Sitting down face-to-face with the man who stabbed your daughter to death in a horrifying frenzy is something many parents might find utterly unthinkable.

But it’s something that Kristi Goncalves ‘absolutely’ wants to do if she ever gets the chance.

More than three years have passed since her 21-year-old daughter Kaylee Goncalves and her three friends Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were murdered by Bryan Kohberger inside their college home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.

The killings shocked the nation, not least because Kohberger had no known connection to any of the four students and no clear motive has ever emerged.

The victims’ families were ultimately robbed of the chance to hear Kohberger explain himself in court when the former criminology PhD student struck a plea deal that spared him the death penalty and avoided a trial.

Now, with the 31-year-old serving life behind bars at Idaho’s maximum-security prison in Kuna, Kristi revealed in a stunningly candid interview with the Daily Mail that she wants to meet her daughter’s killer – and disclosed exactly what her first words to him would be.

‘I would ask him why,’ she said, before looking into the camera and addressing her daughter’s killer directly.

‘Please, please, please. Do you not think that our family has been through enough?’

In a calm, pointed tone, the mom-of-five implored Kohberger for answers as she emphasized the level of violence that the mass killer inflicted on her daughter in her final moments.

Kaylee Goncalves’s parents have launched a foundation in her memory to help other families get justice

Kristi and Steve Goncalves spoke to the Daily Mail at CrimeCon about the foundation – and revealed what they would want to say to Bryan Kohberger

‘Do you not think what you did to our daughter – when we found out that you stabbed her 38 times with a seven-inch KaBar military model knife, 24 times to her face, to her head, 11 times to her chest and neck, and three defensive wounds as she sat up in that bed, and she fought for her life?

‘And you know this because you were there. You broke bones in her face. You knocked her teeth out, you broke her nose, her ocular bones were broken. Can you just tell me why?’

Her emotion intensifying, she tried to appeal to Kohberger’s own apparent closeness to his mother: ‘I’m a mother, and you have a mother, too. Can you please just tell me why?’

In a resigned tone, Kaylee’s father Steve Goncalves added: ‘That’s all you would have to do. Explain to us how that happened and what other weapon you used.’

The Goncalves parents sat down with the Daily Mail at CrimeCon, the true crime event in Las Vegas where they spoke about their efforts to channel their own tragedy into helping other families waiting for justice for their loved ones.

Kristi’s powerful, heart-wrenching statement to her daughter’s killer comes almost a year since Kohberger finally stood up inside Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, and admitted his guilt over the murders that stunned the nation.

The prosecution’s decision to reach a plea deal was condemned by the Goncalves family because it allowed the mass killer to avoid the death penalty and did not require him to reveal the details of his crimes and motives.

Kohberger then refused to make a statement in court during either his change of plea or sentencing hearings.

To this day, investigators have never uncovered his motive, who his target was or how and why he selected his victims.

Bryan Kohberger at his sentencing in Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, on July 23, 2025

Kaylee Goncalves with her parents Kristi and Steve and four siblings Alivea, Steven, Autumn and Aubree

These lingering questions continue to haunt the Goncalves family.

‘Not having the motive is very hard. That is something that I still deal with daily,’ Kristi said.

‘I am constantly thinking why? Why our kids? Why that house? When was it the beginning of the end for them – when did he hone in on them and say, this girl or this girl? I’m sure he knew their names, whether or not it was one or two of them he was going after.’

Investigators believe that either Kaylee or her best friend Madison were Kohberger’s likely target that night, based on the fact he went straight to the third floor of the home where both of their bedrooms were to begin his attack.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said after Kohberger’s sentencing that the killer may even have entered the home prior to that night.

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EXCLUSIVE

 Mom of Idaho murder victim reveals why she is happy NEVER knowing Bryan Kohberger’s motive

Between July 2022 and the night of the murders, Kohberger’s cell phone pinged to cell towers close to the students’ home at 1122 King Road 23 times, mainly late at night or in the early hours of the morning, suggesting that he had been surveilling the victims for some time.

Yet, Kohberger had gone to great lengths to wipe data from his devices during the six-week period between the murders and his arrest on December 30, 2022.

As such, no digital connection could be established between Kohberger and any of the four victims or their two surviving roommates, digital forensics experts Cellebrite previously told the Daily Mail.

Kristi is hopeful that she might get those answers one day.

‘There’s still a chance that we could get that answer. He’s still alive in prison,’ she said.

‘Maybe one day he’ll choose to speak to a journalist, and will spill the beans. Who knows. Maybe he won’t. Maybe he’ll hold onto it forever. But there’s still a chance.’

