Bryan Kohberger’s victims had encountered a man hiding in the trees outside their residence and noticed their front door inexplicably open a month prior to the attack, as revealed by recently released police documents.

Moscow Police Department made public 314 records that were previously under seal regarding the inquiry into the November 13, 2022, murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, on Wednesday afternoon—just hours after the mass murderer was sentenced to life imprisonment.

During the sentencing, the 30-year-old PhD student refused the opportunity to finally reveal his motive and who his intended target was.

Amidst the extensive release of documents, fresh information is surfacing about the police investigation and evidence that ultimately led to the apprehension and conviction of the criminology student.

In a bombshell revelation, the records show that the roommates at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, had experienced disturbing incidents at the home just one month before the murders.

Goncalves had told at least two friends that she had seen a man watching her in the trees around the home.

Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen – who bravely spoke out in Wednesday’s sentencing hearing – told police Goncalves described seeing the ‘shadow’ when she took her pet dog Murphy outside.

Another friend echoed this accounts, telling police Goncalves had seen a dark figure staring at her from the tree line when taking Murphy outside.

Mortensen, who was 19 at the time, also recalled one time when she came home to find the door to their three-story house open.

The survivor told police Goncalves had also mentioned someone following her around two or three weeks before her murder. 

The other friend, whose name is redacted in the documents, told police they would make ‘lighthearted talk and jokes’ about a possible stalker – but that the girls ‘were slightly nervous about it being a fact.’

The friend also said she knew the front door of the home had issues with locking and sometimes could be unlocked without a code.

Around that same time, a female student living on Queen Road – close to the King Road home – said a man tried to break into her home.

At around 1am on October 14, 2022, the woman heard what she thought was a man walk up to her door and try to open it, the police records reveal.

But the door was locked with the deadbolt on.

It is not clear if the incidents are related and if it is possible Kohberger was carrying out a practice run for the murders one month later.

It is also unclear if the man Goncalves saw was Kohberger surveilling the victims’ home, or if he may have broken into the home prior to the night of his attack.

But the details of these bizarre incidents come as prosecutors have been able to confirm Kohberger was surveilling the home for some time.

From July 2022 through to November 13, 2022, Kohberger’s phone placed him in the vicinity of the King Road home at least 23 times, mostly at night.

Who Kohberger was watching and why he chose the home – and the students inside – only he knows. 

Despite his guilty plea and sentencing, the killer’s motive and target for the murders remain a mystery.

Speaking at a press conference after the sentencing, Moscow Police Corporal Brett Payne told reporters that while they know Kohberger ‘targeted’ that house, they still don’t know why.

‘The evidence suggested that there was a reason that this particular house was chosen. What that reason is, we don’t know,’ he said.

Investigators also remain in the dark about whether one or more of the victims inside the home was his intended target.

Around one month after these incidents, Kohberger broke into the student home and stabbed the four victims to death.

At around 4am, he entered through the back sliding door on the second story of the property and went straight up the stairs to Mogen’s bedroom on the third floor.

He found her and Goncalves sleeping in her bed and fatally stabbed the 21-year-old best friends.

On his way back downstairs or on leaving the property, he encountered Kernodle on the second floor, who was still awake on TikTok, having just received a DoorDash food order.

Kohberger attacked the 20-year-old with his knife and then also murdered her boyfriend Chapin who was asleep in her bed.

Kohberger then left through the same back sliding door of the property, passing Mortensen who had been woken by the noise and peeked around her bedroom door.

Mortensen – the sole person who came face-to-face with the killer that night and made it out alive – described seeing a masked man, dressed in all black and with bushy eyebrows.

Terrified, she and roommate Bethany Funke – whose bedroom was on the first floor – frantically called and text each other and their four friends. But the victims were already dead.

The newly-unsealed documents reveal for the first time that Funke also heard something unusual inside the home at the time.

The then-19-year-old had told officers she was woken by a sound she described as a firecracker and a flash. 

She initially thought it was ‘a prank,’ the documents show.

Mortensen ultimately ran down to Funke’s room where the two survivors stayed until daylight.

Just before midday – still unable to contact the four victims – they called friends round to the home and the bloodbath was discovered.

The newly-unsealed documents reveal harrowing new details about the injuries Kohberger inflicted on his victims.

One officer on the scene described seeing Kernodle’s body on her bedroom covered in blood, with defensive wounds to her hands, including a deep gash between her finger and thumb.

‘It was obvious an intense struggle had occurred,’ the officer wrote.

‘There was blood smeared on various items in the room and all over the floor.’

She had suffered more than 50 stab wounds.  

Chapin was partially covered with a blanket in her bed, with his jugular severed, the police files said.

On the floor above, officers found the bodies of Mogen and Goncalves.

As well as more than 20 stab wounds, Goncalves’ face was so badly damaged she was ‘unrecognizable.’ Mogen had wounds to her forearm, hands and a gash from her right eye to her nose.

Both were covered in blood, which had covered the pink blanket they were sharing.

Kohberger left behind a Ka-Bar leather knife sheath next to Mogen’s body. 

DNA on the clasp was traced back to the killer using Investigative Genetic Genealogy.

Surveillance footage on multiple homes and businesses close to King Road had also captured his white Hyundai Elantra driving to and from the crime scene at the time of the murders.

Kohberger was arrested on December 30, 2022, at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania.

Over the course of his two-plus years behind bars, officials noted unusual behaviors and habits of the killer, the new documents revealed.

According to a fellow inmate, Kohberger came across as highly intelligent and polite, but displayed unusual habits such as washing his hands ‘dozens of times a day,’ spending ’45 minutes to an hour in the shower’ and staying awake almost all night, only napping during the day.

The inmate reported one incident when, while Kohberger was on a video call with his mom MaryAnn, he had made a sarcastic sports remark that rattled Kohberger.

Kohberger had responded aggressively, thinking it was directed at him or his mother.

After more than two years behind bars fighting the charges, Kohberger finally confessed to the 2022 murders in a change of plea hearing earlier this month.

He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in an emotional hearing on Wednesday, where the families and friends of the victims were finally able to confront the man who slaughtered their loved ones while they slept.

Dressed in orange prison garb with his wrists and ankles shackled, the 30-year-old stared blankly at the families showing not even a flicker of emotion or remorse.

When it was his chance to speak, he maintained his silence.

‘I respectfully decline,’ he said boldly when asked by Judge Hippler if he would like to take the opportunity to address the court.

Those were the only three words he spoke, keeping the victims’ families in the dark about the murders.

Kohberger has now been transferred to the custody of the Idaho Department of Correction, which will determine which prison will become home for the rest of his life.

Due to the severity of his crime – and the high-profile nature of the case – Kohberger is expected to be sent to the state’s only maximum security facility, Idaho Maximum Security Institution.