The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy

Emily is having breakfast with Hunter Johnson, Josie, and Linden when Dylan calls and says she thinks there was a man in the house. Emily, knowing how Dylan can be when she’s drunk, is not worried. Hunter gets to the house ahead of her and goes upstairs to check on the roommates. He finds Xana’s door cracked open. Xana is on the floor, bloody. Ethan is motionless in bed. There is a lot of blood. Hunter goes back downstairs, tells Dylan and Bethany to stay outside and call 911, gets a knife, and returns upstairs. Emily attempts to go up with him, but he stops her.

Outside, Bethany and Dylan have called 911. The women are upset and have difficulty communicating with the 911 operator. They don’t yet know about Xana and Ethan’s deaths, so they tell the operator that one of their roommates is “passed out” and “not waking up” and mentions that they “saw a man in their house last night” (135). Hunter comes out of the house and takes the phone. He tells the operator that Xana is not breathing. The operator asks if they can find a defibrillator, but they don’t know what that is or where to find one. The women use their location-sharing apps to determine that Kaylee, Maddie, and Xana’s phones are all in the house.

The first police officer arrives when the women are still on the phone with 911. The officer is Mitch Nunes. He is 22, the same age as Hunter Johnson. The victims’ friends are surprised to see someone their age in a uniform. Nunes asks Hunter Johnson to show him the unconscious person so that he can administer CPR, but he knows something is unusual about the situation. For one thing, Hunter Johnson is still holding the knife he’d gotten from the kitchen. Hunter Johnson takes Nunes to Xana’s room. Nunes sees that both Xana and Ethan have been stabbed. Xana’s body bears marks of defensive wounds; her fingers are nearly severed. Ethan appears to have been stabbed to death in his sleep. Nunes calls for backup, takes Hunter down to the living room, and goes up to the top of the house where he finds Maddie and Kaylee dead in Maddie’s bed.

Hunter Chapin and Sigma Chi brother Cooper Atkinson find Emily, Hunter Johnson, Josie, Linden, Dylan, and Bethany outside of the King Road house with looks on their faces “that [tell Chapin] that the world has just ended” (139). They hug him. Hunter Johnson pulls him away from the group to tell him that Ethan is dead and that Ethan, Xana, Kaylee, and Maddie were all murdered. For 15 minutes, Hunter Chapin does not speak. He doesn’t know what to do.

Hunter calls Maizie and tells her to come to the King Road house. Hunter tells her that Ethan and Xana “didn’t wake up” (142). Maizie doesn’t understand, but the intensity of her friends’ emotions tells her something is wrong. Jack DuCoeur is there. When he says he is Kaylee’s ex, the police put him in a cop car for a conversation but release him after a few minutes. Maizie still doesn’t know what happened to Ethan and Xana. At 1:04 pm, their phones ping with another campus-wide alert. This one notifies them of a homicide on King Road. The group begins crying again. Emily is furious—she shouts at Nunes asking why they would put out an alert before they even knew where their friends were. The officer tells them that all four are inside the house, dead.

Stacy Chapin is grocery shopping when a call from Maizie’s phone comes in. When she answers, it’s Hunter on the other end. He tells her that Ethan and Xana are dead. Stacy abandons her cart in the store and goes to her car, where she calls her husband, Jim, to tell him that Ethan has been killed. They leave immediately to get to Hunter and Maizie.

Stacy and Jim drive six hours to Moscow. Hunter and Maizie have turned their phones over to the police, so the parents cannot reach their children. Stacy wonders why they aren’t being contacted by the police or the university, so she calls the emergency cell number that she’d been given when the triplets enrolled. She “chews out” the person who answers, but they explain that there’s an emergency protocol and that the police are in charge. Stacy’s priority is to get to her surviving children and reassure them.

The University of Idaho dean of students, Blaine Eckles, gets a call from Tyson Berrett, the police captain. Berrett notifies him of the murders. Eckles works through his protocols; he calls the university president, the provost, the director of campus security, and the director of the counseling center. There is a conference call with those he can reach. He knows very little—not even whether the victims were university students—so he has nothing to tell Stacy Chapin when she calls. The administrators make decisions about security and student care. They decide to cancel classes, sending home thousands of potential witnesses. Chief Fry wishes they hadn’t done this, but he knows that he’ll soon be calling the FBI, who will have the resources to get to out-of-town students.

