Idaho Murders A-Z

August 4, 2025

In this episode, Payton and Garrett delve into the chilling case that shook the quiet town of Moscow, Idaho, the brutal murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband.

I'm Payton Moreland.

And I'm Garrett Moreland.

And he's the husband.

And I'm the husband.

I have the most super exciting, fun news for you. When Garrett told me that he was designing Murder with My Husband hats, I was like, "Well, I want to design something, too. That would be fun." So, I began working on a Murder with My Husband coloring book. And if you know me at all, you know that I love coloring. I'm a little connoisseur. I'm not actually very artistic, but I do enjoy coloring.

And so I've been working on this book. It's basically a journey with Garrett, Daisy, and me trying to solve a mystery. That's kind of like the story of the coloring book. I made it kind of bold so it's easy to color. It's not front and back, so you can use markers on the other side if you want. You could get it for your kids, you can get it for yourself. Honestly, it's just super cute. Daisy is so cute as a little detective with her little spyglass. It's adorable.

But yeah, so those are available now. If you want to go check it out, there will be links everywhere. You can check it out.

It's really cute. Payton did a good job. You guys should go check it out. It comes with colored pencils.

It does come with some colored pencils. You can use markers as well. She made it one-sided so that you can put something behind it so nothing will bleed through. It's really cute. Go check it out. There’ll be links everywhere.

Yeah, I'm proud of her. Honestly, it's kind of just silly and little, but it's so cute and fun. I had fun doing it. It's really cute.

If you're listening and you're thinking about turning the episode off right now, you are not going to want to, because we have something that has been highly requested the last year, I would say. You're not going to want to miss this.

But first, I guess I have my 10 seconds. I can't remember... Did I say—oh no, I don't think I've said this yet.

I Nair-ed my upper body the other day, and I've never used Nair on my upper body. I've done it once before on my legs. I grow a lot of hair on my legs. And you guys might think, "Oh my gosh, do you?" No. Like, I look like a bear. Do I not?

Yep.

Like, I grow some crazy hair on my legs. So, like, two times a year I'll Nair my legs. Start fresh.

First time I decided to Nair my body, I didn't know that I couldn't put it on my boobs. Nipples. Can I say nipples?

Yes.

All right. I didn't know that I couldn't put Nair on my nipples. I burnt— I burnt my freaking nipples. Hurt. I had to go play pickleball the next day and I had to put Band-Aids on my nipples.

And anyways, if you are listening to this or watching this, do not put Nair on your nipples. It's not worth it. And it's ineffective.

But it does work on your chest.

But it did work on my chest. I was fine. Like, it didn't burn any other part of my body. Just something new I learned. Just in case anyone else was curious—I did it for you. So don't do it. That's my 10 seconds. Nothing too crazy.

I think based off of that, we're ready to hop into this case. Everyone should know or have heard some information about this.

I just know what I've seen on social media. So this will be a good—uh, I guess summary. Somewhat detailed summary of everything from A to B.

A to Z.

A to Z. But I meant—I meant A to Z. From A to Z.

All right, I'll hand it over to Payton. Y’all, Garrett’s not scripted. If you know, he just—he just—he comes out here.

I just be talking, man.

He just talks.

Okay.

And he does a really good job.

I'm just a talker. I would say that I'm pretty decent at talking. Put me in front of, like, a million people, I'll talk. Honestly, doesn’t bother me.

Uh, there was—I think during our live shows, there was a moment where Garrett would talk and then I would have to react. His job is not as easy as it looks. And I don't know if it's ’cause I'm just so used to telling the story.

Look, I never claimed to be a fighter. I never said I was a fighter.

Never said I was a fighter.

All right. Like Garrett said, this has been highly requested, and I think it just—we had to do it, considering that Idaho was kind of a hot topic for us when we first started the show.

Our sources for this episode are:

NewYorkTimes.com, CNN.com, ABCNews.co.com, People.com, Independent.co.uk, Newsweek.com, Factax.net, NewYorkPost.com, PBS.org, CBSNNews.com, King5.com, and NBCNews.com.

Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin. These were the four young college students whose lives were taken on November 13th, 2022, right outside of the University of Idaho campus.

All because of one coldblooded killer—a 28-year-old man named Bryan Kohberger.

This case has been all over the place. It has been discussed. There have been many rumors, gossip, disrespect toward the victims and their families. But if there’s one thing, as this case has wrapped up this year, that is left—it’s a lot of unanswered questions, honestly, about the entire case, even though we supposedly have the answers.

And that is what we are going to address today.

On July 2nd, 2025—three years after the murders—Kohberger pleaded guilty to all four murders, which landed him behind bars for the rest of his life. But this plea deal meant he didn’t have to answer many of the pressing questions.

What was the motive? Why these four victims? And what might have happened if he stood trial after all?

Today, I’m going to walk you through the case, and then the evidence that would have come out in court, and the new updates and information that has been released since Bryan’s sentencing.

And there might even be some other information we’re missing. I mean, ’cause it seems like there’s more stuff coming out each day. We tried to make this as recent as possible, so if there are some things that are missing—sorry. The way it is.

We are really just going to try to unravel what really went on in the mind of Bryan Kohberger.

So we’re going to back up. It is Saturday, November 12th, 2022. It is just another weekend in the small town of Moscow, Idaho. The students at the University of Idaho are looking to blow off some steam, get a little partying and fun in before they all return home for Thanksgiving break.

