In November 2022, four University of Idaho students were found stabbed to death at a rental house in Moscow, mere hours after posting smiling photographs together on Instagram.
The case shocked the small college town and drew media attention from across the world. Yet it took nearly seven weeks for police to catch a suspect — and almost three years to bring him to trial.
Now, mere weeks before former PhD criminology student Bryan Kohberger was set to go before a jury, prosecutors have told the victims’ families they have agreed a plea deal.
Kohberger, 30, is expected to receive four consecutive life sentences and waive all his rights to appeal when he appears in court on Wednesday to answer for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
With no motive yet established, the deal, which will allow Kohberger to avoid the death penalty, may mean there is never any public explanation of what exactly happened that night, or why it happened at all.
And while some of the victims’ families have welcomed the agreement as an end to their long wait for justice, relatives of Goncalves’ have said they are “beyond furious”.
So how did we get here? What follows is a timeline of one of the most baffling cases in recent American history.
Saturday November 12, 2022 — ‘One lucky girl’
At 8:57 p.m. local time on November 12, 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves posts for the last time on Instagram.
The picture is of herself and the three other slain students standing together arm-in-arm on the porch of a house.
Two other roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, who live at the home with Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle on King Road, are also in the photo.
“One lucky girl to be surrounded by these people every day,” Goncalves writes in the caption.
That night, Chapin and Kernodle go to a party together on the university campus, while Mogen and Goncalves visit a bar in town.
Sunday November 13, 1:41 a.m. — Victims last seen alive in video
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Mogen and Goncalves are seen stopping by a local food truck for a late-night bite to eat.
Webcam footage seen by The Independent, originally broadcast via the streaming service Twitch, captures the two best friends arriving at the food truck at around 1:41 a.m.
Officers will later say that Mogen and Goncalves “used a private party” for a ride home from the downtown area after visiting the food truck. The driver drops them off at their home at around 1:45 a.m.
Chapin and Kernodle are seen at the Sigma Chi fraternity house, and return home around the same time.
The two other surviving roommates have also been out on Saturday night, and return to the property at around 1 a.m.
Goncalves’s sister will later reveal that multiple calls were made from the phones of Goncalves and Mogen to the phone of Goncalves’ former longtime boyfriend between 2:26 a.m. and 2:52 a.m.
Between the two best friends, 10 calls are made, but none are answered.
2:44 a.m — Suspect’s car is spotted
Not long after, according to court documents released by Latah County prosecutors, a car matching the description of Bryan Kohberger’s Hyundai sedan is recorded on surveillance cameras at Washington State University, where the 28-year-old is a criminology graduate student.
Ten minutes later, the car is spotted heading towards SR 270, a road which connects the town of Pullman, Washington, to nearby Moscow, Idaho.
At roughly the same time the sedan is traveling, Kohberger’s cell phone pings off signal towers near his apartment in Pullman. It will later show up on cell towers in Idaho, in the hours directly after murders, according to prosecutors.
3 a.m. to 4 a.m. — Murders
Officials believe the students were killed some time between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Sunday November 13.
All four were stabbed to death with an “edged weapon such as a knife” — though the actual murder weapon has not been found.
There was no sign of forced entry, the door appeared to be unlocked, and nothing seems to have been taken.
The two other roommates who were home at the time of the attack were unharmed. Police said they were not necessarily witnesses to the incident, there was no hostage situation, and they appear to have slept through the murders.
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt said the victims were “likely sleeping” when they were killed, as all four were found in bed, and were stabbed multiple times.
According to the Latah County records, the car matching the description of Kohberger’s vehicle was seen on various surveillance cameras near the students’ home between 3:29 a.m. and 4:20 a.m., before appearing once again in Pullman at 5:25 a.m. near the WSU campus.
4:22 a.m. — ‘I’m freaking out right now’
Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke both lived in the same house as the victims. At around 4:22 a.m., they start frantically texting their roommates and each other.
“No one is answering,” Mortensen texts Funke. “I’m rlly confused rn.” Then she texts Goncalves: “Kaylee. What’s going on?” There is no answer.
