Among the chilling evidence unveiled in recently unsealed autopsy reports, a pendant, several rings, an oversized sweatshirt, and a tattoo reading “Wish You Were Here” emerge as poignant reminders of four young lives tragically lost. These personal items and identifiers belonged to the University of Idaho students who once resided in a student house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho.
Their promising futures were brutally cut short on November 13, 2022, when Bryan Kohberger infiltrated their off-campus home, committing a heinous crime that resulted in the deaths of students Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, and Xana Kernodle. This savage attack soon became one of the most notorious crimes in recent American history.
While Kohberger confessed to the killings through a plea deal that allowed him to evade the death penalty, he has never publicly disclosed the motive behind targeting these four friends, leaving their grieving families with questions that may remain unanswered forever.
Now, nearly four years after that fateful night, a newly released collection of autopsy reports, toxicology results, and expert statements is beginning to fill in some of the gaps about the events that unfolded within the house.
These documents offer the most detailed account yet of the victims’ injuries and the harrowing level of violence that Kohberger unleashed during the attack.
The documents provide the clearest picture yet of the injuries suffered by each victim and the staggering violence unleashed by Kohberger during the attacks.
They also preserve small details about the students themselves – the clothes they wore, the jewelry they carried and the personal effects recovered alongside their bodies.
Left to right: Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee’s shoulders) Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke
The home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, on November 20, 2022, seen days after Kohberger’s killing spree
According to Spokane County Chief Medical Examiner Dr Veena Singh, the three female victims – Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle – each endured a ‘high degree of pain and suffering’ before they died.
Chapin is also believed to have experienced significant pain and suffering, though to a lesser extent than the others.
Several of the victims suffered extensive injuries to their hands, arms and upper bodies consistent with attempts to protect themselves.
Among the most unsettling revelations are previously undisclosed details surrounding Goncalves’ injuries.
She suffered at least 38 sharp-force injuries, as well as blunt-force trauma.
The blunt-force injuries, which were only inflicted upon Goncalves, caused bleeding around her brain, a nasal fracture, and patterned bruising on her lower face.
One of her teeth had been knocked loose by the force of the attack, dislodging a fixed retainer. Tooth fragments were also found in her oral cavity.
In addition, Singh – who was due to be called as a witness for the state before Kohberger’s confession – cited evidence that an unidentified object had been ‘pressed across Goncalves’ mouth.’
The records do not identify the object or explain how it was used, raising troubling new questions about what transpired during her final moments.
Bryan Kohberger at his sentencing in Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, on July 23, 2025
Kaylee Goncalves suffered at least 38 sharp-force injuries, as well as blunt-force trauma and signs of asphyxia
Conspiracy theories emerged after the murders suggesting Kohberger had an accomplice.
But the reports also strengthen investigators’ long-held belief that a single perpetrator and single weapon was used to carry out all four murders.
Singh concluded that the injuries sustained by Chapin, Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle were all consistent with a large bladed Ka-Bar-style hunting knife, the same type of weapon investigators linked to Kohberger after his arrest.
In Chapin’s case, Singh noted evidence suggesting the knife had a blade guard.
Across all four autopsies, she concluded that a single large knife could account for every wound documented.
Taken together, the reports document well over 150 sharp-force injuries inflicted in less than 20 minutes as Kohberger moved through the King Road home.
Nowhere is the sheer scale of violence more evident than in the injuries sustained by Kernodle.
The 20-year-old suffered 67 sharp-force injuries – more than any of the other victims – including wounds to her face, scalp, neck, chest, abdomen, back, arms and legs.
Singh identified several of the injuries as defensive in nature, concluding that Kernodle fought back against her attacker.
Among the most striking findings were wounds that penetrated the bones of her hand, injuries that prosecutors have long pointed to as evidence of a desperate struggle.
The reports also describe cuts and abrasions across her face, torso and extremities, as well as stab wounds to her back and shoulder.
Xana Kernodle – pictured with her boyfriend Ethan Chapin – suffered 67 sharp-force injuries – more than any of the other victims – including wounds to her face, scalp, neck and legs
Singh further noted that some wounds to Kernodle’s face displayed a serrated appearance.
According to the files, those marks may have been caused as Kernodle grabbed or came into contact with either the knife itself or the hand wielding it while attempting to defend herself.
Mogen – who was sleeping beside her best friend Goncalves when Kohberger entered a third-floor bedroom – suffered at least 28 injuries.
The 21-year-old sustained wounds to her face, scalp, neck, chest and upper extremities, including injuries that penetrated her lung and liver and perforated major blood vessels in her chest.
Investigators have long believed Mogen was Kohberger’s first victim. Her room was where police recovered the brown leather Ka-Bar knife sheath that ultimately yielded the DNA evidence that led investigators to the killer.
Chapin, Kernodle’s boyfriend, suffered fewer wounds than the other victims but still sustained devastating injuries all over his head and body.
Among the most serious were wounds that perforated his jugular vein, subclavian vein and subclavian artery in his neck and upper chest.
The 20-year-old was also the only victim whose injuries displayed evidence of contact with a blade guard, according to Singh, though no further details were shared in the documents.
Mogen (right), who was sleeping beside her best friend Goncalves when Kohberger entered her third-floor bedroom, suffered at least 28 injuries
Amid the clinical descriptions of fatal injuries, blood loss and forensic findings, the reports preserve strikingly personal details about the four students themselves.
Goncalves was still dressed in a black graphic T-shirt, soaked in blood, and plaid pajama bottoms when she was found. A single gray sock remained partially pulled over her left foot.
The report also documents a daith piercing in her left ear and notes a tattoo bearing the words ‘Wish You Were Here’ on her left bicep.
Mogen was found wearing a pink one-shoulder camisole and black athletic pants. Several rings remained on her fingers, including one set with a blue stone. The report also notes a tattoo depicting wings.
Chapin was still wearing a black bracelet and a white metal pendant hanging from a black cord around his neck.
Kernodle wore a blue long-sleeved sweatshirt. Unlike some of the others, she was wearing no jewelry.
The details occupy only a few lines in the documents. Yet, they are among the most affecting passages in the records, serving as fleeting reminders that, before they became the victims of one of America’s most notorious murder cases, they were simply young people coming home from a night of fun, settling in for what should have been an ordinary evening.
Toxicology findings also showed alcohol consumption consistent with a typical student night out, a snapshot of normal life just hours before the horror that would unfold.
The files painstakingly document the final chapter of each victim’s life.
But perhaps the most pressing question remains unanswered. Nearly four years on, Kohberger still has not publicly explained why he targeted the four friends.
The autopsy reports can reconstruct the violence but they cannot explain what drove the man who inflicted it.
For the victims’ families, that remains one of the cruelest aspects of the case.
Goncalves’ mother, Kristi Goncalves, told the Daily Mail earlier this week that, given the chance, she would ‘absolutely’ sit down face-to-face with Kohberger to demand answers.
‘I would ask him why,’ she said, before looking into the camera and addressing her daughter’s killer directly.
‘Please, please, please. Do you not think that our family has been through enough?… You broke bones in her face. You knocked her teeth out, you broke her nose…Can you just tell me why?’
