Newly released police documents are shedding light on the grisly scene that awaited officers at the University of Idaho murders in November 2022, East Idaho News reports. The Moscow Police Department made public a cache of more than 300 files from its investigation hours after Bryan Kohberger, 30, was sentenced to multiple life terms for the fatal stabbings. The trove, which includes officer reports and inventories of evidence, provides a stark account of the crime. Officers described encountering blood-soaked bedding, stained floors, and "traumatic injuries" throughout the off-campus home where four students—Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20—were killed.
According to the documents, Kohberger entered the house early on November 13, 2022, and attacked most of the victims as they slept. Kernodle, however, was awake when she encountered Kohberger, and she fought back—many of the more than 50 stab wounds she suffered were defensive, the New York Times reports. Friends of the victims, responding to a call from the surviving roommates who sensed something was wrong, were among the first to discover the scene. One friend described thinking the mess in Kernodle's room was the result of partying until he realized it was dried blood. One report noted the injuries to Goncalves were so severe that she was "unrecognizable," a detail confirmed by her family, who said she had been stabbed 34 times.
The documents also reveal unsettling events at the off-campus home in the weeks before the murders, the AP reports. Residents reported returning home to an open door, hinges loose, and feared an intruder. Goncalves took her dog outside once and said she saw a strange man staring at her. A woman who lived nearby reported seeing a man in her yard who appeared nervous a couple months before the murders. It's not clear whether the incidents are definitively related to Kohberger.
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