Here's what Kaylee Goncalves' family said during Bryan Kohberger ID sentencing
BOISE, Idaho - Bryan Kohberger, who confessed to the November 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students, was sentenced on Wednesday, July 23.
Bryan Kohberger (left) and Idaho murder victims Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Kaylee Goncalves (right).
During his sentencing hearing, the parents of the victims – Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20 – delivered emotional impact statements directly to Kohberger.
Here's what Kaylee Goncalves' parents said during the Bryan Kohberger sentencing
On July 23, 2025, Kaylee Goncalves' parents and sister delivered powerful, emotional testimonies at Bryan Kohberger's sentencing hearing.
Steve Goncalves (Kaylee's dad)
"Today, we are here to finish what you started. Today, you've lost control. Today, we are here to prove to the world that you picked the wrong families, the wrong state, the wrong police officers, the wrong community.
"You tried to break our community apart. You tried to plant fear. You tried to divide us. You failed. Instead, your actions have united everyone and they're disgust for you. I just learned from these lead investigators. To their shock, they worked in an investigation and actually worked with Pennsylvania police officers and the federal FBI. You united everyone. Everyone was united after you. None of us are divided. We are united in our disgust. And our love for these children.
"Today you have no name. Because when this all started, we all came together and we said, let's stop even talking about his name and just use initials. See, even the media just called you BK. That's all you are.
"Looking back when the police officers knocked on my door, told me what happened to my child… told me, what happened to Maddie May… I don't think he was even out of the driveway before my kids turned around, looked at me, and said, what do we do, Dad? I told them, you get to work. You get your ass to work, and we started calling, we started texting, we started emailing. And you know what? Within hours, – within hours, we had your white car on the camera. We knew from the very beginning we had you.
"Police officers tell us within minutes they had your DNA, like a calling card. You were that careless, that foolish, that stupid. Master's degree? You're a joke. A complete joke.
"But we took this disaster, and we did what we could. We put everything online. We took our kids, we took our images, we took everything that they did, their videos, their photos, the girls' pranks, Ethan singing. We put it out there, we shared it with the world. And the world united. And all they ended up, when they talked about this case, is they talked about Kaylee Jade, Maddie May, Xana and Ethan.
"Everything that these people meant to us, a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, we shared that with our community. Then we shared it with our state. We shared it with the country, and eventually we shared it with the world. The world's watching because of the kids, not because of you. Nobody cares about you.
"You're not worth the time, the effort to be remembered. In time, you will be nothing but two initials, forgotten to the wind. No visitors, nothing more than initials on an otherwise unmarked tombstone. From this moment, we will forget you.
"We want to all leave in closing one last thing: you picked the wrong family, and we're laughing at you on your trip to Pen. That will be today or tomorrow.
"I'll close with God bless all the men and women that worked on this case all the hard work that you guys did. You guys allowed us to grieve and allowed us to get through this. The amount of work that you guys put together and the way that you put it together was beautiful. There was hard times to be expected, but thank you all and God bless."
Featured
Here's what Xana Kernodle's family said during Bryan Kohberger ID sentencing
Bryan Kohberger, who confessed to the November 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students, was sentenced on Wednesday, July 23.
Alivea Goncalves (Kaylee's older sister)
"Hello. I'd like to start by thanking the court for allowing me the time and opportunity to speak today. My name is Alivea, and I'm the big sister of Kaylee Goncalves, and I was blessed to love Madison Mogen as a sister too.
"I'm not here today to speak in grief, I'm here to speak the truth. Because the truth is, my sister Kaylee and her best friend Maddie were not yours to take. They were not yours to study, to stalk or to silence. They were two pieces of a whole, the perfect Yin and Yang. They are everything that you could never be; loved, accepted, vibrant, accomplished, brave and powerful.
"Because the truth about Kaylee and Maddie is they would have been kind to you. If you had approached them in their everyday lives, they would've given you directions, thanked you for the compliment, or awkwardly giggled to make your own words less uncomfortable. For you. In a world that rejected you, they would have shown mercy.
