The parents of a University of Idaho student who was killed along with three other people said she had recently moved from the house where the killings occurred in November, but had returned there to show her close friend her new car and attend to a nearby party.
Kristi and Steve Goncalves told Dateline that their daughter, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, would be graduating early from college and had landed a job at an IT company in Austin, Texas.
Kaylee Goncalves had just moved out of the house she shared with her best friend, 21-year-old Madison «Maddie» Mogen.
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“These girls were best friends since sixth grade, like inseparable,” Kristi Goncalves said.
The two had lived together and «were real best friends,» he said. «Maddie had been a big part of our life.»
Kaylee Goncalves, who had just bought a new Range Rover, told her parents that she wanted to go back to Moscow, Idaho, to show it to Maddie and attend a nearby party together.
“That was the last time I saw Kaylee,” her mother said.
On November 13, Kaylee, Mogen and two others were stabbed to death inside a home in Moscow’s largely rural university community.
Also killed in the attack were Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington, and Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona.
Police arrested a suspect, 28-year-old Bryan Christopher Kohberger, about seven weeks after the murders. He has been charged with four counts of first degree murder and burglary.
Authorities linked Kohberger to the case through male DNA left on a knife sheath at the scene, as well as by tracing Kohberger’s car and cell phone records.
Kohberger, who is from Pennsylvania, was a doctoral student at nearby Washington State University studying in the department of criminal justice and criminology.
Police have not released a motive for the killings or said whether or how Kohberger may have known the victims.
A former criminal justice classmate of Kohberger’s at DeSales University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in criminal justice, said she was shocked when she heard the news of Kohberger’s arrest.
«It definitely took me by surprise,» the classmate, Madison, told Dateline.
Madison, who requested that her last name not be used for fear of harassment, said she remembered the detailed answers Kohberger gave in the criminology course they took together in 2018.
“Every time he raised his hand, he would definitely take it upon himself to answer the question, but then he would provide as much detail as he could to help further his point,” he said. “It was always like, ‘Oh, Bryan is answering this question. This is going to occupy the whole class.’”
She also felt that Kohberger would «stare down» her and her friends.
«He was staring at us. He definitely had very prominent eyes,» he said. «He would always catch him looking at us. He would never try to ‘talk’ to us.»
Hayden Stinchfield, a junior in WSU’s criminal justice program, had Kohberger as a teaching assistant.
“He wasn’t a super approachable guy,” Stinchfield told Dateline, adding that Kohberger was initially a tough rater.
But that abruptly changed.
“At a certain point, he started giving everyone 100s and super high marks,” he said. “At the end of the semester, no one was thinking about the small deductions from before.”
Stinchfield said that, looking back, he thinks the change in Kohberger’s filing habits «aligns pretty well» with the timing of the murders.
Steve and Kristi Goncalves said they take comfort in thinking and hoping that their daughter helped solve her own death by taking the sheath of the knife that was ultimately used to link Kohberger to the murders.
«I hope that maybe in a fight, she took it off,» Kristi Goncalves said.
“It’s a checkmate type moment,” added Steve Goncalves.
The two said they expect a conviction and the death penalty.
“He chose time and time again to end people’s lives and that has to be reckoned with,” Steve Goncalves said.