Idaho Murderer Bryan Kohberger Stabbed Xana Kernodle Over 50 Times
More details are coming to light on Bryan Kohberger's horrific crimes.
After the criminology student received four consecutive life sentences for the murders of college students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, the victims' autopsies were released, providing new information on how the confessed killer tragically ended their lives.
The four University of Idaho students were found dead in an off-campus apartment in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022, with police later linking Kohberger to the case through male DNA left on a knife sheath found on a bed next to Mogen's body, per NBC News.
Now, it’s been revealed that Kernodle's body had more than 50 stab wounds, according to the autopsies released by the Moscow Police Department July 23 and obtained by NBC News. Authorities determined most of her injuries were sustained while she was trying to defend herself.
Meanwhile, Kernodle's boyfriend Chapin died from sharp force injuries, including a stab wound that severed the jugular vein in his neck, per a police report obtained by the Idaho Statesman.
Mogen likewise died from sharp force injuries, which are "caused by any objects or implements with cutting edge or pointed ends" and "could be either an incision or stab," according to a paper published in the National Library of Medicine.
As for Goncalves, she was suffocated and additionally suffered sharp force injuries and blunt force injuries, per the autopsy obtained by NBC News.
As stated by the Cleveland Clinic, "Blunt force is when something hits you so hard that you have injuries like broken bones, internal bleeding or external bleeding from very deep cuts or wounds or head injuries like a severe concussion."
Authorities said the attack on Goncalves “made her unrecognizable,” according to a police report obtained by the Statesman.
Earlier this month, Kohberger pleaded guilty to killing all four students, responding "yes" in court when asked if he acted "willingly, unlawfully, deliberately and with premeditation and malice with forethought."
However, the 30-year-old has not shared his motives for the slayings, and prosecutors said they could not link him to the victims or provide a motive.
"We are now certain who committed these unspeakable acts of evil, but what we don't know, and what we may never know, is why," Judge Steven Hippler said in court July 23, per ABC News. "By continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr. Kohberger relevance [and the] spotlight, attention and power he appears to crave."
Before the case came to a close, the victims' family and friends—including one of their surviving roommates, Dylan Mortensen—were able to confront Kohberger for the suffering he inflicted.
“What happened that night changed everything,” Mortensen said in court. “Because of him, four beautiful, genuine, compassionate people were taken from this world for no reason.”
“All of it is gone,” she continued while crying. “All of the people who loved them are left to carry that weight forever. He didn’t just take them from the world. He took them from me. My friends, my people who felt like my home.”
For more on the Idaho quadruple murder case, keep reading.
(E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were University of Idaho students who lived in an off-campus apartment.
On Nov. 12, 2022—the night before their bodies were found—Goncalves and Mogen were at a nearby sports bar, while Kernodle and Chapin were at the latter’s fraternity party. By 2 a.m. on Nov. 13, the four roommates and Chapin were back at the three-story rental house.
Goncalves was a senior majoring in general studies at the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. She was expected to graduate in December before heading to Austin, Texas, for a job at a marketing firm, her friend Jordyn Quesnell told The New York Times.
Mogen, who was studying marketing, was best friends with Goncalves since the sixth grade. She had plans to move to Boise after graduation, family friend Jessie Frost shared with The Idaho Statesman.
Kernodle was a junior majoring in marketing, the University said at the time. She and Chapin—who majored in recreation, sport and tourism management—had been dating since the spring, the roommates’ neighbor Ellie McKnight told NBC News.
Two roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, had been home at the time of the murders. In text messages that were unsealed March 6, 2025, Mortensen and Funke tried contacting their roommates on Nov. 13 after the former saw a masked man moving through the house, according to documents obtained by E! News.
"No one is answering," Mortensen texted Funke at 4:22 a.m. "I'm rlly confused rn."
She continued to reach out to their roommates, urging them to respond. "Pls answer," she texted Goncalves at 4:32 a.m. and again at 10:23 a.m. "R u up??"
At 11:58 a.m., a 911 call was placed after Kernodle was found unresponsive, per an additional motion obtained by E! News. A woman named A1 in the transcript described the current situation to the operator.
"One of the roommates who's passed out and she was drunk last night and she's not waking up," she said on the phone. "They saw some man in their house last night."