"Because the truth is, I'm angry. Every day I'm angry. I'm left shouting at the inside of my own head everything I wish I could say to you. The truth about me is when I heard the news, I didn't cry. I listened for them. I promise them I would. That I would fight for them, that I would show up no matter what it cost me. I swore I'd never let them feel alone.
"Because you see, I've always been their heavyweight. I've been the one to fight the battles they didn't feel ready to fight themselves. All it ever took was a call, and they knew I would handle it for them no matter the time, no matter cost. They could wave their white flag because they knew I would never back down. Not for them, and not even death could change that.
"Somewhere along the line, I started to think about what I would say to them if I was given just one last chance. If I could gather enough heartbreak or love or sacrifice or whatever it took to get just one message across. What would I say?
"Throughout this entire process, I've written my feelings down at every moment: my wishes, my love, my denial, my anger. And as one final act of love, I'd plan to read these thoughts, even jarring and discombobulating and not even making sense. Because, for me, that was true love, as bare and as naked as it could be, not laced in pretty words or dressed for the occasion, but written through bleary eyes at 2 a.m. With clenched fists angry at this reality.
"My true final act of love was to continue on without them, for them. That dream to read aloud my love to them, to bring meaning through pain was the latest blow in realizing you don't deserve it, and Kaylee and Maddie don't need it. Kaylee and Maddie have always known my love, and they would never ask me to prove it by further victimizing myself to a defendant who has shown no guilt, no remorse, no apprehension. They would say to me, why would you give him the satisfaction of showing vulnerability now? You promised you would never back down. And for that clarity, I'm thankful.
"I won't stand here and give you what you want. I won't offer you tears. I won't offer you trembling. Disappointments like you thrive on pain, on fear, and on the illusion of power. And I won't feed your beast. Instead, I will call you what you are: sociopath, psychopath, murderer.
"I will ask the questions that reverberate violently in my own head, so loudly that I can't think straight most any day. Some of these might be familiar, so sit up straight when I talk to you.
"How was your life right before you murdered my sisters? Did you prepare for the crime before leaving your apartment? Please detail what you were thinking and feeling at this time. Why did you choose my sisters? Before making your move, did you approach my sisters? Detail what you are thinking and failing. Before leaving their home, is there anything else you did? How does it feel to know the only thing you failed more miserably at than being a murderer, is trying to be a rapper.
"Did you recently start shaving or manually pulling out your eyebrows? Why November 13th? Did you truly think your Amazon purchase was untraceable because you used a gift card? How do you find it enjoyable to stargaze with such a severe case of visual snow? Where is the murder weapon? The clothes you wore that night? What did you bring into the house with you? What was the second weapon you used on Kaylee? What were Kaylee's last words? Please describe in detail the level of anxiety you must have felt when you heard the bear cat pull up to your family home on December 30, 2022.
"Which do you regret more? Returning to the crime scene 5 hours later. Or never ever going back to Moscow, not even once… after stalking them there for months. If you were really smart, do you think you'd be here right now? What's it like needing this much attention just to feel real? You're terrified of being ordinary, aren't you? Do you feel anything at all? Or are you exactly what you've always feared? Nothing.
"If you're so powerful, then why are you still hiding, defendant? You see, I'm here today as me. But who are you? Let's try to take off your mask and see. You didn't create devastation. You revealed it in yourself. And that darkness you carry, that emptiness, you'll sit with it long after this is over. That is your sentence. And it was written on the wall long before you ever plead guilty.
"You didn't win. You just exposed yourself as the coward you are. You're a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser who thought you were so much smarter than everybody else. Constantly scolding, turning your nose up to grammar mistakes, nitpicking and criticizing others. You wanted so badly to be different, to be special, to be better, to be deep, to be mysterious. You found yourself thinking you were better than everyone else, and you thought you could figure out the human psyche and see through it, all while tweaked out on heroin.
