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Theories have emerged, suggesting the reasoning behind murderer Bryan Kohberger's decision to target this particular student house in Moscow, Idaho, for his crimes.
Just last week, Netflix crime documentary The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare was released, bringing never-before-seen evidence to light for the first time.
It brought renewed attention to the horrific murders of four University of Idaho students: Madison May Mogen, Kaylee Jade Goncalves, Xana Alexia Kernodle, and Ethan James Chapin in their home, on November 13, 2022.
A year on from being handed four life sentences for the crime, Bryan Kohberger has attempted to withdraw the guilty plea that spared him from standing trial, as well as the death penalty.
He has continued to claim that key evidence proves that he is innocent, but he remains behind bars after pleading guilty to one charge of burglary and four counts of first-degree murder, to avoid the death penalty.
But now, his motive has been suggested by the director of the Netflix crime doc.
Kohberger's heinous actions shocked many, as the four students were stabbed at least 150 times in the early morning hours in their off-campus property, according to a supplemental filing from prosecutors.
The murderer never revealed his motive, but The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare director, Skye Borgman, thinks that the house he targeted reveals the answer.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, the filmmaker said: "The fact that [this] was the house that he chose. This was a house that had five women living in it.
"The night that the murders happened, Xana Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, was over, but really, this was a house full of women, and it seems quite clear that he targeted it.”
She added: “He watched the house; he was around the house in the days, weeks and months leading up to the murders,
“So, it seems pretty likely that he had a very low regard, if not hatred, for women,” Borgman suggested.
“It’s all conjecture, but he seemed to struggle with his relationships with women,” the director explained.
“And we look at this incel movement and the question of whether or not he was an incel, and whether or not he didn’t like women.
“It seems to me that there was a hatred of women there,” the documentary director claimed.
Interviews and accounts featured in the documentary, as individuals came out about disturbing interactions with the convict.
Prior to his arrest and sentencing, ex-classmate Lilly Karaban said he had a “his way or the highway” attitude and seemed to exist “in his own world.”
According to the Netflix doc, classmates said he was “not particularly well liked,” claiming that he often spoke down to women, guilty of “mansplaining” while also becoming argumentative or aggressive during interactions.
It supports Borgman's claims, while other students described him as "creepy" as he made them uncomfortable.
Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger said that "there were just strange incidents and strange behavior."
Gary Jenkins, the former Chief of Washington State University Police, said that one student remembered feeling cornered by Kohberger in an encounter, before she claims she was followed to her car.
Kohberger would lose his teaching assistant role as a result, as Jenkins explained that these incidents weren't reported top authorities as “nothing that occurred rose to the level of a crime.”
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The murders of four University of Idaho students have created headlines again following the release of the show The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare, four years after the brutal killings took place.
Bryan Kohberger, who was convicted of the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle and sentenced to four life terms back in July 2025, broke into their house and stabbed them to death, it was revealed last year.
The show, which is revisiting the tragic events, draws on evidence, including witness accounts and police interviews, to examine the case in all its gory and harrowing detail.
Kohberger, a mature PhD student at the same university, was 28 years old at the time of the murders, killing four of the six housemates who resided in their off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho.
Kohberger pleaded guilty to all four counts of murder in a reported plea deal, which secured his conviction, ensuring that he would avoid the death penalty.
Following the release of the gruesome details of the case that shocked both the state and the country as a whole, and there are questions that remain unanswered, according to the families of the victims.
Kaylee’s aunt, Tami, claimed, “He got off, in a sense, in our eyes, easy,” because when the judge asked if he committed the crimes, all he had to say was, “Yes.”
“That’s not enough,” she added.
“The biggest answer I want is why. Why would you choose these kids, and this house.”
Another asked, “Tell all of us parents why he did it, if he was gonna get the plea.”
“What I want is for him to die. Justice would be if the kids came back … they’re never coming back, but I want him to die,” Kristi Goncalves, Kaylee’s mother, said.
As yet, the motive behind the fatal attacks has remained a mystery to investigators, but with Kohberger filing a petition to overturn his guilty plea on the grounds that it was a “false plea”, and claiming that he was “advised to lie”, the parents’ painstaking wait for answers is likely to carry on.
