in the name of three of the victims (Kernodle, Chapin, and Mogen) have been created.[107][108] The university awarded posthumous degrees to the four victims at its spring commencement ceremonies on May 13, 2023.[111]
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See also
- Ma Jiajue incident, similar case in China where four university roommates were killed
References
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