The family of Kaylee Goncalves has responded after Bryan Kohberger filed a petition to withdraw the guilty plea connected to the 2022 killings of four University of Idaho students.
Kohberger, a criminology student, admitted to the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, who were killed in November 2022. He pleaded guilty on July 2, 2025, and was subsequently sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, along with additional time for burglary.
More than a year after entering his guilty plea, he has now filed a petition seeking to withdraw it. In a handwritten petition filed Monday from the Idaho Maximum Security Penitentiary, Kohberger argued that his admission of guilt should be undone. In statements to the New York Times, Kohberger claimed his attorneys manipulated him by promising better prison conditions and scaring him about life on death row, contradicting what he told the judge during his guilty plea hearing.
“My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,” Kohberger told the outlet. He claims he was ‘misled’ into confessing.
During the July 2, 2025 plea hearing, Kohberger confirmed to Judge Steven Hippler that he was pleading guilty “freely and voluntarily” because he was, in fact, guilty. However, in his petition, he now claims his attorneys “threatened” him into entering the guilty plea and that it “was induced by unkept promises” and threats.
After that development, Tracie Brocco, executive director of Murder Has a Name, the organization founded by Kaylee’s parents, shared the family’s stance and said they remain resolute about the case outcome.
“Regarding Kohberger’s appeal, Kristi and Steve have publicly addressed their position. They remain confident in the outcome of this case and are prepared for whatever comes next in the legal process.
“As they stated publicly, they believe Kohberger knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently admitted to the murders in open court after consulting with counsel and choosing to plead guilty rather than proceed to trial.
“While they recognize he is entitled to pursue the appellate process, they remain unwavering in their belief that justice was served and continue to focus on honoring Kaylee, Maddie, Xana, and Ethan rather than giving additional attention to the defendant.”
Kaylee’s mother, Kristi Goncalves, told Fox News that the family anticipated this legal maneuver. “We knew we’d be hearing from him again, and September was coming up and that would be the end of his appeal, so we weren’t really shocked,” she said. She added that the family remains confident in the overwhelming evidence against Kohberger and would welcome the opportunity to present the case before a jury if necessary.
In their own public response, the Goncalves family also made clear they do not accept Kohberger’s latest position.
“He chose not to leave his fate – or the facts of the case – to a jury. He never cried foul, never claimed he was uninformed or pressured, and never suggested there were problems with the discovery materials he and his counsel had reviewed for two years that should have been challenged.”
The family added that the greater injustice, in their view, is the amount of public attention still being directed toward him.
The case has also been revisited in the Netflix documentary The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare, which explores the killings and their aftermath in greater detail.
In the documentary, Kaylee’s mother, Kristi, spoke candidly about the punishment she believed he deserved.
“What I want, is I want for him to die.”
She also made clear she would not use his name.
“Justice would only be if the kids came back and that doesn’t work that way. The kids are gone, they are never coming back, but I want him to die.”
The three-part series also examines Kohberger’s past, including his online activity and testimony from people who knew him.
According to the documentary’s timeline, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin spent part of the evening at Chapin’s fraternity, Sigma Chi, while Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen went to the Corner Club sports bar.
1.45am – Kernodle and Chapin return home to their house on King Road
1.56am – Goncalves and Mogen arrive home
2.44am – Kohberger’s Hyundai sedan is spotted by a CCTV camera at Washington State University. Shortly afterwards, the car is seen again heading towards a road that connects Pullman, Washington, to Moscow, Idaho, where the victims live.
4am – Bryan Kohberger is believed to have entered the property
4.17am – A security camera reveals the sound of a barking dog, voices and what sounds like a thud. At some point around this time, their housemate Dylan Mortensen is awoken and hears a male voice say: “It’s OK, Kaylee, I’m here for you.” She later hears crying and sees a masked man in the property.
4.19am – Mortensen attempts to call Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen, but all calls go unanswered. She started texting Bethany Funke, saying she’s ‘freaking out’ after seeing a man in a ‘ski mask’. Mortensen joins Funke in her room and they lock themselves in.
11.58am – After Mortensen calls her friend Emily Alandt, she and her boyfriend Hunter Johnson come over to the King Road property. Johnson discovers Chapin and Kernodle’s bodies and calls 911.
Preliminary autopsy findings showed all four victims had been attacked with a large knife.
Investigators later said they wanted to speak with anyone connected to a white 2011-13 Hyundai Elantra.
Kohberger was eventually arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary. Authorities later said DNA found on a knife sheath linked him to the crime scene, while vehicle and phone data also helped track his movements.
At his arraignment, Kohberger stood silent when asked to enter a plea, prompting the judge to enter a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Prosecutors later confirmed they intended to seek the death penalty.
The King Road home where the killings happened was later demolished.
In pre-trial filings, Kohberger’s legal team argued phone mast data placed him miles from Moscow, Idaho, at the time of the murders.
His defence also argued that he showed traits of autism spectrum disorder and that executing him would be unconstitutional.
But only weeks before trial, scheduled to begin in August 2025, Kohberger changed course and pleaded guilty to burglary and four counts of first-degree murder.
He was subsequently given four consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years for the burglary conviction.
At sentencing on July 23, 2025, he faced the families of the victims for the first time as they delivered impact statements in court.
Goncalves’ sister Alivea tells him that if her sister hadn’t been sleeping when he attacked, ‘Kaylee would’ve kicked your f**king a**’.
Mortensen also described the effect the killings had on her life, saying she had experienced debilitating panic attacks ever since and that he had taken away her ‘ability to trust the world’.
Legal experts say Kohberger faces a high bar to successfully withdraw his plea. Idaho law permits plea withdrawal to correct a “manifest injustice,” which requires showing he did not enter his plea voluntarily, was not informed of the consequences, or did not have informed consent. He filed the petition for post-conviction relief on Monday, July 28, 2026, more than a year after his guilty plea. The deadline to file for post-conviction relief under Idaho law is within a year after the 42-day deadline to file a direct appeal expires, which in Kohberger’s case would fall in early September 2026.