Evan Ellis, the news director of Pullman Radio, hears about the murders from a local photographer, Geoff Crimmins, who listens to the police scanners. Ellis and Crimmins meet at the King Road house. They see the sobbing and traumatized kids sitting on the curb, but do not approach them, believing they should not be interviewed in this moment of grief and tragedy. He reports live from the scene until he sees Tyson Berrett. Ellis asks if there’s a shooter, but Berrett says there is no current or active threat to the public. Ellis is skeptical, but Berrett refuses to comment further. Ellis calls Chief Fry to confirm that there is no threat. Fry asks Ellis to “tamp this down,” not wanting chaos and panic (154). He intuits that these murders were personal and that the murderer is not likely to strike again.

Ellis knows the police are good at their jobs but worries that they are not ready for the publicity this will attract. The nature of the crime will make the story “big” (154). He knows that national reporters will be asking questions that will be difficult for them to answer. He goes live again, reporting that the police say there is no threat to the public. He worries that this narrative, which he has announced several times, will change when outside news sources arrive.

Xana’s father, Jeff Kernodle, is driving home to Arizona after family weekend. He reflects on his daughters’ difficult lives and the way they’ve risen above their circumstances. He’s noticed that Xana is maturing. He gets a call from Jazzmin, Xana’s sister; she is crying and tells him he has to come back to Moscow. When he arrives at the King Road house, an officer tells him that Xana has been murdered.

Kaylee’s younger sisters, Autumn and Aubrie, have been receiving strange calls from Kaylee’s friends. First they are told there’s an unconscious person, then the alert about the homicide is released. They think something has happened to Kaylee. Their parents, Steve and Kristi, are “flummoxed” by the lack of contact from police or the university. Their oldest daughter, Alivea, who lives with her husband and two children, phones Maddie’s mom, who says she is going to Moscow to bring the girls home.

Later that afternoon, the police come to Steve and Kristi’s home to deliver the news that Kaylee, Maddie, and two others have been killed. Steve and Kristi tell Alivea the news, and Alivea and her husband put their two children in the car and drive 20 hours overnight to get to her parents. She doesn’t want to fly because she wants to work during the drive. She begins her own investigation, which includes accessing Kaylee’s phone log and calling everyone she spoke to. By the time they arrive in Rathdrum, Alivea knows about Kaylee’s movements in the hours leading up to the murders. She tells her parents that she believes the killer was not someone close to Kaylee. She has a feeling that it was a stranger.

County prosecutor Bill Thompson arrives at the King Road house and braces himself for the violence of the scene. He is not accustomed to crimes of this magnitude, even after 30 years in office, in which he has never lost a case. As he tours the crime scene, he notices a knife sheath beside Maddie’s bed and hopes there will be DNA evidence on it.

Thompson is a patient man who shows mercy and discretion when appropriate, but no one thinks of him as soft. He knows that the investigation will take time, but he is confident they will find their killer. He is worried about maintaining secrecy around the investigation because he believes that leaks obstruct justice: “He never talks publicly about a case until the very end—until sentencing—and even then, he’s brief” (166). The press has begun to gather, but Thomspon thinks they will have to wait.

The victims’ friends have been outside of the house in the cold for hours. Captain Berrett asks them to go to the police station for interviews. Emily feels helpless but wants to take care of Dylan and Bethany. She goes to her apartment to get clothes, water, and snacks for everyone. When she gets to the station, she realizes that not even the police were ready for something like this. The police offer the students counseling, but they decline. As she sees the victims’ parents arrive, she calls her own mother to tell her that she’s okay. The students are separated and taken to interview rooms. After the interviews, the group decides to stay together and look out for each other.

Daniel Ramirez, a journalist for the university’s student newspaper, and Haadiya Tariq, the editor, get the alert about the homicide while in the drive-through line for coffee. They go to 1122 King Road to investigate. They ask Berrett for a statement, but he only repeats that there is a homicide. They go to the newsroom to investigate online and discover confusion over another alert that says there is no threat to the community. Conspiracy theories are already beginning, and the victims’ names are circulating. They decide not to report speculation without confirmation. They are responsible journalists with experience in using discretion to report on crimes and deaths around campus. That evening, they see reporting on PBS claiming the victims were shot. They are confused and disappointed by media coverage that is already reporting “a barrage of nonsense in the absence of facts” (173).

Chief Fry goes home to put on his uniform and firearm before going to the crime scene. Fry is thinking about protecting the investigation with silence, but he doesn’t realize that the media will invent stories in the absence of information.

