Bryan Kohberger

The backstory

Kohberger stands convicted of the four murders and the burglary by his own guilty plea, which a court accepted on July 2, 2025.² No trial was held, so no jury heard the evidence; the account below comes from the charging documents, the probable cause affidavit as reported, and the prosecutor’s statement of the facts at the plea hearing, attributed to each.¹²³¹⁴ Kohberger now disputes his guilt in a pending petition; that claim is set out below and has not been decided.⁷

The killings

The criminal complaint charges that on or about Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger entered the residence at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, with the intent to commit murder, and that he killed Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin by stabbing them.¹ All four were University of Idaho students; Mogen and Goncalves were 21, and Kernodle and Chapin were 20.¹⁷ The killings took place shortly after 4 a.m.²⁰

At the plea hearing, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson told the court that Kohberger entered through a sliding door on the second floor and went directly to the third floor, where Mogen and Goncalves were in bed, and killed them first.¹⁵ Goncalves had moved out and was visiting for the weekend, according to Thompson.¹⁵ Thompson said Kernodle, who was awake and had taken a food delivery shortly before, encountered Kohberger as he was coming down the stairs or leaving, and that he stabbed her and then killed Chapin in her bedroom.¹⁵¹⁴ Thompson said each victim suffered multiple wounds and that there was no evidence of sexual assault.¹⁵

Two roommates in the house survived. According to Thompson, one of them saw Kohberger leave through the second-floor sliding door; she then went to the other surviving roommate’s bedroom, where the two stayed the night without knowing what had happened.¹⁵ The probable cause affidavit, as reported, says she described a figure in black clothing and a mask, at least 5 feet 10 inches tall, athletically built, with bushy eyebrows.²³ A 911 call from a roommate’s phone at 11:58 a.m. that day reported an unconscious person; responding officers found the four victims.²⁰

The investigation

The account of the investigation comes from the probable cause affidavit, as reported, and from Thompson’s description at the plea hearing; it was never tested at trial.

• The knife sheath. According to the affidavit, a tan leather sheath stamped “Ka-Bar” and “USMC” was found on the bed next to Mogen, and the Idaho State Police lab found a single source of male DNA on its button snap.²³ Thompson said the blood of both victims in that room was also on the sheath.¹⁴ The FBI used investigative genetic genealogy on that DNA, which pointed investigators to Kohberger.¹⁹ According to the affidavit and Thompson, investigators then collected trash put out at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, and DNA on an item in it was identified as coming from the father of the person whose DNA was on the sheath.²³¹⁴ The knife itself was never recovered.¹⁶ Prosecutors said Kohberger had bought the same type of knife and sheath on Amazon.¹⁶¹⁷
• The car. According to the affidavit, video showed a white sedan in the neighborhood between 3:29 a.m. and 4:20 a.m., which police identified as a 2014 to 2016 Hyundai Elantra; a white 2015 Elantra was registered to Kohberger in Pullman, Wash.²³ Thompson said the car, when seized, “had been essentially disassembled inside” and “meticulously cleaned.”¹⁴
• The phone. The affidavit says cell records did not place his phone near the house between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. that morning, but did place it near the house on at least 12 occasions between June and Nov. 13, 2022, mostly late at night or early in the morning.²³

Kohberger’s lawyers moved to suppress the evidence, arguing that the genetic genealogy search was unconstitutional; Judge Steven Hippler denied the motions on Feb. 19, 2025.¹⁹

Motive

The record establishes no motive. Thompson told the court, “We do not have evidence that the defendant had direct contact with 1122 or with residents in 1122.”¹⁴ He said the state “will not represent that he intended to commit all of the murders that he did that night,” while maintaining that each killing was intentional and premeditated.¹⁵ At sentencing, Kohberger said only, “I respectfully decline,” when given the chance to speak.¹³

Charges and the plea

Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania on Dec. 30, 2022, and brought to Idaho on Jan. 4, 2023.²⁰²⁴ A grand jury indicted him in May 2023; at his arraignment on May 22, 2023, he stood silent and the court entered pleas of not guilty.²¹²²⁰ In June 2023 prosecutors filed notice that they would seek the death penalty.²¹ The case was moved from Latah County to Ada County on Sept. 12, 2024, after the defense argued that publicity had tainted the jury pool.²⁰ In April 2025 Hippler ruled that the death penalty remained available despite the defense’s argument based on an autism diagnosis, writing that the diagnosis “may be mitigating factor to be weighed against the aggravating factors” but “is not (a) death-penalty disqualifier.”¹⁸

