Will we ever learn a motive from Bryan Kohberger? Attorney weighs in
Bryan Kohberger, the man who murdered four University of Idaho students in 2022, will now spend the rest of his days behind bars — but what we still don’t know after all these years is why he did it. Joining Washington News Wrap to discuss the possibility of learning Kohberger’s motive is attorney Anne Bremner.
BOISE, Idaho – Graphic content warning.
Bryan Kohberger arrived in Idaho’s only maximum security prison Wednesday to begin serving his “life and death” prison sentence, as Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson put it – four consecutive life sentences with no chance for parole, plus another 10 years.
The 30-year-old aspiring criminologist turned mass murderer killed four University of Idaho students in a 4 a.m. ambush on Nov. 13, 2022. They were Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
He gave no motive or explanation for the crime at sentencing and showed no remorse, staring dully at the victims’ families as they delivered impact statements and barely moving as he sat with his wrists shackled to his waist and with chained ankles Wednesday.
But a years-long gag order has finally been lifted, and the Moscow Police Department in Idaho released hundreds of previously unseen documents to the public hours later, shedding new light on the investigation while leaving other questions still unanswered. Here are some of the major takeaways:
Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, along with the women’s two other roommates in Kaylee Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the slayings. (kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
Creepy encounter before the murders
Goncalves reported seeing an unknown man watching her while she walked her dog, Murphy, at one point weeks before the murders, according to the newly released filings. She told a roommate, who later relayed the story to detectives, that she saw a “creepy” looking man on the hill above and behind their house at 1122 King Road.
A couple of weeks later, the roommates found their front door damaged.
Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves shared photos together on social media (Instagram/@kayleegoncalves)
Kohberger appeared to spy on police the night of the murders
Kohberger searched for a police scanner website to listen to the Pullman Police Department’s radio calls in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, browser records from his phone show, according to the Moscow Police Department.
Investigators found a search in Kohberger’s Chrome history, showing he did a Google search for: “Broadcastify.com/listen/feed, Pullman police and fire dispatch live audio feed” at 12:26:49 a.m.
According to previously unsealed court documents, he either turned off or placed his phone on airplane mode for two hours beginning around 2:45 a.m. The murders took place shortly after 4 a.m.
Confessed killer Bryan Kohberger sports a death stare in new prison mugshot. (Idaho Department of Correction)
At the time of the crime, Kohberger lived and studied in Pullman, Washington, which is just across the state line from Moscow, Idaho, where the crime took place. Police departments in both towns contract their 911 dispatch systems to a company called Whitcom, according to their websites.
Firsthand accounts from responding officers reveal the brutality of the crime scene
Responding officers found Kernodle first and saw it was “obvious that an intense struggle had occurred.”
She is believed to be the only victim who was awake at the start of the massacre, and the documents reveal she suffered 50 stabbing injuries. Most of them were defensive wounds, according to the police files. She suffered fatal strikes to her lung and heart.
University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 20, who were murdered on Nov. 13 at an off-campus residence. (@xanakernodle/Instagram)
Responding officers found her boyfriend, Chapin, hanging off of Kernodle’s bed, also with extensive wounds and “arterial” blood spatter on the wall nearby.
Kohberger left Goncalves “unrecognizable” with more than 30 stab wounds, many to her face.
He also inflicted a massive face wound to Mogen, who was found leaning against her best friend’s remains. Both are believed to have been attacked in their sleep and were killed under a sheet or blanket in a third-story bedroom.
After his arrest, other inmates reported aggressive and bizarre encounters with Kohberger:
Before his conviction, the killer got on other inmates’ nerves, according to the files.
One called him a “f—ing weirdo” and boasted to a female prisoner on surveillance video that he would have beat him up if he wasn’t worried about repercussions in the county jail.
Another said Kohberger spent hours every day on a tablet video chatting with his mom.
Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse, for his sentencing hearing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool)
The unnamed inmate told investigators he was watching sports during one of those calls and said “you suck” to a player on TV.
Kohberger, who overheard the comment, allegedly “immediately got up and put his face to the bars” and “aggressively asked if [the inmate] was talking about him or his mother.”
The inmate said this was the only time he witnessed Kohberger lose his temper.
Witnesses reported strange behavior at WSU
Kohberger was studying for a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman and working as a teacher’s assistant to help cover the cost. A colleague told police he believed Kohberger “attempted to use his authority as a TA to inappropriately interact with female students,” new documents revealed.
The witness said Kohberger often talked about wanting a girlfriend and that they discussed this topic on “many occasions.”
The same witness told investigators that he noticed injuries on Kohberger’s face and hands on at least two separate occasions in October and November 2022, just weeks prior to the Idaho student homicides.
One injury was described as “a large scratch on Kohberger’s face” that “looked like the scratches from fingernails.” The witness also said he saw wounds to Kohberger’s knuckles and, when asked about them, Kohberger claimed he’d been in a car accident. While Kohberger had several encounters with local police due to traffic infractions, there’s no known record of a collision.
The TA described Kohberger as intelligent but “selfish,” and claimed he would mislead others about shared assignments and leave others to “complete work meant for Kohberger.”
He added that following the murders of the four students in Moscow that Kohberger started talking “much more than usual,” and his conversations felt like those “from someone who wanted to vent.”
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The Source: Information in this story came from documents released by authorities following Bryan Kohberger’s sentencing.
