Victim's Family Reacts to Kohberger's Alibi

'We feel even more confident in the prosecution,' says family of Kaylee Goncalves
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 19, 2024 9:47 AM CDT
Victim's Family Reacts to Kohberger's Alibi
Steve Goncalves talks about his daughter, Kaylee Goncalves, who was one of four University of Idaho students who were killed on Nov. 13, 2022, on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022, during a vigil for the four students in Moscow, Idaho.   (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Relief might seem like a strange response from a murder victim's family to the alleged killer sharing details of his alibi. But that's what the family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of four University of Idaho students found murdered in a Moscow home in 2022, felt upon learning the latest details of Bryan Kohberger's defense, pointing to the flimsiness of that alibi. In a court filing, Kohberger's lawyers claim he was out driving in an "area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho," nowhere near the crime scene, in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, as he often did to go hiking, running, or stargazing. The defense suggested there were no witnesses to this but experts on cellphone towers and radio frequency would confirm Kohberger's location.

"We feel even more confident in the prosecution" having heard this alibi, the Goncalves family tells KHQ News, noting the alibi appears "in direct conflict with the Probable Cause affidavit that states that the Defendant's phone was turned off between 2:47am and 4:48am" on the night of the killings. "So if the Defendant was driving around and there is cell phone information that he was in a different place it would be either before or after the times of the murders," the family said. Investigators believe 29-year-old Kohberger, a criminology PhD student at Washington State University, fatally stabbed Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20; around 4am. His DNA was found at the scene, authorities say. The murder weapon, believed to be a fixed-blade knife, has not been found. (More Bryan Kohberger stories.)

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