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More information about the horrifying crimes committed by Bryan Kohberger is emerging. The autopsies of the victims, who were college students Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were made public after the criminology student was given four consecutive life sentences for their murders. These autopsies revealed new details about the confessed killer's terrible way of ending their lives.
According to NBC News, Kohberger was later connected to the case by police using male DNA left on a knife sheath discovered on a bed next to Mogen's body after the four University of Idaho students were discovered dead in an off-campus apartment in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022.
According to autopsies obtained by NBC News and made public by the Moscow Police Department on July 23, Kernodle's body had over fifty stab wounds. The majority of her injuries, according to the authorities, were sustained while she was attempting self-defense.
According to a police report obtained by the Idaho Statesman, Chapin, Kernodle's boyfriend, died from injuries caused by sharp objects, including a stab wound that severed the jugular vein in his neck.
According to a paper published in the National Library of Medicine, Mogen also died from injuries caused by sharp force, which "could be either an incision or stab" and are "caused by any objects or implements with a cutting edge or pointed ends."
According to the autopsy that NBC News was able to obtain, Goncalves was suffocated and also sustained blunt and sharp force injuries.
According to 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."
A police report that the Statesman was able to obtain stated that the assault on Goncalves "made her unrecognizable."
In court, Kohberger answered "yes" when asked if he acted "willingly, unlawfully, deliberately, and with premeditation and malice with forethought" after entering a guilty plea to the murders of all four students earlier this month.
The 30-year-old man responsible for the slayings of four people, including Dylan Mortensen, has not disclosed his motives or provided a motive. Prosecutors cannot link him to the victims or provide a motive. Judge Steven Hippler stated that the motives remain unknown, but the focus on the motives gives Kohberger relevance and power. The victims' family and friends, including Mortensen, have confronted Kohberger for the suffering he caused. Mortensen expressed her grief, stating that Kohberger took her friends and loved ones from her world for no reason.