One of them was a 21-year-old senior from Celine, Idaho, named Madison Mogen—or Maddie, as her friends called her. Maddie was studying marketing and was a member of a sorority. She was a gentle, warm-hearted girl who was loyal and worked hard to maintain her friendships and connections to her family, including her friend who she had been close to since the sixth grade—who also happened to be her former roommate—21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves.

Now, Kaylee was originally from Rathdrum, Idaho, though she eventually had plans to move to Austin, Texas after graduation, and she was planning to get a marketing job there. Kaylee was also part of a sorority. She was in a different sorority, though, from Madison and her other roommate, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle.

So now we have three roommates: Maddie, Kaylee, and Xana. Xana and Maddie were sorority sisters. Xana had grown up in Idaho too, but she had also spent some of her childhood in Arizona. Her father described her as strong-willed and independent. But she had also fallen hard for another college student—a handsome freshman—20-year-old Ethan Chapin.

Ethan, one of three triplets with a brother and a sister, came from Conway, Washington. He was in a fraternity and, as a former basketball player, decided to major in recreation, sport, and tourism management.

So all four of these college students seemed incredibly social and outgoing, loving their college life and dreaming of all the possibilities that the future might hold for them. They had no idea, though, that November 12th would be their last night to celebrate.

That evening, Xana and Ethan went to a party at his fraternity house. This was actually just a short walk from the house on King Road where the girls lived—Xana, Kaylee, and Maddie. They actually had two other female roommates who lived in the house on King Road with them: 21-year-old Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funk.

So Dylan, Bethany, Kaylee, Maddie, and Xana—all living together at this house on King Road while going to college.

Now, as Xana and Ethan were at the party at the fraternity house, Maddie and Kaylee were off at a sports bar in Moscow called The Corner Club, which they actually got to around 10:00 p.m. that night.

Kaylee had moved out of the house that she shared with the girls pretty recently—so she had been living there during college, but she had just moved out—but was actually back that night to hang out with her former roommates, and she was planning to stay the night at her former house.

Right before that, Kaylee even uploaded a picture to her Instagram reading, quote:

"One lucky girl to be surrounded by these people every day."

And it’s kind of a picture that has gone viral because it has all of the victims in it together.

Now, Bethany and Dylan, the other two roommates, also went out drinking that night, and they returned home around 1:00 a.m.

Kaylee and Maddie stopped at a food truck and called a car, getting home at around 1:56 a.m.

And then, meanwhile, Ethan went back to the house with Xana to spend the night with her, getting home around the same time as Kaylee and Maddie.

So, almost everyone is back home by 2:00 a.m., okay?

But around 4:00 a.m. that night, Dylan—whose room was on the same floor as Xana's—woke up to a strange sound.

Now, just to set up the layout of the house for you, ’cause it kind of is important for the story: there are three floors in total in this house on King Road.

On the first floor is where Bethany Funk's bedroom is. Okay? Only her bedroom is on the first.

The second floor is where Xana and Dylan's bedrooms are.

And then the third is where Maddie’s bedroom is, as well as where Kaylee’s was before she moved out.

Now, that morning around 4:00 a.m., Dylan wakes up and thinks she can hear what sounds like Kaylee maybe playing with a dog on the floor above her—so, on the third floor.

Then she thinks she hears either Kaylee or Maddie say something like,

"There's someone here."

She also says she heard what she thought was crying, eventually coming from Xana's room down the hall from hers, followed by a male voice saying,

"It's okay. I'm going to help you."

So, she wakes up at 4:00 a.m. and is like, "What is going on in the house?" She's spooked. She's scared. She decides it's gotten to a point where she's going to stand up and peek out her bedroom door to just kind of see what's going on.

So, she sticks her head out her bedroom door. And that's when she sees a man in all black clothing and a ski mask walk past her toward a sliding glass door near the rear side of the house.

And it is during this time that that man turns and makes eye contact with Dylan.

So Dylan says they make eye contact, and she sees that he's a white man with a big nose and bushy eyebrows, and that he's holding some type of—quote—"small vacuum-type of object."

Remember, it is nighttime. She has just woken up. She's trying to grasp what's going on.

So Dylan, a little scared, but like—the guy didn’t hurt her, and she doesn’t hear anything going on—goes back into her room and calls Bethany Funk. This is the roommate that she was out with earlier, who is asleep on the floor below hers.

And she says, "Hey, I was hearing noises. I—I just think I saw someone dressed in all black like wandering through the house."

Bethany's like, "Really? Did you say anything?"

And she’s like, "No, I’m just so..." like she’s scared. She’s telling Bethany that she’s scared.

So Bethany says, "Hey, just like run downstairs. Just come to my room."

And Dylan does. So they get down there, and they’re trying to decide what to do.

No one in their right mind believes that their roommates have just been murdered and that they’re sitting here alive in the house.

Yeah, this case is a little different because I know bits and pieces of it. And I know there’s been a lot of speculation and opinions and thoughts—

And judgment.

Judgment. And it’s hard because I try to think back—when I was in college, I had six roommates for a while, and then I had eight roommates for a while. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the house. There’s a lot of noises. There’s a lot of crap.

Also, I—especially in college—I don't think you ever think,

"Oh, there's a random person in our house right now murdering us."

Murdering people.