Blaine Eckles, the dean of students, visits the Sigma Chi fraternity house. He tells them that they are arranging provisions, counseling, and security, and that everyone can just leave and go home. He says that the fraternity president can deal with the press however he likes but advises them to stay off of social media. The fraternity members load up their cars and call parents for rides to get as far away as they can.

Jim and Stacy Chapin arrive in Moscow that evening. They hug their surviving children tightly and assure them that they’ll make it through this together. Chief Fry is impressed by Stacy’s strength and grace. He can see that she is special: Even in her grief, she’s expressing concern about the officers and offering her support. Fry tells her they will find the murderer. The family checks into a nearby Best Western hotel, where they find Emily, Hunter Johnson, Dylan, Bethany, Josie, Linden, and Ava. Stacy steps in to take care of the students in the absence of their parents. She can see that Hunter in particular is exhibiting signs of trauma and will need counseling.

The friends huddle together in Emily’s hotel room. Dylan details what she thinks she saw the night before. She wonders why the murderer left without killing her after they made eye contact. She wonders if he was already upstairs when they came home. There is a broken lock on the back sliding door, but she doesn’t know how the killer could have known about it. She explains that she was scared but second-guessed herself. Emily understands this and resolves to defend Dylan from any criticism of her actions.

Stacy and Jim Chapin can’t sleep, so they go for a walk. They pass familiar places in Ethan’s life and arrive at the Sigma Chi house, expecting to be able to enter. The door is locked, so they walk around the house and end up at 1122 King Road house. There is only one officer left and it is eerily quiet. As the sun rises, she realizes that they’ve come to say goodbye to Ethan.

Jack DuCoeur goes to the Goncalves ranch house, crying. Steve apologizes but asks him to roll up his sleeves; Jack does, revealing that he has no wounds that would suggest he killed Kaylee. Jack tells them everything he knows and shows them the texts and missed calls from Kaylee and Maddie; he breaks down, believing that if he had answered, the women might still be alive. Steve tells him that’s not true and that no one could have done anything. In the absence of official help or support, he decides he has to take matters into his own hands.

Jim and Stacy Chapin continue their walk. They are surprised to see the Sigma Chi brothers leaving. When the young men see them, they stop and each hug the Chapins. Classes have been cancelled. Most of the students are leaving campus despite the oncoming snowstorm. The Chapins drive with their kids to their second home in Priest Lake. On their way, they are pulled over. Jim tells the officer that his son was one of the students killed in Moscow. The officer apologizes and tells him to drive safe. Stacy holds onto this moment as proof that there is still good in the world.

The university holds classes remotely through Thanksgiving. Many parents want classes cancelled until Christmas, but Eckles is worried about the students who rely on campus housing. The students who must stay in the area are tense and afraid. Some buy guns, stay up through sleepless nights, and lock themselves inside after dark. They are confused by conflicting statements from the administration.

The local locksmith is overwhelmed by orders. People grow suspicious of each other. Local businesses—like the Mad Greek—close. A local lawyer, Mike Pattinson, worries about his daughter, Lexi, who lived only fifty yards from the King Road house. She is badly shaken. Her father tells her to come home. Pattinson has faith that Chief Fry he will catch the killer. Claire Qualls, another student, suspects that the killer was the same person who had killed and skinned her parent’s neighbor’s dog two nights before the murders. She lives only two blocks from the King Road house and is taking precautions to keep herself safe—precautions the victims did not take.

Fry is not pleased that the university sent all of the students home. They’ve called in the Idaho State Police for forensics. They know it will take a lot of manpower and resources to process all of the evidence. The data on the victims’ phones alone may take weeks to download and decipher. Fry knows he needs to call the FBI. He is proud of his great working relationships with both the state police and federal agents. He speaks with an FBI agent on site and asks the agency to come on board and help.

A task force of approximately 45 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers is formed. They are divided them into teams: victimology, which will assemble a profile of each victim; interviewers, which will interview neighbors and potential witnesses; forensics, which will sift through the evidence; videos and local CCTV, which will search through local video footage for clues; tip management, which will handle the calls coming in with information; and note-taking, which will keep records as the investigation proceeds. Chief Fry will be proud of the interagency cooperation and lack of infighting. The task force attends their first briefing and begins work.

The media have assembled in Moscow. Chief Fry has noticed them but ignores them. He does not want to tip off the killer or contaminate the jury pool by releasing information about the investigation.

