Revealed: The Complex Motive Behind Bryan Kohberger’s Sole Male Victim

The chilling case of the four University of Idaho students slain in their off-campus residence in Moscow back in November 2022 remains a source of intrigue and unease. Despite law enforcement pinpointing Bryan Kohberger as the perpetrator, the mystery endures.

The trial left both the victims’ families and the public seeking answers when Kohberger opted for a plea bargain to avoid capital punishment. This decision meant that witnesses were not brought forward, the accused wasn’t subject to cross-examination, and the prosecution didn’t have to reveal its narrative.

Kohberger, a 31-year-old studying criminology at Washington State University, confessed in July of last year to the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, both aged 21, and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, each 20 years old.

The elusive question of Kohberger’s motive—if one exists at all—still puzzles many.

Adding to the intrigue, nearly 3,000 previously unseen photos from the crime scene were inadvertently released online by the Idaho State Police in January, only to be quickly removed.

The Daily Mail downloaded the files in full before they disappeared, and last month we published some of those images.

Shots included blood-soaked floors and walls, stained mattresses and overturned furniture, indicating a struggle. 

Former FBI agents Jennifer Coffindaffer and Tracy Walder have now told the Daily Mail that beyond the obvious brutality, the photos reinforce a narrative about how Kohberger moved through the student house, who his intended target likely was and how the killings spiraled into chaotic violence.

Clockwise from left: Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison ‘Maddie’ Mogen, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 20, were all killed in their Moscow, Idaho, home by Bryan Kohberger in 2022 

But they are equally clear about what the images do not show: there is no sign of a hidden accomplice, no alternate suspect and no elaborate cover-up.

For former FBI agent Coffindaffer, the newly released crime scene photos do not rewrite the Idaho murders. Rather, viewed alongside new autopsy findings unsealed this month, she said the images expose the true scale of the violence in a way words never could.

And they might help fill critical gaps in the timeline of events on the night of November 13, 2022. 

According to prosecutors, Kohberger entered the property on King Road at about 4am and went to the third floor, where he killed Goncalves and Mogen, before attacking the others in Kernodle’s second-floor bedroom. He exited around 4.20am. 

Walder believes Mogen was the primary target – a conclusion she said was supported by Kohberger heading straight to the third floor. 

Goncalves and Mogen had fewer defensive wounds – Goncalves was stabbed at least 38 times, and Mogen 28 times – suggesting they were attacked as they slept, she said. The state of Mogen’s room also showed fewer signs of a struggle than downstairs. 

The former agents said the new evidence reinforces the theory Kohberger then encountered Kernodle on the second floor, where the attack escalated into a frenzied and more violent struggle that left both Kernodle and her boyfriend Chapin dead.

But their assessment now goes further: based on newly surfaced images and blood pattern evidence, they said Kernodle was likely attacked before she reached her bedroom. 

Blood marks on the outside of Kernodle’s door suggest she was attacked in the hallway and then fled back to her bedroom. 

Stab wounds to her back are key, Coffindaffer said, supporting the idea that she was initially attacked from behind before a prolonged struggle erupted. 

The autopsy determined that Kernodle, who was awake at the time of Kohberger’s attack, suffered a staggering 67 stab wounds as she fought for her life. 

Kernodle – unlike the other victims – also had blood on the bottoms of her feet, indicating she was moving about and stepping in her own blood as she tried to fend off her attacker.

Analysts have long wondered how Kohberger exited the scene without trailing blood around. Coffindaffer speculates that he wore disposable gear for the attack which he removed before exiting through the patio door

Former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer

The wounds on Chapin, Kernodle’s boyfriend, who was sleeping in her bed at the start of the attack, tell a different story.

He had fewer wounds than the other victims – 17 – but they were deadlier, including a slash to his jugular vein.

Coffindaffer believes he was killed quickly – not out of sadism, but necessity.

‘He killed the guy because he needed to neutralize the threat… he enjoyed killing the women,’ she said.

Coffindaffer pointed to the combination of wounds: deep vertical stab wounds and wide horizontal slashing injuries. Some penetrated bone. 

‘When you really look at the numbers now that have been released… it brings to light the true barbarian nature of this crime,’ Coffindaffer said.

‘This wasn’t a murder – this was a slaughter.’

In the third-floor bedroom where Mogen and Goncalves were killed, Coffindaffer said the photos help investigators reconstruct blood spatter, body positioning and the attacker’s proximity.

They show how six-foot Kohberger towered over his victims in cramped rooms during violently intimate attacks.

‘It brings into light just the close proximity that all of this took place,’ she said.

Blood marks on the outside of Kernodle’s door may suggest she was first attacked in the hallway, and sought refuge in her bedroom

Kohberger left behind his knife sheath in the third-floor bedroom, with a DNA trace that ultimately saw him apprehended

Tracy Walder served in both the FBI and the CIA

Former FBI and CIA agent Walder has long believed that Mogen was the primary target. The photos, she said, strengthen that conclusion.

Blood pooling in Mogen’s bedroom appears relatively contained.

Defensive wounds are limited. The knife sheath – pictured for the first time last week – was found in her bed.

Kohbeger went straight to Mogen’s room on the third floor. She believes Goncalves was collateral damage – she had been staying with her best friend after a night of partying.

‘Who walks all the way up to the third floor first unless someone was their target?’ she asked.

Photos of the sheath, Walder said, were the most consequential. It shows the sheath ‘was in Maddie’s bed… which means that the crime started there,’ Walder explained.

And the path the killer took matters.

Walder believes the attack on Mogen and Goncalves was swift and unexpected, likely carried out while the victims were intoxicated and asleep. That contrasts sharply with what the photos show downstairs.

In Kernodle’s bedroom, Walder sees chaos in the new photos. Blood evidence suggests movement. Resistance. A fight.

She believes Kernodle unexpectedly encountered Kohberger as he was leaving the house – possibly after she retrieved her DoorDash order – forcing him into an unplanned confrontation.

Images of Kernodle’s late-night fast food delivery reinforce a timeline and suggest she took Kohberger by surprise during his attack

A knife gash in Kernodle’s mattress highlights the violence unleashed by Kohberger

‘I think Xana encountered him on his way out. I don’t think he intended to get her,’ Walder said.

In this view, Chapin’s death was a consequence of escalation, not intent. 

Walder also dismissed claims that the images reveal a ‘process-oriented’ killer who lingered or tortured his victims. The timeline is too tight. The violence too fast.

Instead, she described Kohberger as ‘act-focused’ – driven by fantasy and control, but operating quickly, without full command of the scene.

‘I think this is someone that just wanted to see what it was like to actually kill someone and see if he could do it,’ she said.

For Walder, the photos are not a mystery to solve. They are evidence of a crime already explained – and a tragedy that should never be exploited.

In the end, she said, the images confirm one grim truth. The facts were already there. And they were horrific enough.