Funke tells Mortensen she saw a man in black, wearing “like a ski mask almost”, walking through the house. “I’m not kidding o [sic] am so freaked out”.
Then Mortensen says her phone is dying, and Funke tells her to “run” to her room and hide.
In frantic text messages beginning just before 4:30 a.m., Mortensen and Funke — identified only as ‘D.M.’ and ‘B.F.’ in the document — desperately try to check on their roommates and discuss seeing a person in a “ski mask almost” stalking through the house.
Sunday November 13, noon — Investigation begins
Law enforcement officers arrive at the house at 11:58 a.m. on Sunday after getting a 911 call from the cell phone of one of the surviving roommates.
Officers said the roommates woke up on Sunday and called some unidentified friends to the home because they believed that one of the victims on the second floor “had passed out and was not waking up.”
The four victims are discovered stabbed to death in their beds on the second and third floors of the house.
Thursday November 17 — Autopsy findings released
Autopsy findings for the victims are released on Thursday, officially ruling their deaths homicides by stabbing.
Coroner Cathy Mabbutt says each victim was stabbed multiple times with a “large knife”, describing their wounds as “pretty extensive” and revealing that they bled out inside their student home.
She says the autopsies found the victims were killed “early in the morning, sometime after 2 a.m., but still during the night”. It has not been possible to determine from the injuries the order in which the victims were attacked.
DNA samples and nail clippings are also taken from the crime scene, with the coroner saying that it is “possible” that the tests could turn up DNA from people besides the victims.
A local prosecutor reveals investigators are exploring the possibility that more than one killer is responsible for the killings, while officers search for a military-style Ka-Bar knife believed to be the murder weapon.
December 7 — Police seek a white car
An initial breakthrough seems to come when police announce they are looking for the owner and occupants of a white Hyundai Elantra spotted near the crime scene “in the early morning hours” on the day of the murders.
Detectives won’t reveal whether the owner of the car was a suspect, but say that “the occupant(s) of [the] vehicle may have critical information to share regarding this case.” The license plate is unknown.
The car was “in the immediate area” of the rental home on King Road in the early hours of November 13. The murders are thought to have taken place between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.
The development is quickly linked in online sleuth communities to body-camera footage from a separate incident on the night of the killings, which police say stemmed from an alcohol offense just before 3 a.m.
Officials will later shut down speculation around the video, telling The Independent on December 8 that the incident on the body-camera footage is in no way connected to the murders and the white car in the background was not the same one they are seeking information about.
December 15 — Two key traffic stops
As police close in on suspect Bryan Kohberger, the graduate student makes his way across the country with his father, driving from Washington to spend the holidays with family in Pennsylvania.
By now investigators are eying the 28-year-old and Indiana police pull the pair over twice during their journey.
The stops came at the request of the FBI, which is seeking images of the suspect’s hands. It’s not yet clear why that is important, or if the officers managed to obtain anything of interest during the stops.
December 30, early morning — Mountain raid
At around 1:30 a.m. local time on December 30, local police and FBI swoop on a home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, near ski resorts in the Pocono Mountains, and arrest a 28-year-old criminology graduate student named Bryan Christopher Kohberger.
According to reports, the property appears to be Kohberger’s parents’ house and is located in a gated community. A white Hyundai Elantra is also seized.
NewsNation correspondent Brian Entin reports the suspect “asked if anyone else was arrested” and had a “quiet, blank stare”, citing inside sources.
8 a.m. — News conference
The Moscow Police Department and prosecutors hold their first press conference since November 23, revealing Kohberger has been arrested and is accused of four counts of first degree murder.
They decline to give details on how he had come to be arrested and charged, but say they still want to hear from members of the public who may have information about what happened.
Several insiders have provided crucial details to news outlets. One law enforcement official tells CNN that Kohberger was identified through genetic testing that linked DNA at the crime scene to his relatives.
Sources say authorities then confirmed Kohberger owned a white Hyundai Elantra matching the one spotted near the crime scene on the night of the murders.
Investigators tracked Kohberger as he drove more than 2,000 miles from Washington state to Pennsylvania, where he was surveilled for days before being taken into custody.