Art Bettge, Moscow’s mayor of less than a year, wants the police or prosecutor to hold a press conference and address the media and community. He tells the prosecutor, Thompson, that they look “ridiculous” and that the public and victims’ families are getting impatient. The town has a public perception problem because of all the media attention. Bettge wants them to say something clarifying “or at least slightly reassuring” (202). Thompson and Fry refuse and advise the mayor not to say anything either. They warn him that he’s likely to misspeak because he isn’t trained for media interaction.

Bettge agrees to give the New York Times an interview, thinking they’re a safe option. He speaks to them and gives context, but that does not come through in the article. Instead, the takeaway is Bettge’s assertion that this was a “crime of passion” (203). As soon as he reads the article, the mayor understands that this statement is likely to “fan the flames of the rumor bonfire” (203).

Journalist Evan Ellis thinks that the police need to address the public. The coverage of law enforcement is not good. A local news network interviews a student, who describes the situation as “scary and frustrating” because the community wants “answers to what happened, but they’re holding back a lot of information from us” (204).

Ellis calls Thompson again and tells him that it’s important to get ahead of the coverage and have a press conference. Thompson says they’re working on it. Ellis asks how they can say there’s no threat to the public when there have been no arrests. Thompson tells him to trust the investigators. He understands Thompson’s motivations, but he knows the national news will not. They are likely to underestimate the investigative team due to their small-town appearance. He worries that if the police and prosecutor don’t speak quickly, other people will create alternative narratives, which could be very dangerous.

Two days after the murders, Alivea Goncalves is impatient for updates from the police. No one has reached out to establish themselves as a contact, so the family has no information. She’s worried about Jack DuCoeur, about whom speculation is flying online. Alivea speaks to Detective Lawrence Mowery, who’d asked her to secure the findings from Kaylee’s phone log and send it to police. She is frustrated because the police aren’t putting out much information, and what they are saying is inaccurate. Alivea knows that investigations need to move quickly and thinks that if the public knew about Maddie and Kaylee’s movements, they could phone in tips. She is particularly focused on a video she found of the women at the Grub Truck: One man in a light gray hoodie seems to watch the two women talk and appears to follow them when they get into their rideshare car. Alivea has discovered that this is Jack Showalter, a fraternity brother of Jack DuCoeur.

She gets increasingly frustrated as the information she found is not shared so that it can be helpful. When she reads that the mayor of Moscow called the murders “a crime of passion,” she loses her patience. She thinks this paints an inaccurate picture of Kaylee and her friends. She decides to start talking to the press. In an on-camera interview with a local TV reporter, Alivea calls on the public to phone in tips if they heard or saw anything. She feels better afterward having expressed her frustration. She gives another interview in which she expresses her “vexation” with the police, saying, “We’re not getting any answers, and we’re not going to settle for that” (210).

At the Priest Lake house, Stacy is haunted by memories of Ethan. She and Jim talk about the best ways to support Hunter and Maizie. They begin to get many phone calls from journalists. The Chapins make a family decision not to talk to the media. On Tuesday morning, the police release the information that a blade was used to kill the victims. They also see speculation that Ethan was in a love triangle or that there were drugs involved. Stacy is furious about this defamation of her son. She decides to do one press interview. The interview lasts 10 minutes and focuses on representing Ethan in an authentic way.

Emily and Hunter Johnson arrive at the lake house. Emily tells Stacy that Hunter Johnson has not spoken for 24 hours. Stacy calls Emily’s mother to let her know that the kids are safe. The group spends the afternoon talking about memories of Ethan, and Hunter Johnson is finally able to relax and speak.

Chief Fry gives a press conference to “keep the mob happy” (215), but he does not tell the media about the knife sheath they found in Maddie’s bedroom. They are working under the assumption that the killer will be watching. He announces that the four victims were stabbed, that the murder weapon had not been located, and that the state police, FBI, and sheriff’s office are all involved with the investigation. He says that they believe the killings were an “isolated targeted attack” and that “we cannot say that there’s no threat to the community” (216). The media are quick to jump on this deviation from previous statements. Fry knows the press conference is not going well.