"Lurking in the shadows made you feel powerful because no one ever paid you any attention in the light. You thought you were exceptional, all because of a grade on a paper. You thought that you were elite because your online IQ test from 2010 told you so. All of that effort just to seem important. It's desperate. There is a name for your condition though. Your inflated ego just didn't allow you to see it. Wannabe.
"You act like no one could ever understand your mind, but the truth is you're basic. You're a textbook case of insecurity disguised as control. Your patterns are predictable. Your motives are shallow. You are not profound. You're pathetic. You aren't special or deep, not mysterious or exceptional. Don't ever get it twisted again.
"No one is scared of you today. No one's intimidated by you. No one isn't impressed by you, no one thinks that you are important. You orchestrated this like you thought you were God. Now look at you, begging a courtroom for scraps. You spent months preparing and still all it took was my sister and a sheath. You work so hard to seem dangerous, but real control doesn't have to prove itself. The truth is, the scariest part about you is how painfully average you turned out to be.
"The truth, is you're as dumb as they come, stupid, clumsy, slow, sloppy, weak, dirty. Let me be very clear, don't ever try to convince yourself you mattered just because someone finally said your name out loud. I see through you.
"You want the truth? Here's the one you'll hate the most. If you hadn't attacked them in their sleep in the middle of the night, like a pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your f–ing ass. Thank you."
Featured
Here's what Madison Mogen's parents said during Bryan Kohberger ID sentencing
Bryan Kohberger, who confessed to the November 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students, is set to be sentenced on Wednesday, July 23.
Kristi Goncalves (Kaylee's mother)
"Thank you, your honor. I never imagined having to speak to someone so devoid of humanity.
"For a long time, I didn't think I'd find the words low enough to meet you where you are. But now I realize this isn't about you. It's about what you've done to me. And I need you to hear it.
"When you murdered my daughter, Kaylee Jade Goncalves, you didn't just take her life, you shattered others. You attacked what you could never be. And in doing so, you left a trail of devastation far beyond that house. You stole my peace. You've altered my every waking moment, every sleepless night, the way I view the world, people, safety, trust. It's all been changed by your cruelty.
"I no longer recognize parts of myself. Joy is harder to find. Laughter feels foreign. The world moves forward, but I'm suspended in places of sorrow and rage. You've taken from me something that can never be restored. The grief sits with me every day, some days quietly, and other days so loud it drowns out everything else. The emotional toll you've inflicted on me is immeasurable. I live with a constant ache with birthdays that are now memorials, with holidays that feel hollow, with empty chairs that scream louder than words ever could. I am forever changed.
"But for you, as a person working on a Ph.D. in criminal justice, you really didn't think this one through. You're not that good. In fact, you're not good at anything. You couldn't secure a job. You couldn't get along with others. You couldn't even get a female to look in your direction. All because you are pathetic.
"Now you're a joke in this courtroom. I wish I could crown you with a jester hat to complete your orange jumpsuit clown look. A dead killer doesn't kill again, so while I'm disappointed the firing squad won't get to take their shots at you, I'm confident that the men in prison will have their way with you in more ways than one. You will finally get what you wanted; physical touch. Just probably not how you were expecting it.
"See, you haven't beat the system. You've simply entered a new one where the rules are cruel, and the consequences will never end. You are entering a place where no one will care who you are and no one ever will respect you. You will be forgotten, discarded, used, and erased.
"You will always be remembered as a loser, an absolute failure. And when those prison doors slam shut behind you, I hope that sound echoes in your heart for the rest of your meaningless days. I hope it reminds you of what we all already know: you're nothing.
"May you continue to live your life in misery. You are officially the property of the state of Idaho, where your fellow inmates are anxiously awaiting your arrival. But it's okay, because they're there to help you. Hell will be waiting.
"A quick message from our youngest daughter: Aubrey wanted to say, you may have received A's in high school and college, but you're gonna be getting big D's in prison."
This is a developing story. More testimony transcripts will be added shortly.
The Source: Information in this story comes from Bryan Kohberger's sentencing hearing on July 23, 2025.
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