In the early morning of November 13, 2022, 19-year-old Dylan Mortensen woke up to strange, muffled noises coming from the upstairs of her rented apartment.
She then saw a masked man in black walk past her bedroom door
Frightened, the student locked herself in her room. Around 4:30 a.m., Dylan texted Bethany Funke and ran to Bethany’s basement apartment. They locked themselves inside for the rest of the night.
By noon, when her roommates weren’t answering their phones, the two girls desperately called two nearby friends, Hunter Johnson and Emily Alandt, asking them to “check the house because we were so scared.”
“When Dylan called, I didn’t think it was anything urgent, so I walked there. When I got there, Dylan and Bethany were already out of the house. They looked terrified, just putting their hands to their mouths as if to say, ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’” Emily recalled.
The horrific scene
Hunter Johnson bravely walked up the stairs to the second-floor room. There, he found the bloodied bodies of Ethan Chapin and his girlfriend Xana Kernodle, both 20 years old. To protect the others, Hunter quickly got them out of the house and urged them to call 911 at around 11:58 a.m.
Upon arriving at the scene, police found four people dead. The other two were Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21 years old. All four victims were University of Idaho students renting apartments at 1122 King Street, off campus.
Dylan told a friend that he didn’t call 911 immediately when he saw the masked man because he was “drunk and didn’t want to believe what was happening.”
According to police, the perpetrator used “extreme force” when attacking the victims. The autopsy revealed Xana suffered over 50 stab wounds, mostly in self-defense, with fatal injuries to her lungs and heart. Kaylee’s face was unrecognizable due to severe injuries, with over 30 stab wounds.
The murder weapon was a sharp, single-edged knife. The sheath was left next to Madison’s body.
Arrest of ‘Criminology Doctor’
The massacre of four University of Idaho students shocked America, spreading panic throughout the peaceful small town of Moscow, Idaho.
Shortly after, police announced a search for a white Hyundai that had been seen driving past the house twice on the day of the murders, once earlier and again around 9 a.m. that same day.
Weeks passed without any answers, arrests, or suspects. Facebook groups erupted, with hundreds of thousands of members posting questions and theories about what had happened.
After hundreds of interrogations and thousands of leads to find a suspect, police focused on Bryan Kohberger, 28, a doctoral student in criminology at Washington State University (WSU), who lived a 15-minute drive from the scene.
In mid-December 2022, authorities tracked Bryan down as he was visiting his parents in Pennsylvania for the holidays after finishing his first semester. Bryan was arrested on December 30, 2022, and extradited to Idaho a few days later.
During his initial interrogation, when asked if he had heard anything about the murders of the four students, Bryan replied, “Of course,” because he had received a warning about the incident from WSU, a school located about 16 kilometers from the University of Idaho. But when the detective asked if he “wanted to talk about it,” Bryan replied, “Oh, I think I’ll need a lawyer.”
Obsessed with Serial Killers
To those who knew Bryan, his arrest wasn’t entirely unexpected. Before attending Washington, Bryan had taken a forensic psychology class at a university in Pennsylvania. He seemed lonely, eccentric, “intelligent but robotic” because he lacked the social skills of a normal person.
Bryan had long been known to have problems with women. Arguments with students even led to his dismissal from his teaching position just days before his arrest.
Classmates remembered Bryan as a good student, but obsessed with notorious serial killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. However, thanks to his chosen major, Bryan could comfortably delve into the lives of serial killers and their motives without arousing suspicion.
A teaching assistant working with Bryan at WSU observed injuries on his face that looked like “nail scratches” around the time of the murders. Bryan explained that he had been in a car accident.
A series of evidence overturned the ‘perfect crime’
According to prosecutors, Bryan studied criminology, even writing a detailed paper on crime scene investigation while working on his doctoral dissertation, possessing sufficient professional knowledge. However, he made several mistakes when committing the actual crime.
The investigative team traced the events of November 13, 2022. According to this timeline, at approximately 4:00 AM, Bryan entered the house at 1122 through the kitchen sliding door at the back. He went upstairs and used a knife to kill Madison and Kaylee.
Afterward, he went downstairs, encountered Xana who had just picked up a delivery order, and attacked her. Ethan, Xana’s boyfriend, who was sleeping in his room, was also killed.
Investigations revealed that Bryan’s cell phone repeatedly signaled near house number 1122. Between July 9th and November 7th, 2022, his phone connected to a cell tower in the area between 10 PM and 4 AM approximately 23 times.
On November 13th, 2022, Bryan left his apartment in Pullman, Washington, a 15-minute drive from house number 1122. His phone was switched off around 2:54 AM and only switched back on around 4:48 AM upon his return to the apartment.
