BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Police released documents Wednesday detailing their investigation into the murders of four University of Idaho students.
Police in Moscow, Idaho released dozens of pages of documents just hours after Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the years-long case.
In one of the documents, Moscow Police Department’s lead detective, Brett Payne, described walking through the crime scene and discovering the victims, each of whom had multiple stab wounds.
Other documents describe police interviews with friends and acquaintances of the victims. Some names have been redacted from the documents.
During a sentencing hearing earlier Wednesday, one after another, the friends and family of the four University of Idaho students murdered by Bryan Kohberger vented their emotions in sobs, insults and curses before a packed courtroom Wednesday as he was sentenced to life in prison.
Ben Mogen, the father of Madison Mogen, credited her with helping to keep him alive through his fight with addiction. He called her “the only thing I’m proud of.”
Dylan Mortenson, a roommate of the victims who told police of seeing a strange man with bushy eyebrows and a ski mask in their home that night, called Kohberger “a hollow vessel, something less than human.” She shook with tears as she described how Kohberger “took the light they carried into each room.”
“Hell will be waiting,” Kristi Goncalves, the mother of Kaylee Goncalves, told the killer.
Judge Steven Hippler ordered Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole for first-degree murder in the deaths of Mogen, Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. The defendant was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and assessed $270,000 in fines and civil penalties.
Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty just weeks before his trial was to start in a deal to avoid the death penalty. Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed on the sentence.
Kohberger chooses not to explain his motive
When it was his turn to speak in court, Kohberger said, “I respectfully decline,” shedding no light on why he slipped into the rental home in Moscow, Idaho, through a sliding glass door early on Nov. 13, 2022, and brutally stabbed four of the students inside.
“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 hadn’t 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 Q-tip from the garbage at his parents’ house and genetic genealogy was used to match Kohberger’s DNA to material recovered from a knife sheath found at the home, investigators said. They used cellphone data to pinpoint his movements and surveillance camera footage to help locate a white sedan that was seen repeatedly driving past the home on the night of the killings.
But investigators told reporters after Wednesday's hearing that exhaustive efforts had failed to find the murder weapon, the clothes Kohberger was wearing at the time, or any connection between the killer and the students.
Loved ones express loss and fury
“This world was a better place with her in it,” Scott Laramie, Mogen's stepfather, said. “Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddie.”
Goncalves' father, Steve, taunted Kohberger for getting caught despite his education in forensics.
“You were that careless, that foolish, that stupid,” he said. “Master’s degree? You’re a joke.”
Kernodle's father, Jeff, recalled that his daughter hadn't been feeling well that night, and he thought about driving the 7 miles (11.3 km) to the rental home to be with her. He decided against it because he had been drinking.
Mortenson and another surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, described crippling panic attacks 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.
Alivea Goncalves's voice didn’t waver as she asked Kohberger questions, including what her sister’s last words were. She drew applause after belittling Kohberger, who remained expressionless.
“You didn’t win, you just exposed yourself as the coward you are," Alivea Goncalves said. "You’re a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser.”
Chapin’s family did not attend.
Kohberger’s mother and sister sat in the gallery near the defense table. His mother quietly wept at times as the other parents described their grief. She sobbed briefly when Mogen’s grandmother said that her heart goes 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 any time you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number. I’m here. No judgment.”
___
Johnson reported from Seattle.
Rebecca Boone And Gene Johnson, The Associated Press
