Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke.
- The Moscow Police Department released hundreds of previously sealed reports from the Bryan Kohberger murder investigation
- Kohberger left Kaylee Goncalves face “disfigured” and stabbed her so many times that even her roommate Dylan Mortensen could not identify her
- Xana Kernodle put up a fight and had “defensive wounds” covering her hands as signs indicated an “intense struggle” in her bedroom
Xana Kernodle fought for her life before being stabbed to death by Bryan Kohberger, according to newly unsealed documents.
Multiple reports filed by responding officers from the Moscow Police Department note that Kernodle had “defensive wounds” on her hands, including deep gashes between her fingers.
Those reports also note the severity of the wounds suffered by Kaylee Goncalves, whose face was left “disfigured” by Kohberger, according to Officer Corbin Smith.
Kernodle and Goncalves were both stabbed so many times, according to these reports, that their surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen initially misidentified the two young women when officers arrived on the scene.
Bryan Kohberger. AP Photo/Kyle Green
Sgt. Shaine Gunderson wrote in his report that “it was obvious an intense struggle had occurred” between Xana and her killer.
Kohberger then fled the scene after that struggle, with Mortensen watching as he walked right by her and out the sliding glass door on the second floor of the University of Idaho students’ off-campus home.
What the police reports do not make any mention of, however, is the fast food order Kernodle had received just minutes before her murder, which would explain why Mortensen reported seeing the killer exit the home with a package in his hands.
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The reports also suggest that Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, was likely killed in his sleep.
Officers wrote that his body was found laying in bed when they arrived on the scene with a blanket partially covering his midsection.
Kernodle, on the other hand, appears to have encountered Kohberger either during or just after he murdered Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen in a third floor bedroom, at which point she ran and then put up a fight.
Xana Kernodle. Xana Kernodle/instagram
Mortensen said in her interview with Officer Mitch Nunes that she heard a person she believed to be Goncalves scream that “somebody” was in the house.
She then told Officer Nunes that she heard someone run down from the third floor to the second floor bedroom where Kernodle and Chapin were sleeping followed by a “commotion.”
That person she heard running down the stairs was likely Kernodle, who Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson said might not have been a target of Kohberger’s that night had she not happened to encounter him inside the home.
Mortensen said the sounds of a struggle eventually died down and she heard an unfamiliar man’s voice say: “You’re gonna be fine. I’m gonna help you.”
She then waited a few more minutes before opening her door, at which point she saw Kohberger, who she initially described to Officer Nunes as “six-feet tall, slim build, with a black ski mask.”
The documents unsealed by the Moscow Police Department provide new details about the investigation into Kohberger and the murders of four University of Idaho students, for which he is now sentenced to serve four life sentences.
Dylan Mortensen. AP Photo/Kyle Green
Mortensen spoke about the horrors of that night and the repercussions at his sentencing hearing on Wednesday, just a few hours before the release of these unsealed documents.
“I made escape plans everywhere I went. If something happens, how do I get out? What can I use to defend myself?” Mortensen said in her statement, for which she had to sit in one of the prosecutor’s chairs because she was too emotional to stand.
“All I can do is scream, because the emotional pain and the grief is too much to handle,” Mortensen said.
She later spoke about the man who caused that fear and pain, addressing Kohberger as he sat just a few feet away.
“He is a hollow vessel. Something less than human. A body without empathy or remorse,” Mortensen told the court.
She then added: “He chose destruction, he chose evil. He feels nothing. He tried to take everything from me.”
Kaylee Goncalves. Kaylee Goncalves/instagram
Kohberger showed no emotion during any of the remarks made by friends and family or when his sentence was handed down to him by Judge Steven Hippler, who did not mince words when speaking about the murderer.
“Even in pleading guilty, he has given nothing hinting of remorse or redemption. Nothing suggesting even a recognition of understanding, let alone regret for the pain he has caused and therefore, I will not attempt to speak about him further, other than to simply sentence him, so that he is forever removed from civilized society,” Hippler said.
He then sentenced Kohberger to serve four life terms in prison in addition to a 10-year sentence for burglary. He also ordered him to pay $270,000 in fines and civil penalties.
After all was said and done, Kohberger stared blankly ahead and exited the courtroom without speaking a word to his mother or sister.