Newly Unsealed Filing Suggests Bryan Kohberger May Have “Posed” Two Idaho Victims After Killings

More than three years after the University of Idaho murders shocked the nation, newly unsealed court documents have revealed disturbing new allegations about what Bryan Kohberger may have done inside the victims’ home after the killings.

According to a filing recently unsealed by the court, Kohberger may have deliberately arranged the bodies of best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen after fatally stabbing them in their shared third-floor bedroom during the early hours of November 13, 2022.

The filing cites forensic scientist Dr. Brent Turvey, a crime scene expert retained by Kohberger’s defense team, who reached the conclusion after reviewing the victims’ autopsy reports and crime scene evidence.

“The evidence suggests that after both victims were killed or unresponsive they were posed in their shared bed,” Turvey wrote in the filing. “Kaylee was moved from a position with her head on her pillow to partially atop Madison. Then the comforter was placed over them both.”

If accurate, the finding suggests Kohberger remained inside the home longer than previously believed, taking time to manipulate the crime scene after the attacks rather than fleeing immediately.

Prosecutors have said Kohberger entered the off-campus residence through a sliding glass door shortly after 4 a.m. and attacked four University of Idaho students with a large fixed-blade knife.

The victims were Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. Goncalves and Mogen were killed in a third-floor bedroom, while Kernodle and Chapin were attacked on the second floor.

Autopsy reports released by the Moscow Police Department concluded that Goncalves and Mogen died from multiple sharp-force injuries. Authorities also reported that Goncalves suffered additional injuries during the attack that left her difficult to recognize.

Evidence presented during the investigation suggested Kernodle was still awake when the attack began after recently receiving a DoorDash food delivery. Her autopsy indicated she sustained more than 50 stab wounds, many believed to have occurred as she fought to defend herself.

Investigators also believe Ethan Chapin was likely asleep when he was attacked. Sources familiar with the investigation have previously stated that he was the final victim killed inside the home.

Two roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, survived the attack. Mortensen later told investigators she saw a masked man with bushy eyebrows walking through the house before he disappeared into the darkness. Newly released text messages showed she repeatedly attempted to contact her roommates after becoming frightened but received no response.

Kohberger, a former criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University, was arrested in December 2022 after investigators linked DNA recovered from a knife sheath left at the crime scene to him through investigative genetic genealogy and DNA collected from his family’s trash in Pennsylvania.

Although he initially pleaded not guilty, Kohberger accepted a plea agreement in July 2025, admitting that he deliberately and intentionally murdered all four students. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

On July 23, 2025, Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Kohberger to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, along with an additional 10-year sentence for burglary. He also imposed significant financial penalties and restitution for the victims’ families.

Despite Kohberger’s guilty plea, many questions surrounding the murders remain unanswered. Investigators have never publicly identified a motive for the attack, and the newly unsealed filing has introduced another chilling possibility—that after carrying out one of the deadliest crimes in Idaho’s history, Kohberger may have intentionally arranged two of his victims before finally leaving the scene.