Four Idaho University Students Dead

Murders exemplify why graduating seniors need to be careful at college.

Krystal Tschida, Staff Writer

 If you haven’t been keeping up with whats been happening the past few months there has been a increase on murders going on lately in the United States leaving citizens, families, and schools in disbelief and in a tragic and shock of loosing there loved ones and leaving the mystery behind the truth and not knowing what to believe. Specifically in the college town of the University of Idaho where 4 students were found dead in their home brutally murdered. The sister of the one of 4 Idaho students who had passed had spoke out about the tragedy.  Kaylee Goncalves’s sister speaks out and says,  “We had no idea. She had no idea. I had no idea that true evil was genuinely watching them.”

Alivea Goncalves, 26, sister of victim Kaylee Goncalves, 21, said in an interview with NewsNation, “Reading through the probable cause affidavit, which notes that Kohberger’s cell phone was in the vicinity of the crime scene “on at least twelve occasions” prior to the date of the murder, has been “the hardest part of this — to sit back and look at the totality of it,” Goncalves said.”When my sister was FaceTiming me about a new egg bites recipe, [Kohberger] was planning his next visit to the home,” she said. “That’s really difficult, it’s really difficult, not to wish that you had done more and wish that you had known more. Goncalves said it was also disturbing to learn from the affidavit that Kohberger, a doctoral student in criminology, allegedly “went back to the home the morning of [the murders], before police had been called, I think to see if his circus, so to say, had started to unfold.

A photo posted by Kaylee Goncalves a few days before their deaths shows University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves.

The families of the victims have been left speechless and they have all tried to stay optimistic even with the conditions. Bryan Kohberger, the 28-year-old graduate student, was arrested and charged with the murder of the four University of Idaho students. He had researched the mind-sets of criminals, studied under a professor in Pennsylvania, and was pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University.

Bryan Christopher Kohberger was taken into custody in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 30, 2022, in connection with the November murders of four University of Idaho students.

“Kohberger made his first court appearance in Idaho on Jan. 5 and faces four charges of first-degree murder, which carry sentences including life in prison or the death penalty. Kohberger was ordered held without bail, and his next pretrial hearing was set for Jan. 12. Kaylee Goncalves’ parents, Kristi and Steve, were in court last week. It’s unclear if Alivea was there, but she told NewsNation she plans to be at “every single” hearing throughout the case.

Authorities have not yet provided a motive for the killings of Goncalves, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, but the affidavit suggested that Kohberger had been near the home where the victims were stabbed to death before.

The Goncalves family lawyer said that the affidavit — which also explained how police linked Kohberger to DNA on a tan leather knife sheath found on a bed near two of the victims — outlined “a lot of hard evidence.” She’s a victim in the case,” Gray said of the roommate who had a run-in with the man. “So I think everyone needs to treat her as a victim.”

Although this case has been closed the families of the victims will never find full closure. “There’s relief, in feeling like maybe it’s not so scary to live here anymore,” said Ms. Blomgren, 21. But while an arrest in the case has brought a sense of relief for many of her fellow students, she said she has struggled to find any peace. “For me, it doesn’t erase what happened.”