Idaho murders latest update: Victim Kaylee Goncalves’ sister brands killer ‘true evil’ amid Bryan Kohberger stalker claim

The grieving family of victim Xana Kernodle has spoken out after Bryan Kohberger’s affidavit was released on Thursday.

Sheldon Kernodle tweeted on Thursday asking the public to “put yourself our family’s shoes” and to donate to the scholarship fund set up in memory of the University of Idaho student.

“​​Now that the affidavit has been released, I ask everyone to put yourself our family’s shoes. I will continue to ask people to donate to Xana’s Scholarship Endowment to honor her memory and keep her legacy alive,” he wrote.

“Please think about our family and all the other families involved. Find ways to support them as well. We must continue to remember the ones we lost. We have a long road ahead of us.”

A surviving roommate of the four slain University of Idaho students was “scared to death” after seeing an intruder in their Moscow home, a lawyer for one of the victim’s families says.

Dylan Mortensen, 21, told police she saw a masked figure clad in black walk pass her at 4am on the night the four students were killed, but didn’t call 911 for another eight hours, according to the affidavit for suspect Bryan Kohberger.

Shannon Gray, who represents Kaylee Goncalves’ family, told Fox News that Ms Mortenson was “scared to death, and rightly so”.

From the early days of the investigation, authorities said that the attack was “targeted” – but refused to reveal what led them to that conclusion and who or what the target was.

The 19-page affidavit reveals no details about what connection – if any – Bryan Kohberger had to his alleged victims.

The victims were all students at the University of Idaho meanwhile Mr Kohberger was a criminal justice PhD student at Washington State University.

He lived just 15 minutes from the victims over the Idaho-Washington border in Pullman, having moved there to begin the PhD program in August.

Despite the proximity, there is no known connection between the victims and the accused killer. It is not clear if the victims even knew who Mr Kohberger was.

Goncalves’ father Steve Goncalves told ABC News that he had found unnamed connections between the suspect and the daughter – but was not ready to reveal what these potential ties were.

Accused killer Bryan Kohberger may face the death penalty for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.

The 28-year-old criminal justice PhD student is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary over the 13 November attack.

Under Idaho state law, he faces the death penalty or life in prison on each murder charge.

Goncalves’ parents have already said that they support him receiving a death sentence, saying that life imprisonment is not enough for his alleged crimes.

One of the slain University of Idaho students picked up her DoorDash order just minutes before she was stabbed to death in her bedroom, according to the affidavit for suspect Bryan Kohberger.

The court documents, released on Thursday, reveal that Xana Kernodle’s final meal was dropped off by a delivery driver at her off-campus student rental home on King Road at 4am on the morning of 13 November.

Records show that the 20-year-old was on her phone at 4.12am, confirming that she was awake when the food was dropped off.

Just minutes later, the student was brutally stabbed to death.

Investigators believe all four students were murdered by 4.25am, the affidavit reveals.

The unidentified DoorDash delivery driver had come forward to law enforcement in the investigation, corroborating timelines and being eliminated as a suspect.

The criminology PhD student charged with the murders of four University of Idaho students had applied for an internship with the local police department within months of the murders, according to an unsealed arrest affidavit.

Bryan Kohberger, 28, was extradited to Idaho this week to be tried in the 13 November deaths of Ethan Chapin, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Madison Mogen, 21.

The affidavit unsealed on Thursday details how Mr Kohberger, a student at Washington State University, right across the state border from the UI campus, had applied for an internship in fall 2022 with the Pullman Police Department.

“Kohberger wrote in his essay he had interest in assisting rural law enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data in public safety operations,” the affidavit states.

Sheila Flynn has the story.

The 28-year-old criminology PhD student landed at Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport on Wednesday evening, hours after being flown out of Monroe County, Pennsylvania, on a state police plane.

The 28-year-old criminology PhD student faced the crying families of his alleged victims at the Latah County Courthouse at 9.30am PT on Thursday morning during his initial appearance before the Latah County Magistrate Court judge.

A judge read his rights and the charges against him as he sat alongside his public defender Anne Taylor – an attorney best known for securing the overturning of a murder conviction because of false statements made by Idaho police.

Mr Kohberger – who plans to fight the quadruple homicide allegations – was not asked to enter a plea at the hearing. He was ordered to be held without bond and a status hearing was set for 12 January.

Bryan Kohberger’s DNA was discovered on a knife sheath that the killer left behind in the bedroom of one of the four slain University of Idaho students, according to investigators.

One document, written by Moscow Police Officer Brett Payne, reveals that the killer left a tan leather sheath from the murder weapon on victim Madison Mogen’s bed next to the 21-year-old’s butchered body.

The sheath allegedly contains the DNA of a single male – the 28-year-old criminology PhD student now charged with the four murders.

“The sheath was later processed and had ‘Ka-Bar’ ‘USMC’ and the United States Marine Corps eagle globe and anchor insignia stamped on the outside of it,” the officer writes.

The grieving sister of slain University of Idaho student Kaylee Goncalves has branded her sibling’s killer “true evil” after chilling new details came to light in suspect Bryan Kohberger’s affidavit.

Alivea Goncalves told NewsNation that the revelation that the 28-year-old criminology PhD student appears to have stalked the student home on King Road, Moscow, at least 12 times prior to the 13 November murders haunts her.

“We had no idea. She had no idea. I had no idea that true evil was genuinely watching them,” she said.

Ms Goncalves said that it was especially troubling to learn that while her sister was carefree and chatting away to her, her accused killer may have been stalking her.

“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.”