Idaho murders victim had no idea she was being stalked by ‘true evil’ before stabbing, sister says
Alivea Goncalves says she realised that at the same time that she and her sister were exchanging ‘normal’, carefree messages with each other, the accused killer was likely planning his next move
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The grieving sister of slain University of Idaho student Kaylee Goncalves has said that her sibling had no idea she was being stalked by “true evil” before she was brutally stabbed in an attack that sent shockwaves through the small college town of Moscow.
Alivea Goncalves spoke out for the first time since Idaho authorities released the arrest affidavit for suspected killer Bryan Kohberger, revealing chilling new details about the quadruple murder of Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
She said that the revelation that the 28-year-old criminology PhD student appears to have stalked the student home on King Road, Moscow, prior to the 13 November murders especially haunts her.
“We had no idea. She had no idea. I had no idea that true evil was genuinely watching them,” she told NewsNation.
Ms Goncalves said that it wasn’t until the affidavit was released that it “hit her” that when she and her sister were exchanging “normal”, carefree messages with each other, the accused killer was likely planning his next move.
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She recalled one particular conversation on 21 August and “how normal every thing was” as the two siblings chatted about new recipes.
Little did they know that, that same night Mr Kohberger appears to have been in the area around the student home.
“That’s been the hardest part of this is to sit back and look at the totality of it. When my sister was Facetiming me about a new egg bites recipe, he was planning his next visit to the home,” she said.
“That’s really difficult not to wish that you had done more and wish that you had known more. But, it’s just the first step. A lot more evidence will come out.”
Cellphone data appears to show that Mr Kohberger stalked the student home at least 12 times in the run-up to the night of the murders, according to the affidavit.
The exact dates and times of these instances were not revealed in the documents but all bar one were in the late evening or early morning hours.
One incident was identified on 21 August, when the suspect was stopped by police just minutes from the home where he allegedly knifed the four students to death three months later.
A citation from Latah County Sheriff’s Office, obtained by The Independent, reveals that the traffic stop took place at around 11.40pm at the intersection of West Pullman Road and Farm Road in Moscow.
The record shows he was stopped for failing to wear his seatbelt – just a few minutes’ drive from the home on King Road where the victims were murdered.
Investigators believe that Mr Kohberger turned his cellphone off at the time of the murders in order to try to avoid detection.
However, cellphone data places him close to the home on King Road at around 9am on 13 November – suggesting that he returned to the scene of the crime just hours after allegedly murdering the four victims at around 4am.
As well as cellphone data, the affidavit reveals other evidence also led them to arrest Mr Kohberger for the student murders.
Police said that his DNA was found on a knife sheath left behind at the scene by the killer.
A white Hyundai Elantra spotted at the crime scene at the time of the murders was also traced back to the suspect, the affidavit reveals.
Following the release of the afffidavit, Ms Goncalves said that she is “confident” police have arrested the right person.
“We always presume innocence but it didn’t hit me until the affidavit was released,” she said.
She also said that she suspects that the accused killer – who has spent years studying criminal justice – wouldn’t have been able to resist following the investigation online so that he could watch “his circus” unfold.
“A lot of that comes from the fact that he had visited the home so many times before, late at night and early hours. He’s presented this pattern of behavior.
“He went back to the home the morning of, before police had been called, I think to see if his circus, so to say, had started to unfold,” she said.
“I think he would not have been able to refrain from engaging with the online communities, the theories, the conspiracies, and everything in between.”
Meanwhile, Ms Goncalves spoke out in defence of one of her sibling’s surviving roommates who has faced questions over a delay in alerting police to the crime scene.
At the time of the murders, two roommates were also in the student home but were left unharmed.
The grim scene went undiscovered for around eight hours after the murders – which police believe occurred between 4am and 4.25am.
It was around midday when a 911 call was finally made to report an unconscious person inside the home. Police officers arrived to find the bloody scene.
The affidavit has now revealed for the first time that one of the surviving roommates came face to face with the masked killer as he left the home after killing her four friends.
Investigators initially said the two survivors were in bedrooms on the first floor – while the victims were found on the second and third floor of the three-storey home. It has now emerged that one of the survivors was in her bedroom on the second floor.
In her terrifying account to investigators, the roommate, identified as D.M. in the documents, revealed that she heard the killer inside the home and heard what sounded like crying coming from one of her roommates.
At one point she heard a woman’s voice – believed to be either Goncalves or Kernodle – saying something to the effect of “there’s someone here”, before hearing a man’s voice saying “it’s ok, I’m going to help you”.
She then had a lucky escape as she opened her door to see what was happening to see “a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her”.
The man, who had bushy eyebrows and was around 5 foot 10 tall walked right past her and headed toward the back sliding glass door of the home, while she stood in a “frozen shock phase”.
Since then, questions have arisen around why the roommate did not call 911 for another eight hours.
Ms Goncalves defended the roommate saying that she is “young” and was “probably really, really scared”.
“She was probably really, really scared,” she said.
“Until we have any more information, I think everyone should stop passing judgments because you don’t know what you would do in that situation.”
Ms Goncalves and her family have vowed to continue to face their loved one’s accused killer in court as he faces trial on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
Mr Kohberger, who faces life in prison or the death penalty, is next scheduled to appear for a status hearing on Thursday morning.
He made his first court appearance in Idaho on 5 January where he sat emotionless as he was ordered to be held without bail.
The Washington State University PHD student and teaching assistant was arrested on 30 December in an early-morning raid on his family home in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, where he had gone to spend the holidays.
He was extradited back to Idaho on Wednesday to face charges and his white Hyundai Elantra was seized by investigators.
The murder weapon – a fixed-blade knife – is yet to be found.
As a criminal justice PhD student at Washington State University, he lived just 15 minutes from the victims over the Idaho-Washington border in Pullman.
He had moved there from Pennsylvania in August and has just completed his first semester.
Before this, he studied criminology at DeSales University – first as an undergraduate and then finishing his graduate studies in June 2022.
While there, he studied under renowned forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland who interviewed the BTK serial killer and co-wrote the book Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer with him.
He also carried out a research project “to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime”.