Experts have suggested to Kristi and Steve that Kohberger might reach a point where he is ‘really bored’ and is ‘literally pulling his hair out’ in prison, so he might agree to an interview to just ‘get out of his cell for 20 minutes,’ they said.

‘We want to get him to that point. But, it is hard not having those answers. It’s incredibly horrible,’ Kristi said.

Left to right: Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee’s shoulders) Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke

The home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, on November 20, 2022, seen days after Kohberger’s killing spree

In the meantime, the family has taken some comfort in the fact that Kohberger already appears to be finding prison life challenging.

The Daily Mail revealed last August that, within days of arriving at Idaho’s maximum-security prison, Kohberger had filed a formal complaint claiming fellow inmates were shouting through the vents into his cell and subjecting him to ‘minute-by-minute verbal threats and harassment.’ He requested a transfer to another part of the facility.

Since then, the Daily Mail has reported on a series of further grievances, ranging from his access to commissary items to complaints about prison food – including the ‘type’ of bananas being served.

‘We love to hear that,’ Kristi said, gesturing with her hands for emphasis. ‘We were like fantastic. That’s great he doesn’t like his bananas.’

While the lack of answers is something that Kristi and Steve still grapple with, they are grateful that their daughter’s killer was identified and captured quickly.

‘The not knowing is very hard but I have to put myself in a position to accept the fact that the most important answer we do have, and that’s who did it,’ Kristi said.

‘So when I’m sitting thinking we don’t know why, I also think that some people don’t even have answers to who did it. I try to be mindful of that.’

This is why the family has launched a foundation in Kaylee’s memory to try to help other families get answers in their cases. The Kaylee Goncalves Foundation, which operates under the name Murder Has a Name, provides funding for advanced forensic DNA testing to help catch killers and seek justice for families and victims in cases that have gone unsolved and where resources are sparse.

It works in partnership with the likes of Othram, the forensics lab that used Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) to identify Kohberger as the source of the DNA on a brown leather Ka-Bar knife sheath left at the scene of Kaylee’s murder.

Kristi and Steve Goncalves speaking at Bryan Kohberger’s sentencing on July 23, 2025

Steve and Kristi said they weren’t aware of the technology before they were forced to become familiar with the inner workings of the criminal justice system. Now, they want to ensure others can use it to hunt and catch killers.

‘I want to hunt killers. I want to hunt them down,’ Steve said.

‘I want to turn the tables on them. We’re going to hunt those people down. We’re going to find them.

‘It’s time to hunt the killers down and give them a taste of their own medicine.’

By giving more families access to advanced DNA testing, ‘the hunter is going to become the hunted,’ Kristi said. ‘This technology is just evolving every single day. It’s crazy.’

As well as catching perpetrators quickly, Kristi and Steve hope that these advancements might even act as a deterrent to budding killers who think that they can commit a horrific crime and get away with it.

‘Some people might just decide that things have gotten too good, that they can’t outsmart the system so maybe I’m not going to do it,’ Kristi said.

It’s something that Kaylee’s parents know she would feel passionate about too.

The 21-year-old had a keen interest in true crime, often watching documentaries and shows about cases. She even once submitted a tip to Moscow police about a possible sighting of a missing woman around one year before her own murder.

Kristi grew emotional as she said Kaylee would be ‘so proud’ of the work her family is now doing in her memory to help other victims and families.

Kaylee (pictured with her dad Steve Goncalves) had a keen interest in true crime, her parents said

The parents of Kaylee Goncalves (right) believe she would be so proud to know her family is now fighting for justice for other victims

‘I think Kaylee would be so proud. I think about that, and I just want to tell her so bad: “Look at this foundation with your face on it, your name,”‘ she said.

‘We’re doing this because Kaylee was a true crime person. She watched true crime. I watched cases with her.

‘So, I want to say to her, Kaylee, unfortunately, you are one of those cases now, but we’ve made this foundation to help people get answers. And maybe some of those cases that we talked about, this girl, or that girl, maybe we could be a part of helping that family.

‘To think of her thinking, “Oh, my gosh, I helped such and such’s case,” there’s a meaning, a reason to this. I know she’s rooting us on. She would give us an A for effort.’

Steve added: ‘She is directly playing a role in us doing this, and as long as we’re successful, as long as we keep working and keep doing what we’re doing today, then we can get these cases solved.’

SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.com/crime-desk/article-15867957/kaylee-goncalves-mother-bryan-kohberger-idaho-murders.html