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Netflix has released a documentary on the gruesome Idaho student murders, and a survivor recalled what he heard killer Bryan Kohberger say during his attack.
The crime doc features never-before-seen evidence, which includes bodycam footage of one of the two survivors speaking to police about what happened.
It's titled The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare, and the title was officially released on the streaming platform today (July 29).
The doc follows Bryan Kohberger's murders of four University of Idaho students: Madison May Mogen, Kaylee Jade Goncalves, Xana Alexia Kernodle, and Ethan James Chapin in their home.
Kohberger, who is serving four life sentences for the crime, is now attempting to withdraw the guilty plea that spared him from standing trial, as well as the death penalty.
But now, two of the victims' housemates have spoken out about hearing Kohberger in their home and hearing him speak.
Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke survived the attack, where Kohberger stabbed four students to death.
The 30-year-old admitted to the killings in July 2025 as part of a plea agreement that avoided the possibility of being put to death and provided favorable living conditions.
In the new documentary, there is police bodycam footage of Dylan speaking to a police officer, speaking about a man dressed in black in the home.
She explained: "I was in my room, and I was trying to go to bed and I heard Kaylee go upstairs. Like ‘Ok, I’m going to go to sleep now. She’s going upstairs.’
"And then all of a sudden I heard her scream. And she ran downstairs cause she saw someone."
Dylan further recounted: “I called her name, but I jumped up and locked my door because I was so scared. And then I heard her go in... I think it was the bathroom. And I remember her sobbing.
"I remember hearing this guy’s voice that I didn’t recognise saying, ‘You’re going be ok, I’m gonna help,’” the survivor recalled.
Dylan then opened the door to look for her housemates, as they didn't respond to calls, remembering seeing a "guy pass by" who looked at her, but didn't say anything.
She told police in an affidavit that he was in a mask and black clothing, while being in "frozen shock phase" when he walked past.
Kohberger has filed a petition for post-conviction relief in Idaho's Ada County District Court, arguing that his conviction should now be overturned.
Court records now show Kohberger is representing himself in the filing.
According to documents obtained by NBC News, Kohberger claims his defense team provided "ineffective" legal representation and alleges he was "convinced to falsely confess" to murders he insists he did not commit.
He further argued that he was led to believe whether he was actually guilty was irrelevant when deciding whether to accept the plea agreement.
In the filing, Kohberger claimed he was "advised to lie" and told he would secure a "legal victory" by entering what he described as a "false plea".
The claims mirror remarks Kohberger recently made during an interview with The New York Times, where he again maintained his innocence and argued he had been manipulated into pleading guilty.
"My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn," he said in a statement provided to the newspaper.
Kohberger also dismissed prosecutors' version of events, describing it as a "myopic narrative" and a "work of fiction."
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More than a year after the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students, Bryan Kohberger faced sentencing Wednesday in a Boise courtroom, but offered no explanation for his actions.
The 30-year-old former criminology PhD student was handed four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the November 2022 killings of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.
He was also sentenced to 10 years for burglary and ordered to pay nearly $290,000 in restitution to the victims’ families.
As families and survivors sat in the courtroom waiting for answers, Kohberger was given the opportunity to speak. Rising slightly from his seat, he delivered just three words: “I respectfully decline.”
Judge Steven Hippler, who oversaw the hearing, addressed the moment directly. “The more we struggle to seek explanation for the unexplainable, the more power and control we give to him,” Hippler said, per Fox News. “In my view, the time has now come to end Mr. Kohberger’s 15 minutes of fame.”
Kohberger had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder earlier this month, avoiding a death sentence through a plea agreement.
Prosecutors said he broke into the students’ off-campus home in the early hours of November 13, 2022, and used a military-style Ka-Bar knife to carry out the attack, BBC News detailed.
Investigators believe he began by killing Mogen and Goncalves in an upstairs bedroom before moving to the main floor to stab Kernodle and Chapin. All four students were found dead in their beds.
The crime shocked the nation and prompted a lengthy investigation that led authorities to Kohberger, a graduate student at nearby Washington State University.