The media questions Fry about the mayor’s claim that it was a “crime of passion,” but Fry says he will not speculate. He describes the Grub Truck video the Goncalves family provided as helpful. A journalist refers to Dylan and Bethany as “witnesses,” which Fry shuts down, saying that they were present but have not been described as witnesses. When they ask about the women’s boyfriends, Fry says that they are going to “look into” everyone. This spurs the “true-crime internet mob” to begin their own investigations, harassing many of the people connected to the victims. Some even accuse Fry of being the murderer himself. Suddenly, he is recognizable to people he’s never met.

Someone texts Emily a link to a YouTube video on the website 4chan that shows old TikToks of her and Hunter Johnson. The internet sleuths suggest that Emily and Hunter committed the murders and fled the country. Emily wonders how anyone knows she’s in Mexico, and then realizes it’s likely because she posted a picture of her and Hunter together on Snapchat the night before. She makes her social media accounts private, but fingers are already pointing to the friend group as likely perpetrators. Emily considers them as suspects, too, but can’t believe any of them are capable of such violence.

Emily is afraid, even thousands of miles from Moscow. She and Hunter are both afraid. They keep lights on overnight and don’t walk anywhere alone in the dark. Hunter Johnson is still in shock after finding the bodies of Xana and Ethan. Old social media footage of the group surfaces and is presented in a sinister light. As the rumors continue to grow and spread, Hunter Johnson’s mother, Jessica, calls Chief Fry and begs him to tell the press that the students are not suspects. He does this, and there is a brief reprieve online, but then the Goncalves family goes on TV and suggests that the police may have cleared people too quickly. Karen and Emily are frustrated with this choice. It is the first time the victims’ families disagree, but it won’t be the last.

Chief Fry watches with disapproval as Moscow’s coroner, his friend and colleague Cathy Mabbutt, discusses the autopsy findings via a Zoom interview. Cathy tells the journalists that she determined that the victims died of multiple stab wounds but denies the suggestion of a murder-suicide. In private, she will later say that the King Road scene was among the worst she’d ever seen.

She does not share graphic details of the wounds found on the bodies, which suggest that Xana fought back hard and that Kaylee woke up and struggled—but she does share this information with Alivea Goncalves. Alivea interprets this as a sign of the killer’s anger. Paranoia continues to spread through the community. Some police become demoralized by the lack of progress.

It’s only been a week since the murders, but Chief Fry has already received hundreds of emails from strangers. One threatens to kill Fry in the police station parking lot. Another begins to email Fry weekly, telling him that he will fail and that the case will parallel JonBenét Ramsey’s case. A woman emails Fry to tell him that she knows he is the murderer. People claiming to be law enforcement email to tell him he’s messing up the case.

A reporter criticizes Fry for going home to put on his uniform before going to the crime scene. And then there are the conspiracy theories. Fry realizes that he should have said something sooner. His silence created an “information vacuum,” and he now has to spend time rebutting wild theories.

He asks for help, and the state provides a public information officer, Aaron Snell, to coach him. They rehearse everything he will say before he speaks to the press, preparing him by role playing intense questioning. Fry doesn’t believe that the press or community should know everything about the investigation. He is clear on what should stay confidential, but the press are relentless. He has to cover the station’s windows with butcher paper after realizing they can see his computer screen through the blinds. Fry relies on his religious faith to get him through his challenging job.

Fry’s second press conference covers the autopsy results and victims’ last movements and is more successful than the first. From there, things improve. Fry gets therapists and support for the younger officers. As the investigators continue combing through video footage, they find a white car leaving the area around the right time, but it has no front license plate. Investigators think it may be a Nissan Sentra. Some of the families of previous victims whose killers Fry has caught reach out to him with messages of support. The Goncalves family continues to speak to the press and express frustration with the limited information coming from police. Maddie’s parents remain quiet, as do Xana’s family. Stacy Chapin tells Berrett and Fry that they have her support even if it takes them 30 years to solve the case. Fry has lost all respect for the media, but people like Stacy give him faith in the world.

More than 1,000 people attend Ethan’s memorial. The Chapin parents work for hours on their eulogies and focus on the importance of honoring Ethan by moving forward with life. Stacy makes a point of saying that “no phone call would’ve saved him” to alleviate any guilt students might be feeling.

Ethan’s parents do not mention that the other families have not held funerals or memorials out of a fear that the killer would attend. The Chapins do not have this fear. Their focus is on helping their remaining children heal and moving forward with life. Stacy finishes her eulogy with a touching plea for people to know that Ethan would have wanted them to live and be happy.