Like, I don't know... it's insane. Like, honestly, it's out of this world to even think that something like that can happen.

I mean, there were times where I would come out of my room and there would be a boy I had never seen before in my house—in my dorm room. You know what I mean?

I think sometimes people forget that college life, at times, can be very just... like in and out—strangers all the time. You're constantly meeting new people.

Now, granted, if she was in her family home and there was a man standing there in a ski mask, she would probably be like, "We have an intruder."

Oh yeah. She’d probably call her parents and be like, "What the heck is going on?"

I also want to note that it is 2022, so we are only about a year and a half out of COVID. So people wearing masks really wasn’t that uncommon of a sight. I mean, sure, it's not 2020, but still. I mean, if I see a person in a mask now, I don't really question it.

Yeah.

So I think in her gut she definitely—she’s spooked. Like, she’s like, “I don’t understand what’s happening.” She does not believe that her roommates were just murdered. I think that's safe to say. Insane.

So they are together in the downstairs room trying to figure out what is going on. They try calling their roommates’ phones. It's 4:00 a.m. No one answers.

They don't panic, though, because they figure a couple of things:

Dylan only saw a strange man. It's not like she saw any of her other roommates awake and walking around. It is 4:00 a.m. They might be asleep. They might not be answering their phones.

And two, they decide together that the man walking through the house was probably just one of Ethan's frat brothers who had come over—maybe playing a joke on Xana and Ethan or something.

That is what they come up with, because Ethan is there, and he has a whole bunch of frat brothers.

Dylan also thinks she might just be entirely mistaken since she was drinking the night before.

I think it's really easy that, once they were together, they talked each other down off the ledge, found some peace and comfort, and they both finally fell back asleep.

Now, the next morning around 11:00 a.m.—which seems late, but I mean, they were out till 2:00, then awake again at 4:00—so around 11:00 a.m., Bethany wakes up and she notices no one else in the house is up yet, except for her and Dylan.

So at this point, they're like, "Wait, they’re still not up?"

They start sending some text messages to the other roommates via text and Snapchat, but there is still no answer from any of their roommates.

And it's around that time that they realize Xana's location is off on her phone, which is weird. They're checking for the location and realize hers is off.

So they decide to walk up and just peek in through Xana's door. And it's at this point that they see Xana passed out on the floor in her underwear and sweatshirt.

But that’s all they see before they get freaked out and leave the house. They’re like, "Something is definitely wrong here. We—we need to not be in here. We need help."

So at this point, they call two other friends over to help them with the situation. The people they call are Emily Alant and her boyfriend, Hunter Johnson.

Now, they come over, and Hunter goes in the house. They're like,

"Hey, you are a boy and we think you can handle this."

So Hunter goes into the house and walks up to the second floor to Xana's bedroom. He also sees Xana passed out on the floor, and he actually rushes back outside the house and says,

"We just need to call 911. Something’s going on."

So, okay—so they didn’t see blood yet, I assume?

No, they haven’t even walked into the bedroom, let alone gone up to the third floor. They are just so spooked and freaked out.

What—I’m not questioning anything. I’m just curious at this point. Wouldn’t it smell a little bit?

I don’t think yet, ’cause it’s been all night.

I mean, since... I guess like six hours, seven hours?

Yes. I don’t think it would yet.

Okay. Okay.

But I think it was obviously eerie enough that they were freaking out. It takes a lot for a group of college kids to decide to get serious and call the police.

Yeah, I get that.

Yeah. I mean, I agree. I think it is reasonable that people were quick to be like,

"Why did it take so long to call the cops?"

I think that’s reasonable.

I think so too. I mean, when I was involved in a hit and run and I called the cops, they basically told me,

"Sucks, man. Sorry."

Like, okay... I’m probably not going to call the cops again.

But I also think people don’t take into consideration the fact that these people are in college, for sure. They constantly live this in-and-out, just party life. Nothing’s really that serious.

You have to take into account that this isn’t a family in a suburban area—

Yeah.

—that sees one of their siblings on the floor.

Yes.

So the group of kids calls 911 just after 11:55 a.m. that morning. They frantically tell the dispatcher that something bad had happened at their house, and one of their roommates got drunk the night before and now she’s unconscious and hasn’t woken up, and they really don’t think she’s breathing.

But when the police arrive a few minutes later, they find something far worse than any of them expected.

And I think this is also a point in the case that has bothered the public—that the 911 call came in as, "One of our roommates passed out, maybe struggling to breathe," when in reality it was... they were dead. Four homicides. Like, brutal, bloody homicides.

It’s like—where does that miscommunication come in?

But again, hopefully now that I’ve broken down the story for you, you can understand how these events actually unfolded and kind of make sense.

Yeah. I can’t really judge. Like obviously, I mean, I have questions and thoughts, but I can’t judge, because one: I’ve never been in the situation.

And two: Dude, four people were just killed. Like—I don’t know how—it’s insane.

Also, Dylan and Bethany... they have enough guilt. They don’t need you to put it on them. I promise you—they already hate themselves enough right now.

Like, they just need love and support and validation and understanding at this point, because they have gone through hell. And honestly, the public’s involvement in this case has only made their lives worse.

Yeah.

After going through this horrid experience.

And I think after learning more about it—we're going to continue to get into it—but learning more about it, and the trial, and so on and so forth, you realize... they did what they thought was right.

