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The Ada County court has released the autopsy reports for the University of Idaho students who tragically lost their lives. This development follows the case’s transfer after Bryan Kohberger, the accused, successfully petitioned for a change of venue.
Dr. Veena Singh, the chief medical examiner from Spokane, carried out the autopsies. Prosecutors had intended for her to testify during the trial’s penalty phase, a plan that was altered when Kohberger opted to plead guilty.
The victims, University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle, were featured in a heartfelt final photo shared by Goncalves on Instagram, alongside two other housemates. This image captured a moment before the four students met their untimely deaths in a stabbing incident in November 2022.
While the autopsy reports omit photographs, they do detail the victims’ severe injuries, some of which have been previously disclosed to the public.
Dr. Singh found that all of the victims suffered wounds “consistent” with a “Ka-Bar Full Size US Marine Corps Fighting Knife” — the suspected murder weapon. Some injuries may have been caused by different parts of the weapon, she found.
An evidence photo from the Moscow Police Department shows a KA-BAR knife sheath believed to have housed the knife Bryan Kohberger used to murder four University of Idaho students in November 2022. (Moscow Police Department)
All four were killed by multiple sharp-force injuries and “endured a high degree of pain and/or suffering” in the attack, which took place as three of the four were sleeping around 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022.
She noted that Kaylee Goncalves, 21, had also suffered blunt-force injuries to her face and that an “unidentified object” appeared to have been used to cover her mouth. She also showed signs of asphyxia.
Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, on July 23, 2025, for his sentencing hearing for the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students nearly three years earlier. (Kyle Green/AP Photo)
The victims were Goncalves, her 21-year-old best friend, Madison Mogen, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin.
Kernodle was the only one not in bed when Kohberger attacked — suffering defensive wounds on her hands and arms.
Police found a leather Ka-Bar sheath in the bed with Goncalves and Mogen that prosecutors later said had Kohberger’s DNA on it.
The victims of the Nov. 13 University of Idaho massacre are Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen. (Instagram)
Investigators used investigative genetic genealogy to come up with leads about the suspect, and discovered a potential match in Kohberger, who had been attending classes 10 miles from the crime scene. He was arrested at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania on Dec. 30, 2022.
The reports were included in a batch of newly unsealed court filings as the court continues to make more information in the case available to the public.
Kohberger, who was studying for a Ph.D. in criminology at the neighboring Washington State University, pleaded guilty last year to avoid death by the firing squad.
He is serving four consecutive life sentences plus another 10 years.
His early weeks in prison were marked with complaints about the food and mistreatment by fellow inmates.