Friends Kristine Cameron and Alina Smith start a Facebook group. In a few weeks, it will have 200,000 members—the fastest-growing page about a true crime in Facebook history. Many of the accounts are fake, but Kristine and Alina know that this can be people wanting to report things anonymously without getting involved. Kristine and Alina report that many students who interacted with the victims that day feel guilt about not being able to somehow change the outcome.

Kristine and Alina are hoping to channel their Facebook group success into a podcast. They start the page knowing that this crime will garner a lot of interest and sympathy. Kristine says the page was so successful because of the information vacuum created by the police. People fight over their theories of the case. One member calls Kristine’s real-life boss and accuses her of being inappropriate. Alina is not working due to back surgeries, so she spends many hours working on the page. Alivea joins the page.

The FBI sets up a trailer at the Moscow police station as a mobile command center. TV crews film the arrival. In the week’s press conference, Fry and his team try to be more media-friendly and address the rumors. They say they have been unable to corroborate Kaylee’s alleged reports of a stalker. They deny that the victims had been bound and gagged.

They get a warrant for Kaylee’s Tinder account. Steve Goncalves will share the information that Kaylee’s wounds suggested she may have woken up and tried to fight off the killer.

The public does not know that a sample of DNA from the knife sheath has been sent for processing. Running it through CODIS (the database of fingerprinted individuals) returned no results, so the police are now relying on investigative genetic genealogy (IGG). Another 103 pieces of evidence—hair, fingernail clippings, footprints, etc.—have been sent for analysis. More than 100 people have been interviewed. Police still have no motive, but the white car seen driving back and forth in front of the King Road house has been identified as a 2011-2013 white Hyundai Elantra. The chief approves a message to be sent to local law enforcement. A WSU officer in Pullman, Washington, searches the vehicles registered at the university and finds a white Hyundai Elantra belonging to Bryan Kohberger; however, the car is the 2015 model, so the officers don’t think it’s relevant.

Thompson gives an interview in which he says that investigators believe the residence was targeted. A day later, he speaks to another reporter and says that one of the victims was definitely targeted. Hours later, he writes a letter to walk the statement back—the reporter quotes: “Investigators do not believe the murders were random, but we cannot unequivocally state the residence, or any occupants, were specifically targeted” (246). The Moscow police post a similar statement to their Facebook page, but they know the PR damage is already done.

Steve Goncalves continues to tell the media that he is frustrated by police silence. In an interview with Evan Ellis, Fry criticizes the national media for commodifying the story at the expense of the victims. Privately, he wishes the Goncalves family would stop talking to the media because it makes it more difficult for the police to share information with them.

Doug Wilson is the pastor of Christ Church, a controversial institution founded in the 1970s by Wilson’s father. Though it has only 3,000 members—or roughly 10% of the town’s population—the church has bought and filled most of Moscow’s prime real estate with church-owned businesses and schools. Many Moscow residents boycott church businesses. Church members are known as Kirkers and are recognizable by their “blond Caucasian looks and preppy attire” (248). The liberal college town rejects the church’s sexist attitudes.

In 2020, a total of six Kirkers were arrested over protests against COVID mask mandates. The legal battle has been expensive. After the murders of the four students, Wilson sees an opportunity to leverage criticism of the Moscow Police Department as a PR boost for the church and a way to undermine the validity of the remaining charges against church members. He releases a statement.

A member using the name Pappa Rodger begins making unusual posts on the Facebook page. His avatar is “cartoonish, creepy, seemingly digitally created… a profile of a man with graying hair in some sort of military uniform” (252). Pappa Rodger advances a theory that the murder weapon was a knife and that the police have located its sheath. This is the first mention of a knife sheath on the page. Pappa Rodger argues with other users who are skeptical about his theory. Other members begin messaging Kristine and Alina, the moderators, about Pappa Rodger’s arrogance.

Pappa Rodger posts regularly. Kristine googles the name and locates only information about Elliot Rodger. She chooses not to report this to the police because the connection doesn’t seem definitive. They decide to keep an eye on him, particularly because Alivea Goncalves has become an active contributor to the page, which she uses to “set the record straight” about Kalyee and the rest of the Goncalves family (255).

A vigil is held on campus in the Kibbie Dome. All of the Sigma Chi brothers attend. Some of the victims’ families attend, but others do not—some out of fear, some out of grief. Stacy Chapin gives a speech reminding everyone that Ethan would want them to move forward and live happy lives. The Chapin family goes to the Sigma Chi house afterwards. They stay up all night talking about Ethan.