December 31 — Charges filed
Shortly after his arrest, Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, as well as felony burglary.
January 4, 2023 — Suspect returns to Idaho
The 28-year-old arrives in Moscow in the late evening, where a group of officers walk him into a waiting truck.
Kohberger appears to be wearing body armor as police lead him into custody. The judge issues a gag order, banning investigators, law enforcement personnel, attorneys, and members of both the prosecution and the defense from sharing any new information about the investigation or the suspect before a verdict is reached at trial.
As a result the Moscow Police Department, which has been sharing updates on the investigation, says it will no longer be communicating with the public or the media regarding the case.
January 5 — Kohberger appears in court
After weeks of investigations, police and community members alike finally get what they wanted: a suspect, in Idaho court, facing charges for the four University of Idaho murders.
Kohberger appears in a Latah County court for the first time, where he hears the charges against him, has his bail rights revoked, and faces crying family members of the slain victims.
January 12 — Kohberger waives preliminary hearing
Kohberger appears in Latah County Courthouse with cuts on his face as he waives his right to a speedy trial.
Kohberger’s public defender Anne Taylor then requests that his next court date be pushed back until June 2023.
The prosecution agrees, and the judge schedules the preliminary hearing for the week beginning June 26.
January 19 — Idaho police unseal search warrants
Police investigating the murder of the four Idaho students seized a string of items from suspect Kohberger’s apartment, including possible hair strands, a disposable glove, items with red and brown stains, and a computer, according to a newly unsealed search warrant.
Police say one of the items found at the suspect’s apartment at nearby Washington State University was a “possible animal hair strand.” In the documents, investigators say one item had a “collection of dark red” spotting, and that a pillow had a “reddish/brown stain” on it.
The application also states the murder scene near the University of Idaho campus where the victims were discovered had a large amount of the victims’ blood, “including spatter and castoff” blood.
February 28 — Search warrant reveals items seized in Pennsylvania
A search warrant application was filed in Pennsylvania’s Monroe County court on December 29, the day before Kohberger’s arrest. It approved a search of the family residence, the adjacent garage and the suspect’s car.
It allowed investigators to collect “blood, or other bodily fluid or materials and items with blood” — but the list of seizures does not mention any such items.
Investigators seized nine items: one Defiant-brand silver flashlight, four medical-style gloves, a large white t-shirt, a pair of black and white size 13 Nike shoes, and a pair of black Under Armour shorts. They also took a cheek swab, possibly from Kohberger.
March 27 — Prosecutors reveal officer is under ‘internal affairs investigation’
In a filing, authorities disclose the existence of information that could potentially undermine witness testimony against Kohberger, the only suspect in the case.
“ …the State has become aware of potential Brady/Giglio material related to one of the officers involved in the above-referenced case,” the filing stated.
Under the Brady precedent, investigators are responsible for disclosing exculpatory information to defense lawyers. This can include whether or not a certain police officer has lied while on duty in the past, earning them a place on the local “Brady list”.
Meanwhile, “Giglio material” means information that could potentially indicate that a witness is not credible, according to the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.
The nature of this information, and its relation to the murder case, is not immediately clear. The evidence mentioned in the filing was submitted to the court on March 24, but its content remains sealed at the request of prosecutors.
May 5 — Kohberger’s belongings test positive for blood
Court documents released by Washington authorities show that multiple items taken from the Kohberger’s apartment in Pullman were tested for the presence of blood.
While most items came back negative, two items were positive.
Those items were a mattress cover on the bed and an uncased pillow, both of which were described as having visible “reddish brown stains”. The documents do not reveal who the blood belonged to.
May 13 — Victims’ families accept posthumous degrees
Six months after the victims were killed in their sleep at their off-campus home in Moscow, their loved ones receive the awards during two separate ceremonies.
Goncalves’ four siblings receive their sister’s general studies diploma, while Mogen’s parents are given her marketing degree. Kernodle’s family already accepted her certificate in marketing at a previous private ceremony, while Chapin’s award in sports, recreation and management is mailed to his parents.