In a press conference following the sentencing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the families' grief, saying (via NBC News): “We are so sorry for the pain and the grief you have experienced at the hands of such a vicious and evil killer. Our nation grieves with you.”
She added: “If it were up to President Trump, he would have forced this monster to publicly explain why he chose to steal these innocent souls.”
Leavitt concluded her remarks by honoring the victims and offering condolences to their parents: “May God bless everyone affected by this unimaginable tragedy, especially the parents who lost their children.”
Meanwhile, prosecutors requested that the court extend the no-contact orders barring Kohberger from communicating with the victims’ families.
Those orders currently expire in January 2027, but prosecutors are seeking to lengthen them by an additional 99 years to protect the families from future harassment or trauma.
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Here are some key details that weren't included in Netflix crime documentary The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare.
The title explores the horrific murders of four University of Idaho students: Madison May Mogen, Kaylee Jade Goncalves, Xana Alexia Kernodle, and Ethan James Chapin in their home.
As part of the crime doc, there is never-before-seen evidence, including bodycam footage of one of the two survivors speaking to police about what happened.
Bryan Kohberger, who is serving four life sentences for the crime, has been attempting to withdraw the guilty plea that spared him from standing trial, as well as the death penalty.
While he has claimed that key evidence proves that he is innocent, the convict is still behind bars after pleading guilty to one charge of burglary and four counts of first-degree murder in exchange for not facing the death penalty.
The students were stabbed at least 150 times in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, in their off-campus property, according to a supplemental filing from prosecutors.
Despite the detail in the doc, here are eight things that weren't included in the final cut.
Speaking to Moscow Police Department, surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen admitted that Goncalves thought she was being followed for weeks before her death.
She remembered her late roommate seeing a dark figure while she was walking her dog a month prior.
While interviewees said that the convict's phone only had 18 contacts on it and few apps, a source close to the investigation claimed that Kohberger had photos of one of the female victims, while an account that appeared to belong to him followed Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle on Instagram.
The source claimed: “He had more than one picture of her, it was clear that he was paying attention to her.”
It was also claimed by an ex-employee that he visited the restaurant Kernodle and Mogen worked at, while experts claimed that he had likely been in their home before the killings.
Mortensen said that two weeks before the incident, she and her roommates came home to find the front door open and their washing machine running.
While the documentary spoke about complaints against Kohberger, it did not mention the two women who accused him of stalking them at their homes and a third of following and harassing her at her job.
A police report obtained by PEOPLE revealed that an exotic dancer claimed a man who she thought was Kohberger came into the club where she worked, and made an unnerving comment.
She said that while she was performing on the main stage, she could hear Kohberger speak about “killing people.”
The dancer jokingly asked him who he would kill, and he replied, “Whoever I want.”
She added that during a private dance, he told her to look into his eyes while he asked her questions about where she lived and what car she drove.
The Netflix doc spoke of his online posts about having visual snow syndrome, a condition that can impair vision, but there was nothing about his alleged mental health diagnoses.
In a June 2025 court filing, Kohberger wrote that he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (level 1), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), as per the publication.
He noted that he was only taking levothyroxine as medication - a drug usually prescribed for hypothyroidism.
Kohberger's phone records showed that he didn't talk to anyone except his family, but the doc didn't detail that he called his mother less than two hours after stabbing Chapin, Goncalves, Kernodle and Mogen to death.
According to Heather Barnhart, the digital forensics expert who led the team that went through Kohberger's phone and hard drive, told People that Kohberger called mom Maryann from home, but she didn't pick up.
After he messaged his dad asking about this, his mother picked up at 6:17 AM and spoke for 36 minutes.
He called her again on 8:03 AM when he was on his way back to the crime scene, where they spoke for 54 minutes.
After 10 minutes at the property, he returned to his residence, calling his mom again at 9 AM, 4:05 PM, and then finally at 5:53 PM for 96 minutes, totalling over three hours of conversation on the day of the murders.
The killer switched his vehicle registration from Pennsylvania to Washington on Nov. 18, 2022, making his vehicle harder for investigators to link with the crime.
While reportedly speaking with a DMV employee while changing license plates, she said that she liked how safe and quiet the area was, but since the murders of the students, she didn't feel safe anymore.