They didn’t—

Yeah.

They didn’t do anything.

Anyways. All right, sorry. We’ll keep going.

So police arrive basically on a college campus, to this house where there’s a different roommate in each bedroom. And they discover Xana Kernodle dead on the floor of her bedroom.

She’s not passed out, like they had thought—she is dead. And it’s so sad.

Xana has been stabbed 50 times.

Very brutal.

Wait, what?

Fifty times?

She’s on the floor of her bedroom, stabbed 50 times.

Her boyfriend—

Okay, wait. I mean... I don't know what I can ask. No one heard, obviously?

No. What Dylan has said—what she’s told police—is all we know about the noises. And Bethany claims to not have heard anything.

So... okay.

It is hard to wrap your mind around, but I don't believe that they did.

Did she say anything about it being loud in the house that night?

Yeah, she thought they were playing with a dog, ’cause one of the roommates did have a dog. So she thought the stomping around and running and playing was with the dog.

Fifty times.

Oh my gosh.

But then she heard what she thought was her roommate saying,

"We think there's someone here."

And then she heard a man say,

"Don't worry."

And so she got up to look.

Oh my gosh. You're telling me that this guy—first of all, killed four people—stabbed one of them 50 times?

Okay, so her boyfriend Ethan had also been stabbed multiple times, with one lethal blow to his jugular vein.

So police discover this couple dead in Xana's bedroom. Then they continue moving up the house, because they know that there are two other girls in this house they haven’t heard from.

So they go up to Maddie’s room, and they find Kaylee and Maddie both in Maddie’s room, in her bed. They could have slept in different rooms, but that night they happened to both be in Maddie’s room.

I'm sorry, I'm going to have questions—and I'm sure they're the same questions you guys have.

Was there not a bunch of screaming and yelling?

Not according to—

Not according to anyone.

There has been neighbor footage of like moaning—like maybe there was some moaning or grunting. There was no outright screaming.

If there’s—if neighbors can hear that...

It was on like the neighboring—so there’s the wall of the house, and then the neighbor’s front door was right there. And the Ring doorbell could hear it.

I feel like that has to be pretty loud, right?

I mean, it woke her up and got her out of bed. So it was loud enough that it got her out of bed.

I'm just asking questions. I'm not putting blame. I'm just—I'm genuinely curious on what the freak happened.

Well, these are the questions that everyone had—that everyone has—because they're like,

"If he would just think about anyone other than himself and explain what happened that night, we might have answers to this."

Because he could say, "Oh, none of them screamed," or, "This or that..." You know what I mean?

He’s not going to say that. He’s a sadist.

Yeah, he’s not going to say that, right?

He’s a narcissist.

Well, there's—he’s a lot of words, but...

So, both of these girls have been stabbed to death as well. Kaylee has been stabbed over 34 times.

Oh my...

Her face was unrecognizable, while Maddie’s total is actually not specified.

Okay, I can't keep interrupting, but—between just three people, it sounds like over a hundred times. How do you stab someone that many times?

Rage.

Adrenaline.

They were far dead. They were already dead.

By the way, we’re just going to send him to prison for life. So...

So, um, the autopsy is performed on November 17th. The results show that all four victims were attacked with a large knife and that their wounds were very extensive.

The autopsy shows that Xana did fight back.

So, when putting together the timeline of the investigation—because police are like,

"Who was killed first? What happened here? Why did Dylan and Bethany not hear screaming? Like, what happened here to make this so seamless and fast?"

But Xana has defensive wounds.

So, police discover that Xana had ordered food through the DoorDash app that was delivered around 4:00 a.m.

They believe that Xana and Kohberger had either just missed each other in the house—walking through the house—while she went to pick up her DoorDash, and then she heard the commotion, and that’s why she was even out of bed when she was murdered.

Either way, these timelines are very creepy, because there are people moving through this house, and we’re not sure when they encountered each other.

They do, though, suspect that Maddie, Kaylee, and Ethan were asleep at the time of their attacks—which would make sense why it was more quiet, because for two of those victims, they were basically sleeping.

I mean, and then you can kind of—you don’t have to like finish attacking one to get to the other. You can move back and forth to try to subdue one. You know what I mean?

So maybe that is why it was so quiet.

This is horrible, man.

This is horrible.

It’s awful.

It is awful.

They find, though, that there has been no evidence of sexual assault with any of the victims. Still, investigators feel confident that this was a targeted attack—not completely random.

And for the next several weeks, police speak with anyone and everyone who might have had a connection to the victims, including anyone who was spotted with them earlier that night while they were out. But they release little to no updates about the case.

And this is the point where you probably heard about the case.

We heard about it.

I definitely heard about it—because I'm from Idaho. Everyone was talking about it. Four college students brutally stabbed to death in their home, with two surviving roommates. The case itself—it just went viral.

Yeah, it spread.

No one really knew what happened.

Now, I am going to say—seven weeks after the murders, police made an arrest.

A week before they arrested Bryan Kohberger, I was sent court records showing that police had a suspect and the evidence that they had against him that was going to lead to an arrest. But I couldn’t say anything because it hadn’t been made public.

Just so you guys know—we could have leaked that information before anyone else. But we didn’t. We could have sold that shiz to TMZ, made a lot of money.

But guess what? We didn’t.

If you’re wondering how I got it... sources. You know we can’t—we never give up our sources. So just an FYI out there.