Bryan Kohberger, who was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, was a doctoral candidate at Washington State University. Over one month after the bodies of Gonclaves, Mogen, Kernodle and Chapin were discovered, Kohberger was taken into custody Dec. 30 in Monroe County, Penn. He was extradited to Idaho Jan. 4, 2023.
As for how authorities connected him to the killings? DNA was found on a knife sheath that was left at the crime scene, prosecutors revealed in June 2023 court documents, per NBC News.
When the DNA didn't match anyone in the FBI database, authorities ran the DNA through public ancestry websites to create a list of potential suspects, according to the filings. After learning that Kohberger had driven to his parents' home in Monroe County, local officials then went through their trash and found DNA that tied him to that found on the sheath.
At the moment, a motive for the attack has not been detailed and a gag order prevents many involved in the case from speaking publicly, NBC News reported. However, the unsealed documents provided some insight into their initial arguments.
Kohberger's attorneys argued in a motion obtained by E! News to strike the death penalty that Kohberger—who initially faced death penalty if found guilty on all counts—has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and that executing him would violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishment."
His defense argued that Kohbereger "displays extremely rigid thinking, perseverates on specific topics, processes information on a piecemeal basis, struggles to plan ahead, and demonstrates little insight into his own behaviors and emotions."
"Due to his ASD, Mr. Kohberger simply cannot comport himself in a manner that aligns with societal expectations of normalcy," the motion said. "This creates an unconscionable risk that he will be executed because of his disability rather than his culpability."
Initially, Kohberger had a judge enter a not-guilty plea to the first-degree murder charges on his behalf after remaining silent at his May 2023 arraignment. Although his trial was set to begin Oct. 2, 2023, Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial in August 2023.
His trial date—which was scheduled to take place in Ada County, more than 300 miles from Latah County, where the killings took place—was set to begin Aug. 11, 2025.
Latah County Judge John Judge previously ruled in favor of the transfer request made by Kohberger's defense in September 2024 based on "presumed prejudice" if the trial remained in Latah County.
Ada County Judge Steven Hippler denied the defense's request to suppress key DNA and other evidence, including cell phone and email records, surveillance footage, past Amazon purchases and DNA evidence in the trial.
Kohberger's murder trial was abruptly canceled after he took a plea deal from prosecutors on June 30, 2025. In accepting the deal, Kohberger agreed to plead guilty to four counts of murder and one count of burglary, as well as waive his rights to appeal and ask for a more lenient prison sentence.
He entered his guilty plea on July 2, 2025, confirming with a "yes" after the judge asked if he killed all four victims "willingly, unlawfully, deliberately and with premeditation and malice with forethought."
A selfie Kohberger took the morning after the murders took place was introduced in March 2025. The photograph, which sees him in front of a shower showing a thumbs up, displays how he may fit the description a witness identified as "D.M." gave in filings, who said the perpetrator had "bushy eyebrows."
Steve Gonclaves, the father of victim Kaylee, later reacted to the image calling it a "trophy" in an interview with Fox and Friends.
"I know the timeline, I know that he had just returned to the crime scene and he had come back," Gonclaves said. "He had realized that nobody had called 911."
As he put it, "To him, that’s his little trophy to let him know like, ‘Hey, I got away with it, nobody’s on me.’”
In a 2025 Dateline documentary about the murders, a former classmate of Kohberger’s detailed a “peculiar” text she received from him after making his acquaintance at a party.
“I definitely felt a little obligated to chat with him, because to me, he seemed a little awkward,” the student—identified as Holly—explained. “Kind of like you might expect for a PhD student who didn't know anyone at the party and was maybe trying his best to kind of get out there and be social and make friends.”
The following day, Holly said she received a text from him, which she described as overly formal.
“Hey, I am pretty sure we spoke about hiking trips yesterday,” Bryan’s text from July 10, 2022 at 1:19 p.m., read, per Dateline. “I really enjoy that activity, so please let me know. Thanks!”
Elsewhere in the Dateline documentary, Kohberger’s browsing history was found to have included searches for Ted Bundy, Britney Spears’ song “Criminal,” and the term “University of Idaho Murders.”
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