Naman Shrestha
Four innocent University of Idaho students, Xana Kernodle, Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, and Ethan Chapin, fell victim to the horrific killings committed by a Washington State University student named Bryan Kohberger in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. The tragedy sent shockwaves across the entire community, with their friends and surviving roommates devastated by the loss. Netflix’s ‘The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare’ is a three-part documentary series that provides a detailed account of the crime and the investigation that followed, with the help of bodycam footage and interviews with loved ones and officials who helped solve the case.
Bryan Kohberger Killed Four College Students in Moscow, Idaho
Born on November 21, 1994, to Maryann and Michael Kohberger, Bryan Christopher Kohberger grew up in the Pocono Mountains of eastern Pennsylvania, alongside his sisters, Melissa and Amanda Kohberger. He attended Pleasant Valley High School in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, and then went to Monroe Career and Technical Institute in Bartonsville. However, he dropped out after a year and began working as a security officer for the Pleasant Valley School District. According to his friends, Bryan battled a heroin addiction and spent time in a rehabilitation center between 2013 and 2014. It is reported that he had also been arrested for stealing his sister’s phone to sell it for drugs. After cleaning up his act, he focused on his education.
In 2018, he graduated with an associate degree in psychology from Northampton Community College Pocono Campus in Tannersville. For his bachelor’s degree in psychology, Bryan attended DeSales University in Center Valley, and in 2022, he earned a master’s degree in Criminal Justice. That same summer, he began pursuing a PhD in Criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. He also served as a teaching assistant at the university. Around late October 2022, he reportedly came under scrutiny on campus as multiple women complained about his conduct and disrespectful behavior towards them. In the early hours of November 13, 2022, driving his white Hyundai Elantra and armed with a KA-BAR knife and sheath, which he had purchased from Amazon in March 2022, Bryan circled the area of King Road in Moscow, Idaho.
As per investigative reports, he broke into the house at 1122 King Road through the kitchen sliding door and stabbed two college students, Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, to death on the third floor. Before fleeing the scene, Bryan also fatally stabbed Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, on the main floor of the apartment. The other two roommates, Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen, survived and told the police that they saw a man in a ski mask walking around the house. As the detectives combed the crime scene, they found the knife sheath, which contained a single source of male DNA. They developed a profile and sent it to the Othram labs in Texas for genetic genealogy. The CCTV footage from a neighboring home captured Bryan’s car entering and leaving the area around the time of the stabbings.
Bryan Kohberger Was Tied to the Quadruple Homicide Through DNA Evidence
On December 15, 2022, Bryan Kohberger was driving to his parents’ house in Pennsylvania with his father when he was pulled over by the authorities in Indiana for following vehicles too closely. So, on December 19, 2022, when the FBI linked Bryan to the quadruple homicide in Idaho through cell phone records, they knew where to find him. That same day, his teaching assistantship was terminated by Washington State University due to his behavior toward women on campus. In the days that followed, the authorities surveilled him, hoping to collect a DNA sample from him. Since he hardly left the house, they collected his home trash on December 27 and sent it to the Idaho State Police for processing.
After finding a Q-tip in the trash, they tested it and learned that the DNA present on it belonged to the father of the person whose DNA was found on the knife sheath. Thus, on December 30, Bryan was finally arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one felony count of burglary in connection with the killings of four University of Idaho students, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. During his interrogation, he denied having anything to do with it and claimed that he was out stargazing alone at the time of the crime. A few days later, he was extradited to the Latah County jail in Moscow, where he was held without bail.
Bryan Kohberger Has Recently Challenged His Conviction
A few months later, on May 17, 2023, Bryan Kohberger was officially indicted by a grand jury on the five charges — four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. Initially, he refused to enter a plea, but later, on July 2, 2025, just a few weeks before his trial, he pleaded guilty to all the charges against him to avoid the death penalty. During the hearing, the defense alleged that Bryan’s autism spectrum disorder led to his “flat affect.” On July 23, 2025, his sentencing hearing took place. Although he refused to speak, Kaylee Goncalves’ sister, Alivea Goncalves, took the stand and addressed the killer.
She stated, “My sister Kaylee and her best friend Maddie were not yours to take. They were not yours to study, to stalk or to silence. They’re everything you could never be: loved, accepted, vibrant, accomplished, brave, and powerful. They would’ve been kind to you. If you had approached them in their everyday lives, they would’ve given you directions, thanked you for the compliment. … In a world that rejected you, they would’ve shown mercy.” The sister added, “You aren’t special or deep, not mysterious or exceptional. Don’t ever get it twisted again. No one is scared of you today. No one is intimidated by you, no one is impressed by you, no one thinks you are important.” In the end, he was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole, in addition to 10 additional years for the burglary conviction.
On top of that, the killer was also ordered to pay $250,000 and $20,000 in restitution. The following year, on July 27, 2026, Bryan filed a petition not only to withdraw his guilty plea but also to challenge his conviction. In his statement, he wrote, “My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, must be withdrawn.” He added that he was “convinced to falsely confess to capital murder and felony burglary by coercion, disinformation, false promises, and the withholding of exculpatory discovery.” As of today, the 31-year-old killer is serving his sentence at Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Ada County, Idaho.
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