University of Idaho Murders

Author: Jewls Krueger

In the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, four University of Idaho students were fatally stabbed inside their off-campus rental home on King Road in Moscow, Idaho. The victims were Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20. The killings went unsolved for weeks and drew national attention, along with a wave of online speculation, before investigators identified a criminology graduate student from a neighboring university as the suspect.

The case became one of the most closely followed American crime stories of the decade. It ended not with the lengthy trial many expected, but with a guilty plea in 2025 that spared Bryan Kohberger the death penalty and left his motive unexplained.

The Idaho Four

Madison Mogen, 21, was a senior from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. She was close friends with Kaylee Goncalves, and the two were together in Mogen's top-floor bedroom on the night of the killings.

Kaylee Goncalves, 21, was a senior from Rathdrum, Idaho, a short drive from Coeur d'Alene. She and Mogen had planned to graduate the following spring.

Xana Kernodle, 20, was a junior from Post Falls, Idaho. She was still awake in the early morning hours after receiving a food delivery.

Ethan Chapin, 20, was a freshman from Mount Vernon, Washington, and a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He was Kernodle's boyfriend and was staying over on the night he was killed.

The Murderer - Bryan Kohberger

Bryan Christopher Kohberger was 28 years old at the time of the murders. He was a PhD student in the criminal justice and criminology department at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, the neighboring town just across the state line from Moscow. He had no known association with any of the four victims.

Kohberger had recently completed his first semester at Washington State. In mid-December 2022, he drove across the country to his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, for the winter break, where he would later be arrested.

The University of Idaho Murders

Sometime around 4 a.m. on November 13, an intruder entered the home through a sliding kitchen door at the back of the house. He went to the third floor, where Mogen and Goncalves were together, and killed them. He left behind a Ka-Bar brand knife sheath next to Mogen's body, a piece of evidence that would prove central to the case.

Moving back down through the house, the intruder encountered Kernodle, who was still awake after receiving a DoorDash order, and killed her. He also killed Chapin, who was in Kernodle's room. Two other roommates who were home that night were not harmed.

One surviving roommate, Dylan Mortensen, later told investigators that she was awakened around 4 a.m. and saw a man dressed in black and wearing a mask moving through the home. She said she stood in shock as he walked toward her, then retreated into her room. The bodies were not discovered until later that morning, and police were called shortly before noon.

The Investigation

The case prompted a massive, multi-agency investigation involving the Moscow Police Department, the Idaho State Police, and the FBI. For weeks there was no named suspect, and fear spread through the community as rumors circulated online.

Investigators reviewed surveillance footage from around the neighborhood and identified a white Hyundai Elantra that passed the home multiple times in the period around the killings. They also recovered single-source male DNA from the snap of the knife sheath left at the scene. Because Kohberger's DNA was not in CODIS, the FBI's national database, investigators turned to investigative genetic genealogy to develop a lead.

Before making an arrest, authorities conducted a trash pull at the Kohberger family home in Pennsylvania in late December 2022. DNA recovered from the trash was identified as belonging to the father of the person whose DNA was on the knife sheath. Cell phone records also placed Kohberger's phone in the vicinity of the King Road home on multiple occasions in the months before the killings, and showed it going offline during the window of the murders. On December 19, the FBI sent Kohberger's name to Moscow police.

Kohberger's Arrest, Guilty Plea, and Sentencing

Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, on December 30, 2022. After his arrest, a DNA sample taken from him matched the DNA on the knife sheath. He was extradited to Idaho and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. Prosecutors initially announced they would seek the death penalty.

On July 2, 2025, weeks before his scheduled trial, Kohberger entered a surprise guilty plea to all charges in exchange for a sentence of life in prison. He later signed a document the court labeled a "Written Factual Basis," admitting the killings were willful and premeditated, though it offered no explanation of why he did it. On July 23, 2025, he was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 10 years for the burglary charge. At his sentencing, Kohberger declined to speak.

Recent Developments

Hours after the sentencing, the Moscow Police Department released hundreds of pages of investigative records and posted them to a public web page. The documents revealed the scale of the tip-driven investigation and some previously unreported details, including a report that one of the victims had told friends she had a stalker and had seen a shadowy figure while walking her dog in the weeks before the killings. Other records described injuries a co-worker said Kohberger had around the time of the murders, which he attributed to a car accident.

Even with the case closed, investigators said Kohberger had no social media connection to the victims, the murder weapon has never been recovered, and no motive has been publicly established. The presiding judge indicated that additional records could be released in the future.

The case has been the subject of several documentaries. Amazon Prime Video released "One Night in Idaho: The College Murders," and Peacock released "The Idaho Student Murders." On July 29, 2026, Netflix released "The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare," directed by Skye Borgman and executive produced by Joe Berlinger, which the streamer describes as a definitive account made with cooperation from victims' families and access to previously unseen police footage.

The Idaho Four House Today

The owner of the King Road rental donated the property to the University of Idaho in February 2023. After months of debate, the university demolished the home on December 28, 2023, during winter break, and the structure was torn down in about 90 minutes. The decision was controversial. The Goncalves family in particular objected, arguing the house still held evidentiary value for a future jury. Before the demolition, the FBI documented the home's interior in detail to create visual and audio exhibits for a potential trial. The lot was returned to green space.

The former site sits in a residential neighborhood just east of the University of Idaho campus. The property and the homes around it are private. Visitors are asked to stay on public roads and sidewalks, to avoid contacting or disturbing the current residents and neighbors, and to remember that this remains a living neighborhood and a place of grief for many.

The Vandal Healing Garden

To honor the victims, the University of Idaho opened the Vandal Healing Garden and Memorial on its Moscow campus. The garden was dedicated on August 21, 2024, and was designed and built by students in the College of Art and Architecture. It sits on MacLean Field near the south end of campus and includes a memorial sculpture inscribed with the names of Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle, and Chapin. The garden also honors all University of Idaho students who have died while enrolled, and it is open to the public.

The victims' families have created foundations in their memory. The Chapin family founded Ethan's Smile Foundation, which awards scholarships to students in the Northwest. The Made With Kindness Foundation, in memory of Mogen, Goncalves, and Kernodle, supports programs and scholarships focused on student safety.