Friends and relatives of the four University of Idaho students murdered by Bryan Kohberger delivered emotional statements of grief, love, and condemnation at his sentencing hearing.
“This world was a better place with her in it,” said Scott Laramie, stepfather to Madison Mogen. “Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddie.”
Kaylee Goncalves’ father, Steve Goncalves, criticized Kohberger’s carelessness in leaving DNA evidence, despite studying criminology at Washington State University.
“You were that careless, that foolish, that stupid,” Steve Goncalves stated. “Master’s degree? You’re a joke.”
Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Kohberger to four life terms without parole for the first-degree murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, who were brutally stabbed on November 13, 2022. He also received a 10-year sentence for burglary.
Kohberger pleaded guilty earlier in the month to avoid the death penalty, just prior to his scheduled trial.
He broke into the students’ home through a kitchen sliding door and fatally stabbed them. No motive has been established, and Kohberger declined to speak at the hearing.
Dylan Mortenson, a roommate who witnessed a strange man with bushy eyebrows and a ski mask that night, tearfully described how Kohberger, present in the room in an orange jumpsuit, “took the light they carried into each room.”
“He is a hollow vessel, something less than human,” Mortenson said. “A body without empathy, without remorse.”
Mortenson and another surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, spoke of experiencing debilitating panic attacks and anxiety following 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’s statement, read by a friend, revealed.
“I have not slept through a single night since this happened. I constantly wake up in panic, terrified someone is breaking in or someone is here to hurt me, or I’m about to lose someone else that I love.”
Alivea Goncalves questioned Kohberger about the killings, specifically what her sister’s last words were, without faltering. Her remarks insulting Kohberger, who remained expressionless, were met with applause.
“You didn’t win, you just exposed yourself as the coward you are,” Alivea Goncalves said. “You’re a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser.”
Kohberger’s mother and sister were also in attendance during the hearing, seated in the gallery near the defense table. His mother was visibly upset, weeping at times as the victims’ parents described their grief. She briefly sobbed when Maddie Mogen’s grandmother extended her sympathy to all families, including the Kohbergers.
Kim Kernodle, Xana Kernodle’s aunt, offered Kohberger forgiveness and invited him to contact her from prison to answer her unanswered questions about the murders.
“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.”
The lack of initial suspects in the killings caused widespread fear in Moscow, Idaho. Many students from both universities chose to finish the semester online due to safety concerns.
Investigators recovered a knife sheath near Madison Mogen’s body containing male DNA on the button snap. Surveillance footage also captured a white Hyundai Elantra near the rental home around the time of the murders.
Police utilized genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a potential suspect and used mobile phone data to track his movements the night of the crime. Online records showed Kohberger’s purchase of a military-style knife and sheath similar to the one found at the scene months prior.
Kohberger was apprehended in Pennsylvania approximately six weeks after the killings.
