Kaylee Goncalves was so severely mutilated by Bryan Kohberger’s murderous knife attack that she appeared ‘unrecognizable’ when he was done with her.

A police officer noted, ‘I was unable to comprehend exactly what I was looking at while trying to discern the nature of the injuries,’ in newly-released files on the 2022 Idaho murders following Kohberger’s sentencing on Wednesday.

Goncalves, 21, was stabbed a total of 34 times, with many of those wounds left on her face at the student home where she lived in Moscow. 

Unlike Kohberger’s other three victims, who only had stab wounds, Golcalves also suffered blunt force injuries. 

The unsettling new details emerged in previously-sealed Moscow Police Department files concerning the killings of Goncalves and friends Xana Kernodle, Maddie Mogen, and Ethan Chapin.

Another officer on the scene described seeing Kernodle’s body on her bedroom covered in blood, with defensive wounds to her hands, including a deep gash between her finger and thumb. She was stabbed more than 50 times.

‘It was obvious an intense struggle had occurred,’ the officer wrote. ‘There was blood smeared on various items in the room and all over the floor.’

Kernodle’s boyfriend Chapin was found partially covered with a blanket in her bed, with his jugular severed, the police files said. 

On the floor above, officers found the bodies of Mogen and Goncalves. 

Mogen had wounds to her forearm, hands and a gash from her right eye to her nose.

Both were covered in blood, which had soaked the pink blanket they were sharing.

Kohberger left behind a Ka-Bar leather knife sheath next to Mogen’s body.

DNA on the clasp was traced back to the killer using Investigative Genetic Genealogy.

The police files also revealed the victims saw a man lurking in the trees outside their home and found their front door mysteriously open one month before the killer struck.

Goncalves had told at least two friends that she had seen a man watching her in the trees around the home.

Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen – who bravely spoke out in Wednesday’s sentencing hearing – told police Goncalves described seeing the ‘shadow’ when she took her pet dog Murphy outside.

Another friend echoed this accounts, telling police Goncalves had seen a dark figure staring at her from the tree line when taking Murphy outside.

Mortensen, who was 19 at the time, also recalled one time when she came home to find the door to their three-story house open.

It is not clear if the incidents are related and if it is possible Kohberger was carrying out a practice run for the murders one month later.

It is also unclear if the man Goncalves saw was Kohberger surveilling the victims’ home, or if he may have broken into the home prior to the night of his attack.

But the details of these bizarre incidents come as prosecutors have been able to confirm Kohberger was surveilling the home for some time.

From July 2022 through to November 13, 2022, Kohberger’s phone placed him in the vicinity of the King Road home at least 23 times, mostly at night. 

Despite his guilty plea and sentencing, the killer’s motive and target for the murders remain a mystery.

Speaking at a press conference after the sentencing, Moscow Police Corporal Brett Payne told reporters that while they know Kohberger ‘targeted’ that house, they still don’t know why.

‘The evidence suggested that there was a reason that this particular house was chosen. What that reason is, we don’t know,’ he said.

Investigators also remain in the dark about whether one or more of the victims inside the home was his intended target.