The murderous actions of Bryan Kohberger continue to haunt the families of his four victims, as the state of Idaho stirs up fresh heartache with the continued release of graphic court filings.
Most recently, Idaho officials made public forensic reports containing previously unreleased details. In them, medical examiners noted in vivid detail just how Kohberger killed all four University of Idaho students in late 2022.
Us Weekly decided not to report on those grisly details, as they were too horrific in nature.
Steve Goncalves, who is the father of victim Kaylee Goncalves, appeared on Jesse Weber Live on NewsNation Tuesday, January 27, and said that, in short, the families of the murdered students are usually the last to know.
“We learned brand new things,” Goncalves said of the latest dump of public documents. “Those details that were put in those docs were never given to us. They were given to strangers before they were given to us.”
Added Goncalves, 50: “It’s shocking that family doesn’t get any kind of priority, you know? Even a heads-up. We asked for discovery. They said they’d give it to us, but they never did.”
Kohberger, 31, killed University of Idaho student Goncalves, 21, Maddie Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, inside the off-campus home they all shared in Moscow.
Kohberger snuck into the house on November 13, 2022, under cover of dark and stabbed the four students to death. In August 2025, Kohberger admitted killing the students and received a life sentence.
In recent weeks, officials have released — and then removed — redacted crime scene photos that show pooled blood as well as spatter on the walls and doors and blood smeared on the floor. It also appears there are gashes in one of the mattresses, which true crime aficionados have speculated on social media were caused by Kohberger’s knife.
Speaking to Webber, Goncalves questioned why these morbidly detailed documents need to be shared with the public.
Kohberger “pled four cases of murder or capital, all of them, and in the same breath, he waived his rights to even challenge it,” Goncalves said. “So, you know what? Why does this need to come out? You know, all these details? I mean, these are like mortician details. It has nothing to do with a case that’s never going to happen.”
Goncalves said “we had no idea” the new documents were coming. “We had no heads-up, none whatsoever. It goes to the media before it does us, and that’s awful. We just find out through, you know, our phone starts going off.”
Goncalves said the families have been meeting with state lawmakers “to try to fix this” situation. He said Idaho House Bill 1135 has been proposed and was crafted to “protect this type of information and make sure that it never gets out.”
Goncalves said the families are “going to talk to the governor and say, ‘Hey, we can do better than this.’ And you know, that means we have got to [make] laws. We can’t just let one person act like a judge and jury and make a [plea] deal and then, you know, we live it for the rest of our lives, and six months later, we’re finding out new details of, you know, the worst moments of our children’s lives. You know, it seems like a nightmare that this couldn’t be illegal, but we hope to make sure that it isn’t legal in Idaho in the future.”