FYI, if anyone ever sends us anything: snitches get stitches, and we’re not snitches.

It was weird, though, to have read this entire court document—it was long—understand that they had a suspect, that they had evidence, and then get online and see people being like,

"The police aren’t doing anything. There’s nothing going on."

And thinking, "Oh my gosh, they’ve been investigating this entire time and have kept it away from the public and literally are about to make an arrest."

We should have just said—we should have just leaked it. It would have been kind of cool.

So, seven weeks after the murders, police make an arrest.

Okay. The person they arrest: Bryan Christopher Kohberger, a 28-year-old grad student at Washington State University.

This is a different college than the victims’ college, but it’s actually just 10 minutes away from the Idaho campus. So it’s basically just two colleges that share the same...

And if we’re arresting people just based off looks—we got the right guy.

His eyes are very dead.

We got the right guy.

Very dead.

On December 30th, 2022, he’s arrested at his parents’ home—but it’s not in Idaho. It’s in Pennsylvania. They went across the United States to arrest him, and he was charged with four counts of first-degree murder.

Now, let’s get a little bit of background on Bryan. I wouldn’t be spotlighting this if it didn’t have some impact on the case.

So, he had a bachelor’s degree in psychology—

Wow.

—from a university in Pennsylvania. And in the fall of 2022, he had begun studying for his master’s in criminal justice across the United States, at Washington State.

Criminal justice and psychology.

That’s ironic.

Prior to his arrest, he had worked as a security officer for a school in Pennsylvania, where his mother was employed. And he had recently just interviewed for a graduate research assistant position with the Pullman Police Department near his campus.

So, it’s safe to say this guy had a clear interest in being some sort of police officer—or someone who held a position of power.

Now, digging a little further back, it was clear Kohberger was troubled long before entering college. You don’t do what he did without being haunted.

So all the way back to his teenage years, Kohberger had written a post online about his struggles with suicidal thoughts, dissociation, and his lack of emotion and feelings of remorse. Basically online saying like,

"I fear that I’m a psychopath."

Apparently, he also dealt with depression. And according to people who knew him in high school, he had a history of abusing heroin and kind of just like... having a lack of empathy.

But it was during his graduate studies that things really seemed to amplify for Kohberger. Like, maybe he was trying to hold off this "I’m going to be the killer" narrative and was trying to go,

"Well, I’ll still be involved in crime because it really interests me, but I’ll be a police officer."

Seems like when he moved to Idaho/Washington, he was like, "You know what—actually I’m just going to go full-force serial killer. Like, I’m going to finally give in to the dark side of me."

Insane.

So, in the months before the murders, he posted something on Reddit asking formerly incarcerated people to take a survey. He wanted to know their—quote—"thoughts, emotions, and actions from the beginning to end of the crime commission process."

He said it was part of a research project to—quote—"understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime."

Another classmate of his said he recalled that just a few days before the murders were committed, Kohberger became very curious about forensics, DNA, and other evidence that prosecutors could use to get a conviction in court.

And even more terrifying—just prior to the crime—Kohberger had been chatting with a woman he met on Tinder. And when they began talking about horror movies, he asked her what she thought the worst way to die would be.

And she said, "I think being stabbed to death."

Kohberger responded to this woman with something to the effect of "a KA-BAR," which is a fixed-blade knife. Like, he specified the type of knife.

And sure enough, what was found at the scene of the crime? Not the weapon itself, but a sheath to a KA-BAR knife.

Okay.

So, there was quite a bit of evidence pointing to Bryan Kohberger circumstantially, which meant things weren’t looking good for him leading up to his trial.

In fact, more damning evidence against him came out as trial was leading up. And on June 26th, 2023, the prosecution announced that they would be pursuing the death penalty—which is a big deal because the state of Idaho hasn’t carried out an execution since 2012.

So Kohberger’s attorneys tried to block that by saying he had been diagnosed with a form of autism and should be exempt from execution due to the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

But in November of 2024, the judge said, "No way. Absolutely not. The motion stands, and the prosecution will be able to pursue the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted."

Cruel and unusual punishment.

How ironic is that?

Yeah. And honestly—like, or hypocritical, whatever you want to—

If you’re talking death penalty cases, killing four random people for fun, stabbing them that amount of times in a rage...

Yeah.

That probably—that feels pretty much like you are for sure a danger to society.

There was no motive.

Like, I feel like we should do like a... instead of a trial, we should just do like a USA vote. So like whenever—

Yeah.

Whenever something like this happens, we post a poll on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Everyone votes, and whatever the choice that is chosen is the choice that is made.

I just—I don’t know. I think that’s a pretty dang good idea.

And keep going.

So, you're leaving it all to the owners of those companies to decide? Because they could sway those votes, skew them, lie about them.

Okay, well then—we’ll just have to do the vote somewhere else.

But I still think it should be up to the public to make that decision.

I mean, it is kind of the jury.

Yeah, but... you know, at this point, Bryan’s team starts reassessing their strategy.

Jury selection was scheduled to begin on August 4th, 2025.

Now remember, these murders happened in 2022, and he was arrested in 2022. So, it's been three years of back-and-forth trying to figure out how to get to trial—gathering evidence, appeals, delays.

Yeah.

But a month before, on July 2nd this year, Kohberger appeared at a hearing and announced,

"Never mind. I’m pleading guilty to burglary and four counts of first-degree murder."

