Families left without answers on Kohberger’s motives for Idaho student murders
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Bryan Kohberger sentencing
Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students in 2022. Look here for the Statesman’s latest coverage.
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Bryan Kohberger chose not to speak at his sentencing Wednesday for the murders of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said it was for the best.
“I don’t believe that there’s anything that would come out of his mouth that would be the truth,” Thompson said during a news conference after the sentencing at the Ada County Courthouse. “I don’t believe there’s anything that would come out of his mouth that would be anything other than self-serving. And I don’t believe there’s anything that would come out of his mouth that would not further victimize the families.”
But Kohberger’s silence left some questions unanswered for the victims’ families.
With Kohberger set to serve four consecutive life sentences, his motive and connection to the victims remain unknown. Investigators said they spent countless hours searching for a connection between Kohberger and the residents of 1122 King Road in Moscow, but they came up empty.
“The reality also is that oftentimes those very things that you’re asking about, they’re only known to one person. It’s the person that commits those crimes,” Idaho State Police Lt. Darren Gilbertson said. “I think that’s probably what we have here.”
Law enforcement officials took the time to address false claims that had circulated throughout the case about Kohberger’s link to the victims. Gilbertson could not substantiate a rumor on social media that Kohberger had encountered Mogen at the restaurant where she worked.
“We have never, to this day, found a single connection between him and any of the four victims or the two surviving roommates,” Gilbertson said.
Moscow Police Cpl. Brett Payne also said law enforcement never found evidence of a social media connection, dispelling a PEOPLE magazine report from June 2023 claiming that Kohberger followed Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle on Instagram.
And finally, Kohberger was not Pappa Rodger, a commenter in a Facebook group dedicated to the discussion of the Idaho student murders case, law enforcement officials said.
During Kohberger’s plea hearing on July 2, Thompson indicated the state didn’t have evidence that Kohberger ever knew the victims. Thompson also pointed out that the state would “not represent that he intended to commit all of the murders that he did that night, but we know that that is what resulted.”
“I’m sure as heck not gonna stand in front of a bunch of 12 jurors and start speculating,” Thompson said Wednesday. “We’re going to give them the evidence, and the evidence in this case, what you heard at the time of his guilty plea back on the second (of July), that evidence was compelling and it showed his guilt without having to worry about motive in a human sense.”
This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Families left without answers on Kohberger’s motives for Idaho student murders."
