Family of Idaho murders victim speak out after 911 call release: 'This isn't a Hollywood script... it is painful'

The father of Kaylee Goncalves, who was one of four Idaho college students murdered in 2022, has spoken out after the first 911 call from the fateful night was released. 

Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death inside the off-campus student home in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022.

On Friday, Idaho officials released the call following the quadruple homicide that unfolded at the address.  

Reacting to the call, Kaylee's father Steve appeared on NewsNation saying the family listened to it before it was released, and that it didn't give him any clarity.

He told the show: 'I always wanted it to make more sense. Your brain wants to gravitate to "make this make more sense."

'But the truth is, murder never makes sense. This is a psychopathic person who does something that breaks the norm.'

In a post to their Facebook page, the Goncalves family added: 'The 911 call? It is not the neatly rehearsed dialogue of a well-crafted story, not the polished performance you might expect from a Hollywood script.

'No. It is raw. It is jagged. A searing, unvarnished truth that no camera could ever hope to capture. Every breath. Every cry.'

The post adds: 'Every tremor in the voice reveals a reality so cruel, so brutally honest, it cuts deeper than anything fiction could devise.

'In closing let us face the uncomfortable truth: Had the 911 call been made the moment the accused left that house; it would not have saved anyone. Nothing would have changed.' 

In the call, which appears to have been made by someone who did not live at the address, a female caller can be heard hysterically sobbing. 

The woman can be heard through deep sobs saying: 'Something happened in our house'. 

The phone is then passed to another person who says: 'One of our roommates is passed out, and she was drunk last night, and she's not waking up. They saw some man in their house last night.'

A male voice is also heard on the phone - before the dispatcher asks them to stop passing the phone around. 

The male also told the dispatcher that the woman was not breathing. The call ended shortly afterward when police arrived.

A neighbor and one of Chapin's close friends Hunter Johnson were also at the scene at the time, according to Goncalves. 

He said that he spoke with Johnson and thinks he had stumbled upon the bodies of the group. 

Bryan Kohberger, 30, is charged with four counts of murder in the deaths the students.

Kohberger, a criminology PhD student, was arrested six weeks later and accused of the slayings. He denies involvement in the crime.

Investigators zeroed in on Kohberger as the suspect after his DNA was found on a brown leather Ka-Bar knife sheath found next to Mogen’s body at the grisly scene.

At the time of the murders, two other roommates - Mortensen and Bethany Funke - lived with Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle in the three-story house in Moscow.

They were inside the home at the time of the murders but escaped unscathed.

Mortensen, whose bedroom was on the second floor, came face-to-face with a masked man in the immediate aftermath of the murders, according to court documents.

She told investigators that she had been woken by noises in the home at around 4am that morning and had heard a voice say ‘there’s someone here.'

She also heard what sounded like whimpering coming from Kernodle's room and a man’s voice saying: ‘It’s ok, I’m going to help you.’

Mortensen told investigators she had opened her door and peeked outside three times.

The third time, she said she saw a masked man with 'bushy eyebrows' and dressed in black walk past her door and head towards the sliding back doors of the home.

The defense is now asking the judge to block any evidence referencing 'bushy eyebrows' and to block Mortensen from using those words to identify Kohberger when she testifies at trial.

Touch DNA found on the sheath was traced to the 30-year-old suspect using Investigative Genetic Geneaology (IGG), according to prosecutors. 

A judge previously entered a not-guilty plea on Kohberger's behalf, prosecutors have said they are seeking the death penalty if he is convicted. 

In a closed-door hearing in January, Kohberger's attorneys tried to have the DNA evidence tossed from his trial by claiming the use of IGG had violated his constitutional rights and that the state neglected to document its use of the investigative method correctly in search warrants.

In February, the judge turned down the defense’s request, allowing the state to present this key evidence to the jury.

Just days after the ruling was handed down, the defense underwent a major shake-up, bringing on board attorney Bicka Barlow, who is known for specializing in forensic DNA evidence.

A judge previously entered a not-guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted. 

Kohberger’s trial is scheduled to begin August 11 and is expected to last more than three months.

He has so far offered up a vague alibi for the night of the murders claiming he was driving around at night looking at the stars. 

No witnesses can corroborate where he was, his attorney Anne Taylor admitted in a court filing.