When four members of the Moscow and UI community were brutally murdered in November of 2022, it was difficult to see a world where justice would ever be served. Even after the man responsible for Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin’s deaths was sentenced to life in prison, many feel justice is still out of reach.
Are four life sentences and $270,000 enough to provide justice for those that lost their children, siblings and friends?
It’s an impossible task to determine whether justice was served, or if enough was done to ensure it. It is a task the community, investigators and the families still grapple with.
In the weeks leading up to the arrest of Bryan Kohberger at his family’s home in Pennsylvania, Moscow was a community grieving the loss of young lives. Anger from an impossible situation manifested in distrust in the police and investigators working on the case.
Former Moscow Police Chief James Fry waited three days to hold a press conference informing the community of what had occurred at the King Road home on Nov. 13. Even though many suspected the police knew key details at the time, the information shared was sparse, leaving many in Moscow scared and in want of more progress in the investigation.
Fry has said in several public settings, as well as in an interview with The Argonaut, that he wished he had held the press conference sooner. He stood by the lack of information shared, though, saying the integrity of the case was more important.
MPD Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger echoed this, saying, “We were willing to err on the side of silence, to protect the case, versus try to feed the insatiable hunger of the public and the media for immediate information.”
Still, many are left wondering why certain details, such as the make of the suspect’s vehicle which was caught on a security camera neighboring the King Road home, were not shared with the public earlier than they were.
These hidden details, though now released in police documents after a January 2023 gag order was lifted on July 17, 2025, led many to speculate. Books, documentaries and internet sleuths have taken it upon themselves to determine why these horrific slayings occurred.
The ‘why’ has plagued many since the murders: Why them? Why now? Why here?
This question led to the release of nearly 200 crime scene photos and videos of the King Road residence on Aug. 8, 2025, after a public records request was made.
Included were images of the victims’ bloody beds and walls, only furthering the suffering of the families.
Karen Laramie, Maddie’s mother, sued the City of Moscow on Aug. 12 to prevent further images from being released, saying the images were an invasion of privacy. The Chapins have since supported the suit.
A temporary restraining order was issued on Aug. 15, preventing further images from being released until the hearing, set for Aug. 21.
The only respite the families of the victims had was the hope that Kohberger would be sentenced to death.
Idaho is one of 27 states to have the death penalty as punishment for violent crimes. In July of 2026, the state will implement a firing squad as its main means of execution when the chemicals used for lethal injection are not available.
With the case laid out before them, prosecutors and investigators were confident they would have been successful in court. In a turn of events, the defense requested a plea deal, eventually leading to Kohberger pleading guilty to all charges and receiving a sentence of four consecutive life terms in Idaho’s only maximum-security prison.
Reactions to the sentencing were divided among the families. Steve Goncalves, Kaylee’s father, told NBC after news of the plea broke, “Idaho has failed. They failed me. They failed my whole family.”
The Goncalveses have been the most vocal about their disapproval of the plea, even attempting to introduce new laws.
In an interview with TMZ, Goncalves said he is working with two Idaho legislators to make convicted murderers reimburse taxpayers with their commissary funds. Initially, his hope was that Kohberger’s commissary would go towards funding his own execution.
While some are angry with the result, others are relieved. On The Today Show, Jim Chapin, Ethan’s father, said, “If I could physically do a handstand, I’d probably do one, because I am so ready…I’m ready for my kids to move on. I’m ready for us to move on. I mean, it’s been almost two and a half years, and it’s, just, it’s over.”
Now that Kohberger has been locked away—never to step outside for more than one hour a day, never to harm another person and never to taste freedom again—the questions of ‘why’ and ‘what if’ may fall into irrelevance.
A just world would have seen Kaylee, Maddie, Xana and Ethan graduate and enter the real world to live long lives. Justice could have been Kohberger standing before a firing squad. Justice could also be locking him away, throwing out the key, and allowing the victims’ families to avoid the trauma of a trial.
No one person has the answer to whether justice was served. What matters now is that Kaylee, Maddie, Xana and Ethan’s families, friends and communities can begin to heal and move on. With the murderer behind bars, they can start to move past the horrific events of 2022 and focus on the victims’ legacies as they look ahead to their own futures.
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