May 16 — Kohberger indicted by grand jury over Idaho murders
A grand jury indicts Bryan Kohberger on charges of burglary and four counts of murder, allowing the parties to skip the previously planned June 26 preliminary hearing.
Each murder count states that he “did wilfully, unlawfully, deliberately, with premeditation and with malice aforethought, kill and murder” each of the victims by stabbing.
May 22 — Kohberger refuses to enter plea
Kohberger refuses to enter a plea in Latah County District Court prompting the judge to make one on his behalf.
His attorney says that he is “standing silent” on the charges.
Several members of Kaylee Goncalves’ family are present in the courtroom, facing the man accused of killing their 21-year-old daughter.
The judge sets Kohberger’s trial date for October 2023, following requests by Kohberger’s attorney and the state. The trial is expected to take around six weeks.
June 26 — Prosecutors seek death penalty
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson files notice of his intent to seek the death penalty in court in Moscow, Idaho, citing five “aggravating circumstances” that could warrant the maximum sentence of capital punishment being sought.
These circumstances include that the murder was “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity” and that the defendant showed “utter disregard for human life”.
August 3 — Kohberger presents alibi
On August 3, Kohberger’s defense present an alibi for the night of the murders.
In a court filing, attorneys say the accused killer “has long had a habit of going for drives alone” and that he did so on the night of and morning after the murders.
They will later expand on this, saying that cell tower data shows he often takes such drives along the Washington-Idaho border and was miles away from Moscow at the time of the murders.
August 23 — Trial postponed indefinitely
In a move that shocks many reporters and observers, Kohberger once again waives his right to a speedy trial, postponing the proceedings indefinitely.
His attorney Anne Taylor tells the court that he chose to waive because his defense does not expect to be ready for the planned trial in October.
November 13 — One year memorial
A full year has passed since the murders. Thousand of students gather on the University of Idaho campus to honor Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle, and Chapin, observing a vigil and a moment of silence.
Between 6 and 7 p.m., Moscow residents are encouraged to turn on their porch lights in memory of the four students.
There is still no trial date set for Bryan Kohberger.
December 28 — King Road house demolished
Against the wishes of some of the victims’ families, university officials demolish the King Road house where the murders happened.
Relatives of Kaylee Goncalves were firmly against knocking down the house, saying it would “destroy one of the most critical pieces of evidence in the case” before a trial date is even set.
But prosecutors say they have no further need for the property, having already made a final visit in October, and the university is adamant that its destruction is necessary for the community to move on.
“Many students have to look at it and live with it every day, and have expressed to us how much it will help with the healing process to have that house removed,” a spokesperson says.
It takes about three hours to tear the house down. Reporters and other onlookers watch as an excavator tears down the facade, turning this site of trauma into a large pile of crushed and smashed wood.
March 1, 2024 — Families frustrated over trial delay
With a trial expected not confirmed for summer 2024, Goncalves’ and Kernodle’s families are growing frustrated.
“We want to start healing, we do. We want to find justice and try to move on from this horrible tragedy. So please, please, start making some decisions, get to work, and quit playing the delay game,” they say in a joint statement.
Kohberger’s lawyers have been pushing to have his indictment dismissed, challenging evidence, and requesting that the trial be moved to another county. It’s now looking like the trial won’t happen until 2025.
September 12 — Trial moved 300 miles away
Kohberger’s trial is moved from Latah County to Idaho’s capital city of Boise, roughly 300 miles away, in a major win for the defense team.
Lawyers have argued Kohberger could not face a fair trial in Latah County due to “extensive negative publicity” and a “mob mentality” among locals.
An Idaho Supreme Court judge agrees, ruling “the Latah County courthouse itself poses significant issues for a trial of this length and magnitude.”
November 20 — Judge approves death penalty as possible punishment
Since September, Kohberger’s lawyers have been arguing that it would be unconstitutional for him to face the death penalty.
Idaho, they argued, had no humane means of executing guilty prisoners due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs, meaning that prisoners would face a “dehumanizing” years-long wait on death row.
But Judge Steven Hippler, now handling the case in Boise, rules against them.