So, I assume it’s because he was probably going to get the death penalty?

Yes. And he wanted just life in prison. So they gave him a plea.

You know, Bryan, I’m really glad that you wanted to live.

And that you got the choice to live.

I think it probably matters most what the victims’ families felt about this.

And it was split. Some didn’t want to go through a trial. Some felt like this wasn’t justice.

I get that.

Yeah. In making that plea, that means that he did not—in a court, for the public or the victims’ families—have to give a motive or any sort of statement or story regarding that night and why he did what he did.

In fact, the judge actually gave him an opportunity to address the court and be like,

"Hey, is there anything that you would like to do to try to maybe answer some questions?"

And he said, quote,

"I respectfully decline."

Okay.

And that’s that.

On July 23rd, 30-year-old Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, therefore dodging the death penalty for his plea.

But that left a lot of people unsettled.

It left a lot of people answering questions.

What would have been presented in court?

What fate might the jury have chosen for Bryan Kohberger?

And could it have been enough to actually land him the death penalty?

Well, since Kohberger didn’t get a jury, I am going to present you the evidence that it's rumored would have been put forth at trial—and I'll let you decide what you would have voted if you were on the jury instead.

Give it to me.

Here is our make-believe trial with the evidence that the state has released to the public.

Let’s start with the footage that was found after the murders.

About an hour after the roommates all returned to the house that night, a white car appeared on surveillance cameras around the neighborhood.

Obviously, police went around to doorbell footage, security cameras, and they gathered it. And they see this white car around the house at the time of the crime.

Now, their house was on a dead-end street. And yet you can see a white Hyundai Elantra pass the house a few times—circling the crime scene, the future crime scene that’s about to happen—literally that hour, multiple times, including at 4:04 a.m.

This is around the time the murders were believed to be committed.

Okay.

There is also a security camera that captures audio—this is the one I was telling you about—of what sounds like whimpering, a dog barking, and then a huge thud coming from the home. This happens at 4:17 a.m.

So at 4:04, this car is circling. They believe this is Bryan in his car. And at 4:17, chaos begins.

Shortly after that, the Elantra is seen literally speeding away from this house at 4 in the morning—like ripping it, tires squealing—and it's in the direction of the Washington State University campus, so where he would be returning to.

And around the 29th of November, police tracked this car to a WSU student named Bryan Kohberger. So this is how he kind of first comes up on their radar.

Now that the police had his name, they look up his record. They found that he had actually been pulled over in Moscow, Idaho back in August. And during that traffic stop, he had given the officer his cell phone number.

So the police are like,

"We have his cell phone number."

Which in turn allows them to track where his cell phone was at the time of the murders by accessing his records.

Easy enough to get a warrant for that once you've seen his car on footage.

And with that, they also pull up Kohberger's license photo. And sure enough, they find he is a white guy with bushy eyebrows. He looks a lot like the person Dylan Mortensen described seeing in the house that night.

Oh, and by the way—they also discover Kohberger had gotten a new license plate for his car five days after the murders were committed.

Give me a break, man.

Now, let’s move on to that location data from his cell phone, because this certainly would have come up in court as well.

So after receiving Kohberger’s cell records, police learn that his cell phone was actually turned off beginning at 2:47 a.m. the morning of the murders.

So we know someone was awake on his phone, turning it off around 3:00 a.m. And its last location that it pinged was in Pullman, Washington, near his campus.

Then someone was awake, and the phone mysteriously turned back on at 4:48 a.m., shortly after the suspected time of the murders—and now the phone is in Moscow, Idaho.

So while the phone was turned off, it moved. It left its location and went toward the scene of the crime.

His data also showed he returned to the area near the crime scene later that morning—before the bodies were even discovered.

Police and the prosecution believe he was returning, doing a drive-by to the scene of the crime to see if police had been called.

What had happened? Was it taped off?

He drives by and realizes what’s going on:

"I definitely saw a girl that was left alive... and there’s no police here. Like, she didn’t call 911."

Interesting.

They believe that’s why he peeled out so fast—because he had left someone alive. They believe he thought that police were going to be called immediately.

Well, he left two people alive.

He didn’t know he had left two people alive. He’d only seen one.

Okay. So he does a little drive-by to just check up on the case.

I also want to mention—around this time, on his phone, he also took a selfie with a thumbs up, smiling, right after he brutally murdered four people.

Just a little side note for you.

What?

Yeah. On his phone. In his bathroom. He went home after murdering them and took that picture.

It’s crazy, dude.

This is crazy.

So they’re like, "Okay, this cell phone data is pretty intense. It’s pretty heavy. It does a lot of damage to his case."

And so they keep digging, and they learn he had actually visited the area around the home—the home of these four college students—at least 23 times in the months before the murders.

And when his phone would ping at the home, it was usually between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.

Okay. So basically, 23 times before he showed up and actually murdered—in the middle of the night—he drove by their house.

Do we know why their house?

No. So this is a big question. Was he there to only kill one person? Was his target Maddie, and then Kaylee happened to be there?

But they can’t figure out a connection between them?

No. There is no known connection. No one can say that he knew any of the victims.

I would assume it’s two things. Either—

One: he saw her in public once and followed her, or one of them in public.

Or two: Instagram.

Yes. Like he saw them on social media and was like,

"Oh, that’s the person," and started stalking them.

