Relatives of one of confessed killer Bryan Kohberger‘s four victims have been speaking out after a recent photo dump by Idaho officials left them reeling.
The family of Kaylee Goncalves denounced the dozens of redacted crime scene photographs Idaho State Police made public on Tuesday, January 20, claiming through social media they were given very little notice prior to the pictures being released.
“We got a call at 11:04 a.m. that photos would be released this afternoon,” reads a Facebook post written by the Goncalves family. “By the time the call ended (12 minutes later) the photos had already been released (likely they had been available before the call, we just didn’t know it yet). That’s the ‘heads up’ we received.”
The photos released this week show the scene police found in the bedrooms of Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen, where the vicious November 13, 2022, murders occurred.
The new photos show blood spatter on the walls and doors, as well as blood smeared and pooled on the floor. It appears there are gashes in one of the mattresses, which true crime aficionados have speculated were caused by Kohberger’s knife.
“Please be kind [and] as difficult as it is, place yourself outside of yourself [and] consume the content as if it were your loved one,” the family wrote. “Your daughter, your sister, your son or brother. Murder isn’t entertainment [and] crime scene photos aren’t content.”
The post continued: “We know so many of you arm chair detectives will turn this into your show (profits) zooming into things, ‘analyzing blood splatter,’ suggesting that things ‘don’t add up’ yada yada yada. It’s disrespectful and gross.”
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The message ended on a heart wrenching note. “Kaylee Jade, I am so sorry that this has happened to you. I am so sorry that people who never even knew you, now post about you, suggesting things about your life that are so untrue. We will never quit fighting for you. The best thing about all of this is that you are in Heaven and you have no idea of the hate and ugliness. I love you, Kaylee Jade.”
Kohberger, 31, killed University of Idaho student Goncalves, 21, Mogen, 21, Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, inside the off-campus home they all shared.
Kohberger snuck into the house in Moscow, Idaho, under cover of dark, and stabbed the four students to death. In August 2025, Kohberger admitted killing the students and received a life sentence.
The photos show the knife sheath that Kohberger left behind on Mogen’s bed — a crucial piece of evidence that helped lead to his December 2022 arrest.
Bryan’s sister, Mel Kohberger, broke her silence on the case in a recent interview with the New York Times.
“I have always been a person who has spoken up for what was right,” she said in a sit-down with the New York Times published on January 3, in which she confessed that while she knew her brother to be socially awkward and at times abrasive, she never thought he would be capable of murder.
“If I ever had a reason to believe my brother did anything, I would have turned him in,” she added.
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In the days that followed the Idaho University murders, she told the Times she even warned her brother to be careful when out and about alone.
“Bryan, you are running outside, and this psycho killer is on the loose,” she remembered telling him at the time.
His arrest came as such a surprise that she initially wondered if it could have been a prank, especially since Mel noted that their family had been “so proud of him” and the progress he’d made in recent years. According to the Times, Bryan was not only a PhD student but had overcome a major drug addiction by that point in his life.
“It’s human nature to be curious about darker things,” she told the Times. “That’s how we keep ourselves safe. But I think we should try and come together for a true crime culture that is way more protective and empathetic to the families of the victims.”
