Bryan Kohberger admits to killing 4 Idaho students but motive remains unclear

BOISE, Idaho — A criminal justice student who avoided a potential death sentence by pleading guilty Wednesday to the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students carefully planned the attack for months and took multiple steps to cover his tracks, the lead prosecutor said.

Bryan Kohberger, who was a graduate student at nearby Washington State University, pleaded guilty to murder in the killings that terrified the Idaho campus and set off a nationwide search, which ended weeks later when he was arrested in Pennsylvania.

Kohberger remained impassive as he admitted to breaking into a rental home through a kitchen sliding door and killing the four friends who appeared to have no connection with him. Prosecutors did not reveal a motive behind the slayings.

The killings initially baffled law enforcement and unnerved the rural college town of Moscow, which hadn’t seen a murder in five years until Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were found dead near campus on Nov. 13, 2022. Autopsies showed each was stabbed multiple times.

In the two years since Kohberger’s arrest, his attorneys unsuccessfully attempted to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty and challenged DNA evidence, leaving a plea deal their final alternative to spare his life before the start of a trial in August.

At least one of the families opposed the plea deal that calls for Kohberger to serve four life sentences and removes his ability to appeal. But others supported the agreement, saying they were ready to begin healing.

Emotional scene in Boise courtroom

Family members became increasingly emotional as Idaho Fourth Judicial District Judge Steven Hippler explained each charge to Kohberger, naming each victim individually. Some cried into tissues, while other wiped tears away with their hands.

As Kohberger pleaded guilty, some in the family section looked down and others craned to see him. The judge set the official sentencing for July 23.

Hippler said as the hearing began that he would not take into account public opinion when deciding whether to accept the agreement.

‘’This court cannot require the prosecutor to seek the death penalty, nor would it be appropriate for this court to do that,’’ he said.

The families left the courthouse without directly speaking to media gathered outside.

One of the Idaho victims was awake

The plea hearing provided a few new details about the killings but key questions remained, including why Kohberger spared two other roommates.

After breaking into the home, he climbed to the third floor where he first killed Mogen and Goncalves together, Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson said Wednesday.

He then ran into Kernodle, who was still awake after getting a Door Dash order, and stabbed her and her boyfriend, Chapin, who was still asleep, Thompson said. There were no signs of sexual assault, he said.

Police have said they used genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect and accessed cellphone data to pinpoint his movements the night of the killings.

At the time, Kohberger had just completed his first semester at Washington State and was a teaching assistant in the criminology program.

Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, weeks later. Thompson said investigators recovered a Q-tip from the garbage at his parents’ house to match Kohberger’s DNA to genetic material from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.

Murder weapon still not found

Online shopping records showed that Kohberger had purchased a military-style knife months earlier — as well as a sheath like the one found at the scene.

The county prosecutor said the murder weapon has not been found and revealed new details about how Kohberger tried to cover up the killings.

He bought another knife sheath to replace the one left at the home and scrubbed his apartment and office, Thompson said. His car had been ‘’pretty much disassembled’’ and he changed its registration, Thompson said.

‘’The defendant has studied crime,’’ Thompson said. ‘’In fact, he did a detailed paper on crime scene processing when he was working on his Ph.D., and he had that knowledge skill set.’’

Motive remains unclear

There was no indication he had a relationship with any of the victims, who all were friends and members of the university’s Greek system.

Authorities have said cellphone data and surveillance video show that Kohberger visited the victims’ neighborhood at least a dozen times before the killings, and that he traveled in the same area that night.

Kohberger’s lawyers had said he was simply on a long drive by himself around the time the four were killed.

Families split on plea deal

Although the Goncalves family opposed the agreement and sought to stop it, they also argued that any deal should have required Kohberger to make a full confession, detail the facts of what happened and provide the location of the murder weapon.

“We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was,’’ they wrote in a Facebook post.

Kaylee Goncalves’ father, Steve Goncalves, left the courthouse before Kohberger entered the courtroom. ‘’I’m just getting out of this zoo,’’ he told reporters.

The family of Chapin — one of three triplets who attended the university together — supports the deal, their spokesperson, Christina Teves, said this week.

Attorney Leander James read a statement from Mogen’s mother and stepfather after the guilty pleas that said they supported the agreement.

‘’While we know there are some who do not support it, we ask that they respect our belief that this is the best outcome for the victims, their families and the state of Idaho,’’ the family said.

‘’We now embark on a new path,’’ they said. ‘’We embark on a path of hope and healing.’’

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Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press reporters Nicholas Ingram and Rebecca Boone in Boise; Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.