Bryan Kohberger's chilling comments to his family before being arrested for Idaho murders
Warning: This article contains discussion of content that some readers may find distressing.
After facing intense scrutiny following the horrific murders committed by Bryan Kohberger, his sister Mel has spoken out about his crimes for the first time.
The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to the murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin after stabbing them to death in their student house back in 2022.
That guilty plea was the only thing that saw Kohberger avoid the death penalty, as he instead received four life sentences, but he is now reportedly attempting to get his conviction changed.
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HIs crimes left the US shell-shocked and it still remains unclear what drove the criminology doctorate student at Washington State University to visit Idaho and stab four students he appeared to have no connection to.
Naturally, it also came as a shock to his family members, with Mel suggesting that he had never shown a violent side even when struggling with heroin addiction in the past.
Speaking to the New York Times, Mel recounted one of the final conversations she had with her brother before police burst into his parent's home and arrested him.
“Bryan, you are running outside and this psycho killer is on the loose,” she remembers telling him. “Be careful.”
That wasn't the only conversation she had with him about the murders however, as when he came home for the Christmas holidays, she admits that he even brought it up and suggested that the investigators were still looking for the killer.
After his arrest and subsequent guilty plea, the Kohberger family were subject to horrific abuse and comments online, and while Mel admits that she still loves her brother despite his crimes, she also makes it clear that if any of her family had been aware of his crimes, they would have turned him in.
She said: “It’s confusing. It’s painful. It’s like being victimised but not really being a victim.”
“I have always been a person who has spoken up for what was right. If I ever had a reason to believe my brother did anything, I would have turned him in.”
Meanwhile, a statement from the Goncalves family has hit out at Kohberger following the news that he had challenged the conviction.
"He chose not to leave his fate - or the facts of the case - to a jury," the statement read.
"He never cried foul, never claimed he was uninformed or pressured, and never suggested there were problems with the discovery materials he and his counsel had reviewed for two years that should have been challenged."
Since he told a judge under oath that he was guilty and understood the plea, it is unlikely that his guilty verdict will be overturned.
A timeline of the Idaho murders
12 November 2022
Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, attend a party at Chapin’s fraternity Sigma Chi. Meanwhile, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Madison Mogen, 21, go to sports bar the Corner Club.
13 November 2022
1.45am - Kernodle and Chapin return home to their house on King Road
1.56am - Goncalves and Mogen arrive home
2.44am - Kohberger’s Hyundai sedan is spotted by a CCTV camera at Washington State University. Shortly afterwards, the car is seen again heading towards a road that connects Pullman, Washington, to Moscow, Idaho, where the victims live.
4am - Bryan Kohberger is believed to have entered the property
4.17am - A security camera reveals the sound of a barking dog, voices and what sounds like a thud. At some point around this time, their housemate Dylan Mortensen is awoken and hears a male voice say: “It's OK, Kaylee, I'm here for you.” She later hears crying and sees a masked man in the property.
4.19am - Mortensen attempts to call Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen, but all calls go unanswered. She started texting Bethany Funke, saying she’s ‘freaking out’ after seeing a man in a ‘ski mask’. Mortensen joins Funke in her room and they lock themselves in.
11.58am - After Mortensen calls her friend Emily Alandt, she and her boyfriend Hunter Johnson come over to the King Road property. Johnson discovers Chapin and Kernodle's bodies and calls 911.
17 November 2022
Preliminary autopsy results show all four victims were attacked with a large knife
7 December 2022
Police say they are looking to speak to any occupants of a white Hyundai Elantra from 2011-13.
30 December 2022
Kohberger is arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary. Police later reveal they used DNA on a knife sheath to link him to the crime scene, and tracked his car and phone across the area.
22 May 2023
Kohberger remains silent when asked to enter a plea during his arraignment. The judge enters a not guilty plea on his behalf.
26 June 2023
Prosecutors announce they will seek the death penalty.
28 December 2023
The King Road property where the murders took place is demolished to allow the community to heal.
17 April 2024
Kohberger’s defence team claims in court documents that phone mast data shows Kohberger was miles away from Moscow, Idaho at the time of the murders.
4 March 2025
Kohberger’s defence team say he exhibits traits of autism spectrum disorder, and putting him to death would be unconstitutional.
2 July 2025
Weeks before the trial is set to begin, Kohberger pleads guilty to burglary and four counts of first-degree murder.
23 July 2025
Kohberger is sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years for the burglary charge.
He comes face to face with the families of his victims for the first time, who read out impact statements.
Goncalves' sister Alivea tells him that if her sister hadn’t been sleeping when he attacked, ‘Kaylee would've kicked your f**king a**’.
Meanwhile, Mortensen says she’s suffered from debilitating panic attacks since the night of the murders, telling Kohberger he has taken away her ‘ability to trust the world’.
27 July 2026
Kohberger announces he is seeking to take back his guilty plea and overturn his conviction.
He tells the New York Times: “My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.”
Topics: Bryan Kohberger, True Crime, US News
James Moorhouse