Kohberger would remain quiet and change the subject, while other video footage shows him trying to shop at a Costco, though he was turned away as he didn't have a membership.
Days after the killings, Kohberger was late to one of his classes at WSU, emailing a professor about missing another.
Some of his WSU classmates noticed cuts on his hands, with students noting that he gave different excuses to explain the injuries, as he told one he was a boxer, another that he was in a car accident, and another that he suffered an “indoor accident.”
Idaho State Police said this was likely from Kernodle's struggle.
Before pleading guilty to aoid the death penalty, the convict allegedly planned to blame three friends of the victims and a relative stranger for the murders.
A court order from Ada County District Court Judge Steven Hippler detailed that three of the unnamed people "were each socially connected to one or more of the victims, interacted with one or more of the victims at social events in the hours prior to the homicide, lived within walking distance of the crime scene and were familiar with the layout of the victims’ home from prior social events."
It further detailed that the fourth person was a man who encountered one of the female victims while shopping around a month before the killings.
“He followed her briefly out the exit of the store while considering approaching her to talk. He turned away before ever speaking to her,” it read.
The order further stated that Kohberger was prohibited from naming the individuals as possible suspects as their proximity to the crime scene "is not probative evidence given that the perpetrator drove vehicle to the crime scene."
They also noted that "none of these individuals drove a vehicle matching the description of the suspected killer’s."
When police were surveilling Kohberger's parents' home in December 2022, his download and search history showed that he may have been feeling paranoid.
Barnhart said that her searched for 20 different serial killers on Christmas Day that year, and four days later, he read a New York Times article about the search for the owner of a 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra.
He then looked up terms like "auto detailing shop" before searching for used cars in his area, before searching for “psychopaths paranoid” and “wiretapping.”
he also downloaded news articles about University of Idaho parking permits for Hyundai Elantras, in addition to daily updates from the Moscow Police Department.
Barnhart acknowledged that Kohberger was good at covering his online footprint and clearing data, but he hadn't scrubbed his phone before his arrest in the early hours of December 30, 2022.
us3 min(s) read
Prosecutors have confirmed that they will be seeking the death penalty against Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of murdering four university students in Moscow, Idaho.
Kohberger, 28, is currently facing four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary after four students were killed at their home off-campus last November.
Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20, were stabbed to death in the late-night attack on November 13, while two others in the home were unharmed.
Following a six-week manhunt, Kohberger was arrested on suspicion of the murders, but a judge entered a "not guilty" plea on his behalf in May after he chose to "stand silent" in court.
In a new court filing, prosecutors wrote: "Considering all evidence currently known to the State, the State is compelled to file this notice of intent to seek the death penalty."
Top prosecutor Bill Thompson added that the case met the standard for the death penalty as the acts were "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel" and "exhibited utter disregard for human life".
The statement read: "The State gives this notice based on the fact that it has not identified or been provided with any mitigating circumstances sufficient to prohibit the triers of fact from considering all penalties authorized by the Idaho legislature including the possibility of a capital sentence.
"Consequently, considering all evidence currently known to the State, the State is compelled to file this notice of intent to seek the death penalty."
Investigators revealed that DNA had been found on a "leather knife sheath" at the scene and documents which were unsealed in January showed that police collected a knife, Glock pistol, black gloves, a black hat, and a black face mask while searching Kohberger's home.
Police also seized his white 2015 Hyundai Elantra, which eyewitnesses had claimed to see in the area around the time, and dismantled the vehicle.
Kohberger's attorney has criticized the prosecution for relying on investigative genetic genealogy - which is when DNA from crime scenes is used to identify suspects through other genetic DNA profiles or matches - calling it a "bizarrely complex DNA tree experiment".
According to the prosecution, the FBI went to public DNA sites to match the results found on the knife sheath, allowing them to hone in on Kohberger as the main suspect.
Kohberger had been studying for a PhD in criminology at Washington State University, just eight miles across the Idaho/Washington border from Moscow, where the murders took place.
Following the news that the death penalty would be sought, Goncalves' family said they were "grateful" for the decision, adding in a statement: "We continue to pray for all the victims families and appreciate all the support we have received."
Kohberger's trial is due to begin on October 2.
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