Ex-doctoral candidate in criminal justice expected to plead guilty to murders of 4 US students

BOISE, Idaho – A man pursuing a doctorate in criminal justice when he was charged with the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students was due back in court on July 2, and was expected to plead guilty under a deal with prosecutors that helps him avoid the threat of capital punishment.

Bryan Kohberger, 30, previously pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and burglary charges in a gruesome multiple homicide in 2022 that stunned the small college town of Moscow in north-western Idaho and drew national media attention.

Relatives of at least two of the victims were expected to attend the hearing on July 2, set to begin at 11am local time at a courthouse in Boise, the Idaho state capital. According to news media accounts, the families are divided on the plea deal.

At the time of the killings, Kohberger was pursuing a PhD in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, a short distance from Moscow, where the four victims were enrolled as undergraduates at the University of Idaho.

The murders occurred during the early morning hours of Nov 13, 2022, in an off-campus group house shared by five women. 

Three of the roommates – Ms Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; Ms Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; and Ms Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho – were found slain inside the house along with Ms Kernodle’s boyfriend, Mr Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington. 

All suffered multiple stab wounds, according to the authorities.

Ms Kernodle and Mr Chapin had attended a party the night before, while best friends Ms Mogen and Ms Goncalves had visited a local bar and food truck, with all four returning to the house before 2am. Their bodies were found hours later that morning.

Two other women in the house at the time survived unharmed.

According to an affidavit unsealed in January 2025, one of the surviving roommates told investigators she heard someone crying in one of the victims’ bedrooms on the night of the murders and opened her door to see a masked man, clad in black, walk past her and out of the house.

The authorities have not publicly suggested a motive for the killings but have said they were confident Kohberger was responsible for all four slayings. 

The affidavit said the police linked Kohberger to the murders using DNA, cellphone data and video footage. He was arrested weeks after the killings in Pennsylvania, where he was visiting family, and was returned to Idaho to face charges.

Had a jury found him guilty on four counts of first-degree murder as charged, Kohberger would have been eligible for the death penalty. But according to the Goncalves family, terms of the plea deal would spare him from the possibility of execution.

ABC News reported the plea agreement calls for Kohberger to face four consecutive life terms and to waive his right to appeal.

The Goncalves family, in a statement shared by their attorney, criticised the plea agreement as a mishandled, “secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims’ families”.

Citing a notice to the victims’ families about the deal, ABC News reported that prosecutors expect Kohberger to be sentenced in late July 2025, if he enters the guilty plea as planned at the hearing on July 2. REUTERS