Parents of murdered Idaho student Kaylee Goncalves say she was preparing to move to Texas before slayings

The dad and mom of a College of Idaho scholar who was killed together with three others mentioned she had just lately moved from the home the place the slayings passed off in November, however had gone again there to indicate her shut buddy her new automobile and attend a close-by celebration.

Kristi and Steve Goncalves informed Dateline that their daughter, 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, was attributable to graduate school early and had lined up a job with an IT agency in Austin, Texas.

Kaylee Goncalves had simply moved out of the home she shared along with her longtime greatest buddy, 21-year-old Madison “Maddie” Mogen.

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“These ladies have been greatest associates since sixth grade, like inseparable,” Kristi Goncalves mentioned. 

The 2 had lived collectively and “have been true, final greatest associates,” she mentioned. “Maddie had been an enormous a part of our life.”

Kaylee Goncalves, who had simply purchased a brand new Vary Rover, informed her dad and mom she wished to return to Moscow, Idaho, to indicate it to Maddie and to attend a close-by celebration collectively. 

“That was the final time that I noticed Kaylee,” her mom mentioned.

On Nov. 13, Kaylee, Mogen and two others have been stabbed to dying inside a house within the largely rural school group of Moscow.

Additionally killed within the assault have been Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington and Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona.

Police arrested a suspect, Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, about seven weeks after the killings. He has been charged with 4 counts of first-degree homicide and felony housebreaking.

Authorities tied Kohberger to the case by way of male DNA left on a knife sheath on the scene, in addition to by monitoring down Kohberger’s automobile and his cellphone data.

Kohberger, who’s from Pennsylvania, was a doctoral scholar at close by Washington State College learning within the felony justice and criminology division.

Police haven’t disclosed a motive for the killings or mentioned if or how Kohberger might have identified the victims.

One former felony justice classmate of Kohberger’s at DeSales College, the place he graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in psychology and a grasp of arts in felony justice, mentioned she was shocked when she heard the information of Kohberger’s arrest. 

“It undoubtedly took me by shock,” the classmate, Madison, informed Dateline.

Madison, who requested her final title not be used out of worry of harassment, mentioned she remembered the detailed responses Kohberger gave within the criminology course they took collectively in 2018.

“Each time he raised his hand he undoubtedly took it upon himself to reply the query however but then give each single element that he probably may to assist additional his level,” she mentioned. “It was at all times, like, ‘Oh, Bryan’s answering this query. That is gonna take up the entire complete class.’”

She additionally felt that Kohberger would “stare” at her and her associates. 

“He would stare at us. He undoubtedly had very outstanding eyes,” she mentioned. “I might at all times catch him gazing us. He wouldn’t ever actually attempt to ‘discuss’ discuss to us.”

Hayden Stinchfield, a junior within the felony justice program at WSU, had Kohberger as a instructing assistant.

“He wasn’t an excellent approachable man,” Stinchfield informed Dateline, including that Kohberger was initially a harsh grader.

However that abruptly modified. 

“At a sure level, he began simply giving everybody 100s and like tremendous excessive marks,” he mentioned. “By the top of the semester, nobody was fascinated by the little deductions from earlier.”

Stinchfield mentioned that trying again, he believes the change in Kohberger’s grading habits “traces up fairly nicely” with the time of the killings.

Steve and Kristi Goncalves mentioned they take some consolation in pondering and hoping that their daughter might have helped remedy her personal dying by snatching away the knife sheath finally used to tie Kohberger to the killings.

“I hope that possibly in a wrestle, she pulled it off of him,” Kristi Goncalves mentioned.

“It’s a checkmate sort second,” Steve Goncalves added.

The 2 mentioned that they hope for a conviction and the dying penalty.

“He selected again and again to finish folks’s lives and that must be accounted for,” Steve Goncalves mentioned.