Idaho murders update: Kaylee Goncalves’ family recount learning about murders as Bryan Kohberger rap emerges

Even now Bryan Kohberger is in police custody, the online rumour mill shows no signs of winding down.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp explores the fascination with the Idaho murders case, and its effect on the online true crime community.

New details continue to emerge about the suspect as he awaits his next court hearing on 26 June, with his chilling online comments and posts resurfacing.

In one disturbing rap song which appears to have been shared by Mr Kohberger on Soundcloud in 2011, he referred to himself as a “devil” and warned “don’t f*** with us, you underestimate,” the New York Post reported.

“You are not my equal / You are evil but I’m devil,” the lyric reads.

Previously, the New York Times had reported on comments on a forum made also by a profile with the username Exxar, which has been linked to Mr Kohberger.

The posts offered new insight into the alleged murderer’s troubled teenage years and his struggle to feel emotion from a young age.

The Tapatalk profile behind the chilling posts from 2011 was linked to the Washington State University PhD criminology student with the help of recollections from former friends of Mr Kohberger, and a username match with an email account used by him, according to the Times.

In another post, the author explored feelings of self-loathing, regretting that he was no longer the “healthy blonde-haired boy with blue eyes, and in a few years, [he then had] darker hair and darker eyes, half the body weight”.

He then proceeded to say he felt “unintelligent” and as though he was experiencing “depersonalization” and felt “little to no remorse.’

“I often find myself making simple human interactions, but it is as if I am playing a role-playing game such as oblivion; I can see what is going on, I am slightly into it, but I can pause the game and focus on my real life,” the post states.

It continues: “I view everything as I would if I was playing oblivion, pointless and full of nothing, out of reality. I am moving out of my house, my last holidays were already lived, but where was I? As my family group hugs and celebrates, I am stuck in this void of nothing, feeling completely no emotion, feeling nothing.”

“I feel dirty, like there is dirt inside of my head, my mind, I am always dizzy and confused.”

An affidavit for Mr Kohberger’s arrest, released on 5 January when Mr Kohberger was extradited to Moscow, Idaho, reveals how Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were found with multiple stab wounds in the same single bed in Mogen’s room.

Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were also found murdered on the second floor.

A knife sheath was found on the bed next to Mogen’s body, left behind by the killer.

Investigators said that Mr Kohberger’s DNA was found on the sheath – matching it to the 28-year-old through the use of a genetic genealogy website and comparing it to his father’s DNA recovered from trash seized from the family’s home in Pennsylvania.

Cellphone data also suggests that Mr Kohberger stalked the student home at least 12 times in the run-up to the night of the murders, according to the affidavit. The exact dates and times of these instances were not revealed in the affidavit but all bar one were in the late evening or early morning hours.

At the time of the murders, investigators believe Mr Kohberger turned his cellphone off in order to try to avoid detection.

However, cellphone data places him close to the home on King Road at around 9am on 13 November – suggesting that he returned to the scene of the crime just hours after allegedly murdering the four victims at around 4am.

As well as cellphone data and DNA evidence, the affidavit reveals that a white Hyundai Elantra spotted at the crime scene at the time of the murders was also traced back to the suspect.

One of the victims’ surviving roommates was also able to partially describe the killer to investigators after she came face to face with him in the aftermath of the murders in the early hours of 13 November.

The motive for the murders is unknown and it remains unclear why Mr Kohberger allegedly targeted the victims.

A University of Idaho student stabbed to death in her sleep may have called her ex-boyfriend on the night of her murder to rekindle their relationship, her family believes.

Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were killed during a 13 November attack in the small college town of Moscow. The murders gripped the nation and a secretive investigation by the FBI, Moscow Police, and Idaho State Police eventually materialised into the 30 December arrest of Washington State University PhD criminology student Bryan Kohberger.

Goncalves’ family has now shed new light on why she might have been calling her ex-boyfriend Jack DuCoeur in the hours before she was brutally attacked. In a sit-down interview with the YouTube channel Chronicles of Olivia — filmed two days before Mr Kohberger’s arrest– the Goncalves said their daughter broke up with Mr DuCoeur ahead of her post-graduation move to Texas, but had later voiced concerns that she “might not ever find another Jack” and was considering getting back together with him.