It’s rumored that their house was the host house of many parties, where the doors were just left open. I mean, the door was unlocked that night.

So people actually believe that Bryan could have possibly been in the house and looked at the layout of the house—found whoever his intended victim’s room was. Or, if it was everyone, like—he could have definitely learned the layout of the house before that night.

So, it seems like at least one of the roommates in the past months—Kaylee Goncalves—actually noticed a man watching her at one point when she went out to walk her dog.

This is the dog in the story. It’s Kaylee’s dog.

Now remember, Kaylee had actually moved out of the house by the night of the murders. She was literally just back there that night to visit her friends one last time.

She wasn’t even living there anymore.

So pissed. She was ready to move on with her life.

And from what I can tell, she didn’t move because of a stalker, but because she was graduating early. She had gotten a new job.

But there was more information I found that showed Kaylee, Xana, and Maddie were actually all being watched by Kohberger prior to their deaths.

Okay, so—Kohberger followed all of the girls on Instagram. He had liked several of Kaylee and Xana’s photos.

Definitely found them on Instagram and decided that—100%.

I mean, yeah.

Or found them in person and followed them. Either way, he was stalking them on social media and being a weirdo.

But this is where the belief that Maddie was the intended target comes in—because he had liked almost every single one of Maddie’s posts and had apparently downloaded some of her photos to his devices.

That’s disgusting.

Kaylee had also mentioned to friends that she thought she had a stalker. That someone had mailed her something once. And she was getting strange messages on Facebook.

Weird.

We don’t know if this has a connection to him.

Then on November 4th—nine days before the murders—the roommates came home to find that their front door was open and literally off the hinges.

It was so bad that Xana's dad actually came over and fixed it.

So, just some unusual activity.

But maybe the biggest piece of evidence in this case that you probably already know was a knife sheath that was left at the crime scene. While the knife itself was never found, the sheath was telling.

It was discovered on the bed next to Maddie and Kaylee's bodies, and it had a Marine Corps logo on it. And it belonged to a KA-BAR knife.

Now, more importantly, forensics was able to extract DNA from the button on the snap of the sheath.

Impressive.

And while it didn’t match anyone in any law enforcement databases, they used genetic genealogy to see if there was a match. So, with help from those consumer databases like Ancestry.com, they build a profile that points to whoever had done this being in the Kohberger family.

Now—they don’t have Kohberger’s DNA—but they link it to his family tree.

Got it.

Yeah. To get an exact match—obviously—and absolutely confirm that it's their number one suspect, they need Bryan’s DNA. They need a sample of his DNA.

So, a few days before Kohberger’s arrested, police collect garbage from outside his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, where they know Kohberger had driven home and was staying at this point.

They bring it back to the lab for testing. And when one comes up as a direct match for what was on the sheath, investigators know they have their guy.

They have Bryan Kohberger’s DNA on the knife sheath that was left at the crime scene.

That’s why—three days later, on December 30th—they were able to finally arrest him. Because that’s pretty... you know, if I was Bryan’s parents, I’d be pretty pissed if I spent all this money thinking my kid might be innocent.

Some people believe that his dad knew what he had done—’cause his dad came to Idaho and drove him back to Pennsylvania after the murder.

I don’t get that, personally. I don’t get standing up—I don’t get wanting to defend your kid when it comes to something like that.

It’s not like,

"Oh, he ran a red light," or—

No, no, no.

Like, this is...

You can love your kid while holding them accountable.

100%. It’s totally possible.

In fact, loving your kid while holding them accountable is usually the best thing you can do for them.

Yeah.

I just—yeah. Yeah. It’s kind of embarrassing.

Before pleading guilty, Kohberger’s defense attorney motioned to throw this DNA evidence out—basically their strongest piece of evidence—but the request was denied.

Which also might have pushed Kohberger into making that guilty plea, because that’s a smoking gun. Like, how do you even argue that?

But that wasn’t the only thing pointing in his direction.

Detectives also found evidence on Kohberger’s computer once they arrested him, showing that he had purchased a KA-BAR knife and sheath just months before the killings.

Okay.

And then he searched for a new knife and cover right after the murders.

I mean, it's—it's black and white. I mean—sorry, I didn’t mean black and white. I mean, it’s open and shut.

Yeah.

So, since Kohberger’s guilty plea, a lot more evidence has actually come to light, because the state doesn’t really have to keep it on lockdown anymore. So I’ll share with you a few details that have come out since his guilty plea.

Okay.

So, that selfie—the 10:30 a.m. selfie—is what came out. That look on his face is so eerie.

A friend of his also told police he had very obvious scratch marks on his face right after the murders. And they said the same thing happened back in October of 2022—a month before the murders.

So people began to wonder: did he have a practice victim before this?

Kohberger’s car and house were also meticulously cleaned after the murders.

And more eyewitnesses came forward to say they saw a man lurking around that King Road neighborhood and acting nervous around the time of the crimes.

And as far as finding any new evidence inside the house where the crimes took place—this is a very problematic part of this case that I do have a firm stance on, because we will never find more evidence at the King Road house.

On December 28th, 2023, the University of Idaho decided to demolish the King Road house—before he had even pled guilty—saying it was, quote, "a grim reminder of the heinous act."

Hello? Who made—hello? Is this mic on? Who made that decision?