“There is no basis to depart from settled law upholding Idaho’s death penalty statute as constitutional,” Hippler says.
March 4, 2025 — Kohberger’s autism could prejudice jury, lawyers say
Kohberger cannot face the death penalty because he “exhibits all the core diagnostic features” of autism, his lawyers argue.
Citing a neuropsychologist who assessed Kohberger, the lawyers say he has “extremely” rigid thinking, processes information “piecemeal”, and “demonstrates little insight into his own behaviors and emotions”.
They also describe him as having unusual and repetitive speech patterns, limited facial expressions, “atypical eye contact”, and various physical tics such as subtly rocking his upper torso when listening to someone.
Such tics aren’t unusual for people with autism, who may engage in repetitive bodily gestures known as ‘stimming’ in order to manage strong emotions, stay focused, or vent excess stress.
But in the context of a trial, Kohberger’s lawyers claim, these habits would cause a jury to unfairly see him as “strange, out of control, and even disrespectful of such a solemn proceeding”, meaning their decision may be prejudiced.
Mid to late March 2025 — A knife, a balaclava, and a smiling selfie
Over several weeks, new documents are unsealed adding detail to the case against Kohberger and answering what the victims’ other roommates were doing on the night of the murders.
The documents include the frantic text messages between Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke — identified only as ‘D.M.’ and ‘B.F.’ in the document — who hid together in Funke’s room before falling asleep.
It also includes the evidence of police claiming Kohberger bought a Ka-Bar knife, a sheath, and a sharpener on Amazon eight months before the killings.
And there is a selfie taken by Kohberger in his bathroom about six hours after the murders, giving the camera thumbs up.
Prosecutors further allege that Kohberger had bought a black balaclava in January 2022, which was “remarkably similar” to a drawing of the intruder’s mask by one of the surviving roommates.
June 13 — Witnesses speak publicly
The three young people who first discovered the bodies finally speak out about their experience in a forthcoming Amazon Prime documentary.
Emily Alandt, her boyfriend Hunter Johnson, and her roommate Joise Lauteren were living down the road from the victims’ house when they received a phone call from surviving resident Dylan Mortensen.
“As soon as I stepped in the house, I was just like, ‘Oh, something is so not right,’ like you could almost feel it,” Lauteren says in the film.
Johnson was the first to discover crime scene, and can be heard on a 911 call telling all of his friends to “get out, get out, get out” of the house.
Monday June 30 — Plea deal leaks, sparking outrage
Family members of the victims reveal they’ve received a surprise letter from the prosecution announcing a plea deal with Kohberger. Under the leaked terms of the deal, Kohberger would avoid the death penalty, spend the rest of his life in prison and waive his rights to appeal.
Feelings are mixed. Madison Mogen’s father Ben Mogen tells CBS News that he’s relieved about the deal.
“If you get that quick death sentence, you don’t have to spend decades thinking about how terrible you made the world,” he says. “We can actually put this behind us… we get to just think about the rest of lives, and try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids.”
But relatives of Kaylee Goncalves, who have been advocating for the death penalty, are outraged.
“We are beyond furious at the State of Idaho. They have failed us,” they say in a Facebook post on Monday night.
18-year-old Aubrie Goncalves argues that the “last-minute” plea deal is “both shocking and cruel” because it did not give families time to discuss and come to terms with it, and because Kohberger will remain alive.
In a follow-up post on Tuesday, the family says they could potentially accept a life sentence for Kohberger, but that any such deal should come with strings attached.
“At a bare minimum, please require require a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder weapon, confirmation the defendant acted alone, and the true facts of what happened that night,” they say.
“We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was.”
Wednesday July 2 — Kohberger expected to change plea
Bryan Kohberger is expected to accept a plea agreement in the stabbing murders of the of four University of Idaho students in 2022, according to relatives of the victims.
A hearing is set for 11:00 a.m. local time in Boise on Wednesday, according to a notice posted on the court docket.
DNA samples, cellphone records and other evidence all pointed to Kohberger, police and prosecutors say.
Kohberger had previously pleaded not guilty. Jury selection for his murder trial had been scheduled to start in August.
