Kelly Goncalves had lined up a job with an IT firm in Austin and had recently moved out of the home where she was killed.
The parents of a University of Idaho student who was killed along with three others. Say he recently moved from the home where the slayings took place in November. But returned to show off his new car to a close friend and attend a nearby party.
Christy and Steve Goncalves told Dateline that their daughter, 21-year-old Kylie Goncalves. Was due to graduate early from college and was in line for a job at an IT firm in Austin, Texas.
Kaylee Goncalves had just moved out of the home she shared with her longtime best friend. 21-year-old Madison “Maddy” Mogen.
“These girls have been best friends since sixth grade. like inseparable,” Kristi Goncalves said.
The two lived together and were “true, ultimate best friends,” she said. “Maddie was a huge part of our lives.”
Kylie Goncalves, who had just bought a new Range Rover, told her parents she wanted to go back to Moscow, Idaho. To show off Maddie and get together at a party nearby.
“That was the last time I saw Kelly,” her mother said.
On November 13, Kylie, Mogen and two others were stabbed to death at a home in a rural college community in Moscow.
Also killed in the attack were Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington. And Gianna Carnodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona. Police arrested the suspect. Brian Christopher Kohberger, 28, about seven weeks after the murder. He is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of grand larceny.
Authorities tied Kohberger to the case through male DNA left on a knife sheath at the scene. As well as tracking Kohberger’s car and his cellphone records.
Kohberger, who hails from Pennsylvania, was a doctoral student. At nearby Washington State University studying criminal justice and criminology.
Police have not released a motive for the killings or whether or how Kohberger knew the victims.
A former criminal justice classmate of Kohberger’s at DeSales University. Where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology. And a master of arts degree in criminal justice, said he was shocked to hear of Kohberger’s arrest.
“It definitely shocked me,” classmate Madison told Dateline.
Said she remembers the detailed responses Kohberger gave to a criminology. Course they took together in 2018.
“Whenever he raised his hand he certainly took it upon himself to answer the question. But still give every detail he could possibly get to further his point,” he said. “It was always, ‘Oh, Brian is answering this question. It’s going to take the whole class.’
“He would look at us. He must have had very prominent eyes,” she said. “I would always catch him staring at us. He would never try to ‘talk’ to us.” Hayden Stinchfield, a junior majoring in criminal justice at WSU. Was a teaching assistant to Kohberger.
“He wasn’t a very approachable guy,” Kohberger was initially. A hard grader, Stinchfield told Dateline.
But that suddenly changed.
“At a certain point, he started giving everybody 100s and like super high marks,” he said. “By the end of the semester, no one was thinking about the little cuts beforehand.”
Stinchfield said that in retrospect, he believes Kohberger’s change in grading practices. “Lines up pretty well” with the timing of the murders.
Solve her own death by removing the sheath of the knife used to tie Kohberger to the murder.
“I hope that maybe in a struggle, he pulled it from her,” Christy Goncalves said.
“It’s a checkmate kind of moment,” added Steve Goncalves.
The two said they expected conviction and the death penalty.
“He chose over and over again to end people’s lives.