Also, this was despite the fact that two of the families came forward publicly insisting,

"No, no, no. Please keep the house standing through the trial."

Like—keep it standing through the trial. What if the jury wanted to go visit? What if there’s more evidence there?

Like, who in their right mind—who made that call?

They just believed that they needed to delete it out of the college campus. To kind of close that chapter, even though it wasn’t legally closed yet.

The amount of incompetent people we have making decisions in our lives blows my mind.

That is an insane decision to make.

I will say—the prosecutors kind of... they didn’t really fight for it. They said the current condition of the premises is so substantially different than at the time of the homicides, they didn’t even believe they would be able to get the jury in there. Like, they didn’t lock it down enough.

So, while the house was knocked down, these questions around Kohberger’s motives still stand.

Many want to know: why did Kohberger go after these four college students in particular?

Was he zeroing in on one roommate—maybe Maddie—but ended up taking more lives when he realized that Kaylee was there?

And then maybe that murder had disturbed Xana, or Xana had gotten up to get her DoorDash and they ran into each other?

Whatever it may be—then he had to kill Xana. And once he got Xana in the room, he realized Ethan was in there, passed out, so he killed Ethan.

Like, we don’t know what was intended to happen that night.

We only know the result of what happened that night.

Was it something about the house that made him target the people in there?

And if so—why did he leave two roommates alive that night? Especially if he literally made eye contact with one of them after killing four.

Why stop?

While Kohberger himself has yet to give an answer to these questions, that doesn’t mean the truth will not come out over time. New information about this case continues to surface—just like Garrett said—every day. And it is possible that one day, Kohberger himself will want to talk.

We know that he has done a lot of studying of serial killers. He is very fascinated by serial killers. He has done so much history into psychology and the mind behind it. So maybe eventually he will fall into the serial killer trap—where it brings them pride and ego to admit to what they’ve done.

Mhmm. Yeah.

And so they speak out about it—not to help the families—but for their own benefit.

Yeah.

To kind of put their stamp on their crime.

Now, during the sentencing hearing, Judge Steven Hippler gave one reason for Kohberger’s crimes: cowardice.

He also added that while he too wants to understand this senseless killer by continually asking the question of why, he says us continuing to question it gives Kohberger more power and control.

So, I will leave you with one final message from the judge that kind of articulates my feelings. Quote:

"There is no reason for these crimes that could approach anything resembling rationality.

In my view, the time has now come to end Mr. Kohberger’s fifteen minutes of fame."

Now, if you watched the sentencing hearing, you know that Kaylee Goncalves’s sister gave a really impactful victim impact statement.

And I think closing out this case, I want to end with her words.

She said:

"I won’t stand here and give you what you want.

I won’t offer you tears.

I won’t offer you trembling disappointments—like you thrive on pain, on fear, and on the illusion of power.

I will not feed your beast.

Instead, I will call you what you are: sociopath, psychopath, murderer.

I will ask the questions that reverberate violently in my own head—so loudly that I can’t think straight most any day.

Some of these might be familiar, so sit up straight when I talk to you."

She goes on to say:

"If you were really smart, do you think you would be here right now?

What’s it like needing this much attention just to feel real?

You’re terrified of being ordinary, aren’t you?

Do you feel anything at all? Or are you exactly what you always feared—nothing?

If you’re so powerful, then why are you still hiding, defendant?

You see, I’m here today as me.

But who are you?"

She then says:

"You act like no one could ever understand your mind.

But the truth is, you are basic.

You’re a textbook case of insecurity disguised as control.

Your patterns are predictable.

Your motives are shallow.

You are not profound. You’re pathetic.

You aren’t special or deep—not mysterious or exceptional.

Don’t ever get it twisted again:

No one is scared of you today.

No one is intimidated by you.

No one is impressed by you.

No one thinks you are important.

You orchestrated this like you thought you were God.

And now look at you—begging a courtroom for scraps.

You spent months preparing, and still all it took was my sister and a sheath.

You worked so hard to seem dangerous.

But real control doesn’t have to prove itself.

The truth is, the scariest part about you is how painfully average you turned out to be.

The truth is, you are as dumb as they come.

Stupid. Clumsy. Slow. Sloppy. Weak. Dirty.

Let me be very clear:

Don’t ever try to convince yourself that you mattered just because someone finally said your name out loud.

I see through you.

You want the truth?

Here’s the one you’ll hate the most:

If you hadn’t attacked them in their sleep in the middle of the night like a pedophile,

Kaylee would have kicked your effing ass."

Thank you.

And that is how she ended her impact statement.

And I think—if there is a... like, if you could write the perfect impact statement about a way to actually get through to a psychopath or a murderer in this regard—she did it perfectly.

I agree.

Reminding everyone—and him—you are not special. You are not some crazy smart person because you were able to kill four people and people can't comprehend how you could do that.

People actually just think you're lame. You're average. And you suck. Like, you're a bad person. That's all people think about you.

And I just 100% agree. And I think her impact statement was impactful.

All right, you guys. That was the kind of summarization—also, if we had had a trial, maybe this is what would have been brought up.

Story of the Idaho Four.

Please remember their names. Remember their families. Keep them at the forefront. Remember that all four of these victims were more than just the "Idaho Four" murder victims.

And let’s put Bryan Kohberger to rest.

All right, you guys. We will see you next time with another one.

I love it.

And I hate it.

Goodbye.

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