The Independent has the story:

In the wake of Bryan Kohberger’s arrest on charges for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle, social media sleuths began scouring video of a 30 November vigil for the slain students to see if the suspect may have been present.

The armchair detectives – who have been poring over alleged clues in the case for weeks – seized on a specific clip showing the back of a tall man with brown hair, making wholly far-fetched claims that he could be Mr Kohberger.

The baseless speculation has now been discredited by new footage from Inside Edition, which appears to show the face of the same man the online commenters identified as Mr Kohberger from the back. It is clear on the outlet’s video that the man is not Mr Kohberger.

The vigil rumours marked the latest wild theory to go viral online, only to be swiftly debunked.

Like two roommates in the Idaho murders case, Alanna Zabel also survived an attack at a student home.

Her close encounter with death happened more than 2,000 miles away in Buffalo, and nearly 31 years ago, but one thing remains consistent.

“We must defend the survivors,” she writes.

Read Alana’s piece for The Independent:

There are many chilling similarities between the murders of four Idaho students in November and a 1992 attack at a student home in Buffalo – none more so than the experiences of the roommates who survived.

Alanna Zabel tells Rachel Sharp why she feels the need to defend the surviving roommate in Idaho and how she understands the way trauma can shape reactions to such horrifying events.

Suspect Bryan Kohberger may have stalked the Idaho house where four students were brutally knifed to death “at least 12 times” before the killings, an arrest affidavit suggests.

The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found at their King Road rental house opposite the University of Idaho in the city of Moscow on 13 November.

Mr Kohberger, a PHD criminology student from nearby Pulman, Washington, has been charged with their murders and appeared in an Idaho court on Thursday morning, just before which a probable cause affidavit describing the police case against him was unsealed.

Investigators state in the document that they received historical data for the suspect’s phone from AT&T for the time after his account was opened in June 2022 “to determine if Kohberger stalked any of the victims in this case prior to the offense, conducted surveillance on the King Road Residence, was in contact with any of the victims’ associates before or after the alleged offense.”

And the document states that Mr Kohberger’s phone showed that it had registered in the area of the King Road murder house “on at least twelve occasions prior to November 13, 2022.”

Prior to the 13 November massacre, investigators believe that Mr Kohberger stalked the victims’ home at least 12 times.

Cellphone records show that his phone pinged in the area of the King Road home on at least twelve occasions between 23 June and 13 November when the murders took place.

The exact dates of these instances were not revealed in the documents but all bar one were in the late evening or early morning hours.

One incident was identified on 21 August, when the suspect was stopped by police just minutes from the home where he allegedly knifed the four students to death three months later.

A citation from Latah County Sheriff’s Office, obtained by The Independent earlier this week, reveals that the traffic stop took place at around 11.40pm at the intersection of West Pullman Road and Farm Road in Moscow.

The record shows he was stopped for failing to wear his seatbelt – just 1.7 miles and a five-minute drive from the victims’ student rental home.

On that occasion, Mr Kohberger’s cellphone pinged in the area of the King Road home from around 10.34pm to 11.35pm, the affidavit shows.

Prior to her death, Goncalves had told friends and family members that she believed she had a stalker.

The details of the stalker were unknown and, throughout the murder investigation, Moscow Police said that they had been unable to confirm or deny the claims.

It remains unclear if Mr Kohberger was the stalker Goncalves was fearful of and how long he may have been surveilling the victim or victims at the home.

During a period of surveillance, investigators observed Mr Kohberger behaving suspiciously, including wearing surgical gloves, secretly dumping trash and rigorously cleaning his car.

The 28-year-old criminal justice PhD student has been charged with the 13 November murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin that rocked the small, college town of Moscow, Idaho.

The net had been closing in on Mr Kohberger for several weeks and he was placed under surveillance by law enforcement for four days leading up to his arrest at his family home in Pennsylvania on 30 December.

The surveillance team was tasked with both keeping eyes on the suspect so that authorities could arrest him as soon as a warrant was obtained and obtaining a DNA sample that investigators could use to try to match him to DNA found at the crime scene.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the story: