The parents of one of Bryan Kohberger's victims have announced their intention to sue the university where the killer was studying criminology at the time of the quadruple homicide.
Steve and Kristi Goncalves, whose daughter Kaylee was murdered alongside three other University of Idaho students, are filing a tort claim against Washington State University (WSU) through their attorney Shanon Gray.
The family stated their legal action aims to achieve accountability and transparency from the institution, where staff and students had reportedly observed Kohberger's increasingly disturbing behaviour in the period leading up to the murders.
University Failures Under Scrutiny
In an official statement, the Goncalves family explained: "Our goal is to understand what went wrong, to ensure that no other family endures the same tragedy, and to honor the memory of those who were lost. We trust the legal process to uncover the truth."
Kaylee Goncalves, aged 21, was one of four students brutally murdered by Kohberger on November 13, 2022. The attacker broke into the King Road residence in Moscow, Idaho during early morning hours and stabbed to death Goncalves, her roommates Madison Mogen (21) and Xana Kernodle (20), along with Kernodle's boyfriend Ethan Chapin.
Investigators have never established any connection between Kohberger and his victims, and his motive remains unexplained.
Alarming Behaviour Ignored
At the time of the killings, Kohberger was pursuing a PhD in criminal justice at WSU, living merely 10 minutes away from the crime scene in university housing in Pullman, just across the state border.
According to hundreds of pages of investigative documents released after his life sentence, both students and staff had raised concerns about Kohberger's behaviour early in the semester.
The records reveal that multiple complaints were filed against him by fellow criminology students. Classmates and professors described him as sexist and creepy, with female students specifically avoiding being alone with him.
One faculty member delivered a particularly chilling warning, stating that Kohberger had the potential to become a "future rapist".
According to police reports, the staff member cautioned: "He is smart enough that in four years we will have to give him a PhD. Mark my word, I work with predators, if we give him a PhD, that's the guy [in] many years when he is a professor, we will hear is harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing ... his students."
Additional complaints detailed stalking behaviour and incidents where Kohberger would physically prevent people from leaving rooms. The records also noted his strong interest in sexual burglary, a chilling foreshadowing of his later crimes.
Academic Consequences and Arrest
Ultimately, the university placed Kohberger on an improvement plan before dismissing him as a teaching assistant and withdrawing his PhD funding in mid-December 2022.
Just days after his academic dismissal, authorities arrested him during a raid on his parents' Pennsylvania home and charged him with the four murders.
The legal action follows tort notices initially filed on behalf of the Goncalves and Mogen families back in May 2023, which reserved their right to pursue legal action against the university. It remains uncertain whether other victims' families will join the lawsuit.
When approached for comment, a WSU spokesperson declined to provide detailed remarks due to the ongoing legal claim. University President Elizabeth Cantwell expressed: "My heart goes out to the families, friends, and entire community grieving this tragic loss of life. We share in their sorrow and we recognize the profound pain and shock that this act of violence has caused."
This legal development emerges shortly after the third anniversary of the murders, during which families commemorated their loved ones and the Moscow community held a vigil.
Kohberger, who recently changed his plea days before his scheduled trial, received a life sentence without possibility of appeal as part of a deal that spared him the death penalty. The now 31-year-old is currently incarcerated in Idaho's maximum security prison in Kuna.
