Idaho students’ killer gets life without parole for 2022 murders, but motive remains a mystery

BOISE, Idaho – The former criminal-justice doctoral student convicted in the 2022 stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students was sentenced to life in prison on July 23, but his motives for the killings remained a mystery.

Bryan Kohberger, 30, received four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole or appeal under a deal with prosecutors sparing him the death penalty in return for

pleading guilty earlier in July to four counts of first-degree murder.

Judge Steven Hippler gave Kohberger, dressed in orange jail garb and seated beside his lawyers, an opportunity to make a statement before sentence was pronounced.

“I respectfully decline,” the defendant answered quietly, the only words he uttered during the 2½ hour proceedings in Idaho’s Fourth District Court in Boise, the state capital.

Throughout the hearing, he sat expressionless, while relatives and friends of the victims – Mr Ethan Chapin, 20, his girlfriend, Ms Xana Kernodle, 20, and her roommates, Ms Madison Mogen, 21, and, Ms Kaylee Goncalves, 21 – took turns venting their anger and anguish directly at him through the presentation of victim impact statements.

“I never imagined having to speak to someone so devoid of humanity,” said Mrs Kristi Goncalves, mother of Ms Kaylee Goncalves.

The victim’s older sister, Alivea, addressed Kohberger in an unflinching accusatory tone, saying: “I will call you what you are – sociopath, psychopath, murderer.”

She demanded, in vain, to know answers to such lingering questions as how he chose his victims and what were her sister’s last words.

In the end, she and other loved ones of the four slain students were left baffled over what had precipitated a crime that stunned the small college town of Moscow, Idaho, and riveted national media attention.

In pleading guilty on July 2, Kohberger admitted to the underlying allegations that he had crept into an off-campus house under cover of pre-dawn darkness on Nov 13, 2022, and

stabbed the four students to death

with a hunting knife, then slipped away. Two other women living at the house survived unharmed.

But the killer made no mention of motive. The authorities likewise have yet to offer an explanation for what might have driven Kohberger’s actions, and how or why he singled out his victims. Neither did the plea agreement require Kohberger to provide any such insights.

US President Donald Trump weighed in on the case on his Truth Social platform this week, saying he hoped the judge “makes Kohberger, at a minimum, explain why he did these horrible murders”.

Shortly before pronouncing the sentence, Judge Hippler lamented: “We are now certain who committed these unspeakable acts of evil, but what we don’t know and what we may never know is why.”

“I share the desire expressed by others to understand the why,” the judge said, adding that “by continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr Kohberger relevance. We give him agency”.

“The need to know what is inherently not understandable makes us dependent on the defendant to provide us with a reason, and that gives him the spotlight, the attention and the power he appears to crave,” Judge Hippler said.

Even if legally empowered to compel Kohberger to address the court, the judge asked: “How could anyone ever be assured that what he speaks is the truth?”

During the plea hearing earlier in July, Latah County prosecuting attorney Bill Thompson sought to rule out one possible avenue of speculation, declaring that there was no evidence of sexual assault among the victims or a “sexual component” to the killings.

At the time of the murders, Kohberger was pursuing a doctorate degree in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, a short distance from the University of Idaho campus in the neighbouring north-western Idaho town of Moscow.

Mr Thompson had said Kohberger planned the violence in advance, purchasing the knife online about eight months before the killings. The knife’s sheath was recovered, but the murder weapon was never found.

As evidence Kohberger sought to cover up his crimes, Mr Thompson said investigators found he had meticulously cleaned the inside of his car, which he used as the getaway vehicle.

The authorities have said they linked Kohberger to the murders using DNA evidence, cellphone data and video footage. He was arrested weeks after the killings in Pennsylvania, where he was visiting family during the Christmas holidays, and was returned to Idaho to face charges. REUTERS