Grieving parents reveal chilling final moments of Bryan Kohberger victim

The brutal murders of four college students in Moscow, Idaho, sent shockwaves across the United States back in November 2022.

Now, the suspected killer, Bryan Kohberger, has confessed to the horrific crime in a bid to avoid the death penalty.

At the same time, the parents of victim Kaylee Goncalves are speaking out about their daughter’s final moments — while pushing back against growing criticism.

Nearly two years after the chilling murders of four University of Idaho students rocked the nation, the man accused of carrying out the killings — Bryan Kohberger— has finally admitted to the crime. But the outcome is far from satisfying for one grieving family.

Kohberger, a former Ph.D. student in criminal justice, has formally pleaded guilty to the November 2022 slayings of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves.

Controversial agreement

The students were brutally ”butchered” and stabbed to death in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, during the early morning hours. The case sparked national outrage, drawing comparisons to horror movie scenarios and leading to one of the most high-profile murder investigations in recent memory.

Kohberger was arrested just over a month later, in December 2022.

On July 2, 2025, he finally accepted a plea deal in which he admitted guilt in order to avoid the death penalty. The agreement means he now faces four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, along with an additional 10-year sentence for burglary.

But for the family of Kaylee Goncalves, this outcome feels more like a betrayal than justice.

“He doesn’t deserve life in prison”

Following the plea deal, Kaylee’s parents took to Facebook to share their outrage — and their heartbreak.

“He doesn’t deserve life in prison. He deserved life on death row,” they wrote on the family’s public page.

Their anger isn’t just about what Kohberger did — it’s also about how the system responded. The plea agreement, in their view, offers the man who murdered their daughter far more mercy than she ever received.

“People say that the Goncalves [family] don’t want justice, they want vengeance. Well let me ask you a question about that… If your 21-year-old daughter was sleeping in her bed and BK went into her house with the intention to kill her and he did, by stabbing her MANY times, as well as beating her in the face and head while it was clear that she fought for her life… what would you want?

“Justice or vengeance? Maybe a little bit of both? I’m curious how you all would feel. It gets so old having people say we want vengeance and make it sound like we are animals for having those feelings… I just find it so hard that so many people are judging us and they have never stepped foot in our shoes.”

Why did he do it?

Their message continued with a scathing critique of the state’s decision to remove the death penalty from the table. To them, the imbalance is glaring.

“I am sorry if you don’t agree with our recent decisions on the plea deal. BK literally is too afraid to die, but he wasn’t afraid to kill,” they wrote. “BK wanted a plea deal and he was given one. Kaylee wasn’t offered a plea deal. The state is showing BK mercy by removing the death penalty. BK did not show Kaylee ANY mercy.”

Bryan Kohberger has never publicly given a reason for the murders, and no clear motive has been confirmed. However, prosecutors suggested he used his criminology background to plan and carry out the killings, possibly driven by obsession, control, or a desire to test what he’d studied.

Still, the true “why” remains unanswered.

As the families of all four victims continue to process this next chapter in the case, many are left wondering: when the justice system spares a killer’s life, is that mercy — or injustice?

For the Goncalves family, the answer is painfully clear.

What do you think? Does true justice mean letting him live, or should the death penalty have stayed on the table? Let us know where you stand.