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THE SISTER of one of the victims of the Idaho murders has slammed Bryan Kohberger’s last-minute plea deal as “shocking and cruel.”
Aubrie Goncalves, 18, shared a heartbreaking statement begging for the accused killer to face a jury for the murders of four University of Idaho students.
Kohberger, 30, is charged with stabbing Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin to death at an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022.
The suspect agreed to plead guilty to the murders and avoid the death penalty in a bombshell plea deal announced on Monday.
Kaylee Goncalves’ family is “beyond furious” at the state over the move and said in a statement that prosecutors told the victims’ families of the deal by email just hours before it was announced.
Aubrie, Kaylee’s younger sister, opened up about the family’s heartbreak in a letter shared to Facebook on Monday.
“What the families of Ethan, Kaylee, Maddie, and Xana have endured over the past 2 year and a half is beyond comprehension,” she wrote in the post.
She said the “system has failed” the victims and their families after they held onto hope for years that Kohberger might face justice through a trial, which was scheduled to start in August.
“The introduction of this plea deal, just weeks before the scheduled trial, is both shocking and cruel,” Aubrie wrote.
The family was blindsided by the news and Aubrie said they might have been able to process the idea of a life sentence if they had learned of the plea deal earlier.
“But now, with mere weeks left, we are being asked to absorb and respond to life-altering decisions with no room to breathe,” she continued.
Aubrie said the idea of Kohberger living the rest of his life in prison without parole doesn’t bring the family peace because he still gets to live after the victims were stabbed to death.
“Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world,” Aubrie wrote.
“Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever. That reality stings more deeply when it feels like the system is protecting his future more than honoring the victims’ pasts.”
In an interview with NewsNation, Kaylee’s dad, Steve, said that his family will continue to beg for the death penalty for Kohberger.
“This is not justice,” he said.
Aubrie Goncalves’ full statement
Kaylee Goncalves’ younger sister, Aubrie, shared the following statement in response to Bryan Kohberger agreeing to plead guilty for the murders of four University of Idaho students in November 2022:
Hello,
My name is Aubrie Goncalves, and I am the youngest member of the Goncalves family. Though I am unable to be there in person, I refuse to stay silent about a situation that should never have required this kind of gathering in the first place.
What the families of Ethan, Kaylee, Maddie, and Xana have endured over the past 2 year and a half is beyond comprehension. From the constant delays to the relocation of proceedings—making it harder for loved ones to attend—the justice system has placed heavy burdens on those already carrying unimaginable grief. Through it all, we have tried to hold on to hope. We’ve believed in the process. We’ve had faith in the system. But at this point, it is impossible not to acknowledge the truth: the system has failed these four innocent victims and their families.
These are not just names or headlines. Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, and Xana Kernodle were beautiful human beings who touched countless lives. They are not just “The Idaho Four.” They were sons, daughters, siblings, and friends—real people with real dreams. They deserve to be remembered for who they were in life, not only for the tragedy of their deaths. But before that can truly happen, they deserve justice. Nothing less.
The introduction of this plea deal, just weeks before the scheduled trial, is both shocking and cruel. Had this proposal come a year and a half ago, the families could have had time to process, discuss, and potentially come to terms with the idea of a life sentence—however difficult that may be. We could have had the time to understand it, to prepare for it emotionally, and perhaps even to find some degree of peace. But now, with mere weeks left, we are being asked to absorb and respond to life-altering decisions with no room to breathe.
Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world. Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever. That reality stings more deeply when it feels like the system is protecting his future more than honoring the victims’ pasts.
The justice system was created to serve and protect—not to retraumatize grieving families. And yet, time and time again, we find ourselves blindsided, unheard, and unsupported. This last-minute plea deal feels less like an act of justice and more like an afterthought.
We are not asking for vengeance. We are asking for accountability. We are asking for dignity for our loved ones. And we are asking—pleading—for a justice system that truly lives up to its name.
Source: The Goncalves Family Page
On NBC’s Today show on Tuesday morning, Steve said, “It’s my daughter. It’s our children.
“How can you say it’s just when you haven’t even talked to us to see what justice looks like for us?”
The Goncalves aren’t the only family outraged by the plea deal.
Xana Kernodle’s aunt, Kim Kernodle, told TMZ that the Kernodles want Kohberger to face a jury.
While the prosecutors told the families that the plea deal would save them from the pain of a trial, including having to see gruesome crime scene pictures,
However, Kim shot down that notion.
“We know the graphics. They were not trying to spare us,” she told TMZ.
While the Goncalves don’t approve of the plea deal, Madison Mogen’s dad said he was relieved to get the plea deal letter.
“If you get that quick death sentence, you don’t have to spend decades thinking about how terrible you made the world,” Ben Mogen told CBS News.
He said the plea deal allows the families to put the tragedy behind them.
“We get to just think about the rest of lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids.”
Ethan Chapin’s family has yet to speak out about the plea deal.
SIBLINGS’ STORY
Days before news of the plea deal broke, Ethan’s siblings spoke out for the first time about going to the crime scene to ABC News.
All three of the Chapin triplets — Ethan, Hunter, and Maizie — attended the University of Idaho at the time.
Ethan and Xana had been dating for about six months at the time of their deaths.
Hunter recalled that on the morning of November 13, 2022, a friend told him that police were at Xana’s house, where Ethan often spent the night.
The brother said he assumed someone drank too much and so he slowly made his way over to the house to check on his brother, but he “wasn’t worried.
“When I walked over there, I didn’t see him outside. So I figured he was inside helping whoever needed to be helped,” Hunter told ABC News.
His friend then told him that Ethan and Xana were “not here anymore.”
Hunter then called his family members, and Maizie came to the scene to find her brother and friends huddled outside.
The siblings remembered ambulances coming to the house and leaving with no patients, meaning no one could be saved.
Autopsies revealed each victim had been stabbed multiple times.
University of Idaho murders timeline
On November 13, 2022, a brutal home invasion claimed the lives of four University of Idaho students.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in their Moscow, Idaho, off-campus home.
A six-week manhunt ensued as cops searched for a suspect.
On December 30, 2022, Bryan Kohberger, 30, was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania – 2,500 miles away from the crime scene.
He was taken into custody and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University, has been linked to the crime scene through phone records, his car’s location, and DNA evidence found at the home where the murders took place.
The house was demolished in December 2023 despite backlash from the victims’ families.
Kohberger is being held at Latah County Jail while he awaits trial.
On September 9, 2024, an Idaho judge ruled to move the upcoming murder trial out of Moscow after Kohberger’s lawyer argued that the town was prejudiced against him.
The state Supreme Court will decide the new venue and judge for the trial, which is expected to start in August 2025.
Nearly seven weeks after the killings, Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania.
He was getting his Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University at the time of the crime.
Police said they linked him to DNA evidence from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.
Kohberger’s trial was set to start in August in Boise, Idaho.
A change of plea hearing has been set for Wednesday, but the Goncalves family has asked prosecutors to delay the decision.