Bryan’s white Hyundai was seen passing 1122 Street multiple times on surveillance video. Idaho police identified the suspicious vehicle as belonging to Bryan because he had been stopped for running a red light on August 22, 2022, and his name, phone number, and address were recorded.
On November 13, 2022, surveillance video data showed the white Hyundai arriving in Moscow around 3:02 AM. Around 3:30 AM, roadside surveillance cameras showed the car circling the neighborhood near 1122 Street. At 4:05 AM, Bryan parked the car on the street behind the house.
At 4:20 AM, surveillance data showed the car leaving the area at high speed. Bryan then drove down secluded rural roads, away from the highway with cameras, returning to his apartment at 5:30 AM.
Around 9 a.m., phone signals indicated Bryan had returned to the King Street area, stayed there for about 10 minutes, and then returned to his Pullman apartment.
Regarding the murder weapon, Bryan had purchased a Ka-Bar, a combat knife, on Amazon using a gift card in March 2022. He attempted to erase his purchase history.
Test results showed a single male DNA sample found on the knife sheath discarded next to Madison’s body, as well as in the blood of Madison and Kaylee.
Before Bryan’s arrest, authorities secretly collected waste at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania. Experts identified DNA on a cotton swab as belonging to “the father of the person whose DNA was found on the knife sheath at the crime scene.”
After Bryan was extradited to Idaho, police compared his DNA sample and found a match with the DNA on the knife sheath.
Authorities found neither the murder weapon nor any other useful evidence in Bryan’s apartment or office. When they searched the Hyundai, they found it had been so thoroughly cleaned that nothing was left, even in the crevices of the car.
According to prosecutors, Bryan was proficient in common investigative techniques and tried to cover his tracks, such as washing the car thoroughly after the crime, but this only made him more suspicious.
“He’s certainly smarter than most other murderers. But it’s not a perfect crime,” said former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani. Rahmani said the crucial mistake regarding the knife sheath shows that the murders were more difficult than Bryan anticipated, demonstrating that he faced chaos when attacking multiple people and met with fierce resistance.
Controversial Pleasure Agreement
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, but on July 2nd, Bryan agreed to a plea agreement, admitting all charges and waiving his right to appeal to avoid the death penalty. The plea agreement did not require him to explain his motives or actions during sentencing.
The victims’ families had differing opinions on the plea agreement. Madison’s father said he felt relieved, allowing the family to “really get over this.” Kaylee’s family, however, was strongly critical, believing the plea agreement would give Bryan a chance to live a “better and more fulfilling life in prison.”
In response, prosecutor Bill Thompson pointed out that the defense team had made significant efforts to dismiss the case, and that even with sufficient evidence, the trial could lead to years or decades of appeals.
On July 23, Bryan was sentenced to four life sentences without parole and ordered to pay $50,000 to each family.
When delivering the sentence, Judge Steven Hippler called Bryan a “coward,” criticizing him for showing no remorse or repentance for his crimes. He was so emotional that he had to wipe away tears with a tissue.
When asked by the judge if he had any comments after his first encounter with the victims’ families, Bryan coldly replied, “I refuse.” That was his longest statement in court since his arrest.
The question of motive for the crimes remains unanswered.
Following the sentencing, Idaho State Police stated in a press conference: “To date, we have found no connection between the defendant and any of the victims or his two surviving roommates.” He added that Bryan and the victims had not even had any social media connection.
Authorities say it remains unclear who Bryan targeted, if at all, in this attack.
Since Bryan’s arrest, numerous theories have emerged regarding his motives for targeting victims.
Madison has been a particular focus of online detectives as a potential target. Writers Vicky Ward and James Patterson have theorized in their recent book, *The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy*, that Bryan may have wanted to kill Madison to emulate Elliot Rodger.
Elliot, who identified himself as an “involuntarily single” and despised women, killed six people after being rejected by a blonde sorority member named Maddy. *The Idaho Four* suggests Bryan may have idolized the killer and hated Madison.
“He went straight to her room. And her room could be seen from the street if you parked in the cul-de-sac behind their house,” Vicky Ward wrote.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on July 21 that he hoped Judge Hippler “at least gets Bryan Kohberger to explain why he committed these horrific murders.” But Judge Hippler questioned whether Bryan could set aside his selfishness to give an honest explanation.
“Even if I could force him to speak, though legally I can’t, how can anyone be sure that what he says is true?” Judge Hippler stated.
Judge Hippler urged the media and the public to end Bryan’s “moment of fame,” arguing that continuing to focus on why he killed the four victims would give the killer the attention and power he craved.
