Recently-released court filings reveal the brutal way in which convicted murderer Bryan Kohberger killed four University of Idaho students.
On November 13, 2022, Kohberger broke into an apartment near the University of Idaho and murdered Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
All four students were killed after Kohberger used a Ka-Bar style combat knife during the crimes, leaving a sheath behind at the scene. They were all murdered in their bedrooms, FOX News Digital reports.
Mogen and Goncalves were killed in the same bedroom, on the home’s third floor. No blood had been found at their feet, meaning, they were murdered while sleeping and didn’t have the opportunity to fight back.
“The evidence suggests that after both victims were killed or unresponsive they were posed in their shared bed,” the crime scene analyst stated in the documents. “Kaylee was moved from a position with her head on her pillow to partially atop of Madison. Then the comforter was placed over them both.”
Chapin, who had been in Kernodle’s bedroom on the second floor, also showed no blood on his feet.
Kohberger inflicted the most wounds on Xana Kernodle, who had been awake at the time. The autopsy found 67 wounds, including seven stab wounds, 25 incised wounds, and “23 stab and incised wounds” around her scalp, neck, and face, Court TV reports.
Kernodle’s wounds reportedly left her face unrecognizable.
“This is, in fact, overkill; this is a frenzied event,” forensic death investigator and host of the Body Bags podcast, Joseph Scott Morgan, told Court TV. “She fought. You don’t get this contact trace blood elements on the feet without that having occurred.”
The location of the wounds on all four victims indicated that Kohberger “targeted their head and upper extremities,” Biography reports.
Goncalves had 38 wounds to her face, scalp, chest and neck area. Kohberger attacked her while she slept. However, blood found on her feet suggested that she woke up and attempted to fight back.
Mogen had 13 wounds, including stabs and incisions, across her face, neck, and scalp area. The incisions were in her upper extremities.
Chapin had an upper chest stab wound, and four wounds scalp, face, and neck, which included both stabs and incisions. An autopsy found a total of 17 wounds.
Chapin’s injuries were less in severity when compared to the female victims. The autopsy did not note much facial trauma.
“It doesn’t seem as though Ethan really moved from the position that he was in,” Morgan added.
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Kohberger, convicted for the murders in July 2025 for the murders, is now housed at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, which is around nine miles south of Boise.
A judge sentenced him to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
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[Feature Photo: Left, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves and right, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle/Instagram]