On July 2, 2025, weeks before his trial was set to begin in August, Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.²¹⁷ Under the agreement, the death penalty was taken off the table, Kohberger agreed to four consecutive life sentences plus 10 years, and he waived his right to appeal.¹⁶¹⁷ Asked whether he was pleading guilty because he was guilty, he answered “Yes,” and he said “Yes” when asked whether he had murdered each of the four victims.¹⁶ He said no one had coerced him.¹⁶⁹

The sentence

On July 23, 2025, Hippler sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole on each murder count and 10 years fixed for burglary, all to run consecutively.²¹³ Thompson asked for consecutive terms to respect each victim’s “unique individuality.”¹³ Hippler said Kohberger had “senselessly slaughtered” the four students and that the crimes had caused “immeasurable pain and loss.”¹³ Kohberger’s new lawyers say Hippler also called him a “faceless coward” and the “worst of the worst.”⁴⁶

Relatives of Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen spoke at sentencing, according to the AP’s account, as did both surviving roommates, one through a friend who read her statement.¹³ Kernodle’s mother spoke of forgiveness through her faith, and her aunt said she had forgiven him; Goncalves’s father told Kohberger, “Today we are here to finish what you started”; Mogen’s father said his daughter was “the only great thing that I ever really did.”¹³ One surviving roommate described ongoing panic attacks, and the other’s statement said, “The fear never really leaves.”¹³ No statement from Chapin’s family at sentencing was found in the sources reviewed.

After the sentence

After sentencing, the Moscow Police Department and the Idaho State Police released investigative records, including interviews with the surviving roommates; a court temporarily barred release of some images of a victim’s bedroom.¹²¹¹

In late July 2026 Kohberger filed a handwritten petition for post-conviction relief asking to withdraw his plea.⁸ He says he was “convinced to falsely confess,” that his lawyers told him a false guilty plea was legally acceptable, that they did not disclose or review exculpatory evidence, and that he received a “gross misrepresentation” of what life in prison and on death row in Idaho would be like.⁷⁸ He also says he felt forced to plead after Hippler denied his trial lawyers more time for discovery and mitigation.⁴ In August 2026 the state asked Hippler to dismiss the petition without a hearing, arguing that a “freestanding claim of actual innocence” is not recognized and that defense counsel had no duty to explain prison conditions.⁹ His new lawyers have moved to disqualify Hippler, which the state opposed on Oct. 7, 2026.⁵ A hearing on that motion set for Oct. 15 was vacated without a new date, and Local News 8 reported that the June 2027 status conference and evidentiary hearing had also been called off.⁵⁴

Personal backstory

Early life and schooling

Kohberger grew up in the Poconos region of eastern Pennsylvania and attended Pleasant Valley High School.²⁴ He earned a degree from Northampton Community College in 2018 and then bachelor’s and master’s degrees from DeSales University, where he studied criminal justice, WFMZ reported.²⁴ He was 28 when he was arrested.²⁰

Washington State University

In 2022 he was a Ph.D. student in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, a few miles from the University of Idaho.²⁴¹⁷ A university spokesperson said he held a teaching assistant appointment in the fall 2022 semester, and that by February 2023 he no longer had one and was no longer enrolled; the university declined, citing federal privacy law, to say when the appointment ended.²² Thompson told the court that Kohberger “has studied crime” and had written a paper on processing crime scenes.¹⁴

Mental health

In 2025 his lawyers told the court he had recently been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder; prosecutors described the diagnosis as mild autism without intellectual impairment.¹⁸ Hippler treated the diagnosis as possible mitigation, not as a bar to the death penalty.¹⁸ No other diagnosis has been testified to or found by a court in the sources reviewed.

Family

Kohberger’s family, through a lawyer, asked for privacy at the time of his plea and said they would not comment on the case.¹⁶ In September 2026 the family said in a statement that it fully supports his effort to seek post-conviction relief and wants to see “the complete and unvarnished truth” told.⁷

In custody

He was moved to state prison after sentencing and is held by the Idaho Department of Correction.¹²¹⁰ In February 2026 the department said it “is not considering a move for Bryan Kohberger,” in response to a report that he might be transferred out of state.¹⁰