Emily speaks at Xana’s memorial service. She declined to attend or speak at the two previous vigils out of fear. She tells stories about Xana and emphasizes the small things about her friend while still focusing on her impact: “Xana’s length of life was shorter than any of us could have imagined or wanted, but the depth of her life was grand” (261). Afterwards, Emily returns to Mexico for five weeks with her parents.

DNA work is slow. Through IGG, police have found a low match with four Sigma Chi brothers, but the brother they reached out to for a DNA sample refused. They turn to GEDMatch and MyHeritage, genealogy databases that “purport not to permit law enforcement searches” but which are accessible to government agencies at their “discretion” (263). Four days later, they will find the name Bryan Kohberger. Records show that he owns a white 2015 Hyundai Elantra. Video evidence suggests it could be the same vehicle that was seen in footage of the night of the murders. A photo of Kohberger matches the description Dylan gave of the murderer. The police do not tell the families anything about this.

The Goncalves family hire attorney Shanon Gray to help them get access to the case files. Alivea posts an online fundraiser to the Facebook page to help pay for the attorney. They continue to find the police inept and secretive. Gray gives interviews in which he claims that he has asked the police for more “transparency and accountability” (268). Chief Fry wants to do more to help the Goncalves family, “but the battle lines have been so clearly and aggressively defined by Gray that the police chief feels unable to share much, if anything, with them. It’s a shame” (269).

Kristine posts the Grub Truck video to the Facebook page. It shows Maddie and Kaylee talking about Maddie’s conversation with Adam, though without context. Kristine intended for the video to prove that “Hoodie Guy”—Jack Showalter, the man following the women—was there to help, but the internet explodes with suspicion about Adam. Adam is already known to the family, and they do not suspect him. The video was provided by New Saint Andrews College, which was founded and owned by Doug Wilson’s Christ Church. Steve Goncalves appears on TV to inform the public that the Goncalves family has already seen the video and found it comforting to see Maddie and Kaylee having a good time and living their lives.

Pappa Rodger continues to be a problem on the Facebook page. He agitates other members and leaves them snide and aggressive comments. The investigative team track Pappa Rodgers’ comments. They have a solid lead on a suspect and wonder if Pappa Rodger either knows the suspect or is the suspect.

The FBI provides Bryan Kohberger’s name to the Moscow police department after discovering a DNA link between Kohberger and DNA found at the crime scene. They get a warrant for Kohberger’s phone records and discover that Kohberger was in the broader area around the time of the murders. Earlier records show that the phone was close to the King Road house on more than a dozen occasions. The FBI puts plans for a surveillance operation into motion.

The Goncalves family gives an interview to a cybersleuth named Olivia Vitale, whose work Kaylee used to watch on TikTok. Alivea reveals that she has been doing her own cybersleuthing and hopes to recognize the killer based on his posts if he interacts with the case online. The same day, another cybersleuth, a “self-described psychic” reaches out to the Moscow police department. She has been publicly accusing history professor Rebecca Scofield of arranging the murders, claiming that Scofield had been romantically involved with Kaylee and hired a hit man after being jilted. NBC reaches out to the police for a comment; they say that Scofield is not a suspect.

Chief Fry asks WSU Police Chief Gary Jenkins to meet at the Moscow Police Department. Jenkins assumes this is another multiagency briefing. They tell him their suspect is Bryan Kohberger, a WSU student. Jenkins remembers the name from their earlier interview for the internship position. Jenkins returns to Pullman to send Kohberger’s resume and cover letter to the investigative team. He starts investigating Kohberger as well, wondering what they’d missed. He finds records of the break-ins near Kohberger’s apartment, the story of him following a female student to her car, and the earlier flagging of the Elantra as almost meeting the criteria the FBI released.

The FBI stakes out the Kohberger family home to collect garbage for evidence. Kohberger, wearing gloves, disposes of several bags in his neighbors’ trash can. They don’t find Bryan’s DNA in the bags after collecting them, but they do find his father’s. This relationship is close enough that the investigators can get a warrant. The Pennsylvania State Police Special Emergency Response Team prepares for a night raid.

Pappa Rodger’s posts on the Facebook page become more aggressive. The moderators ban him, which unfortunately deletes all his posts. In response, he creates a new Facebook page: Moscow Idaho Murders Anything Goes. The content is mostly Instagram photos of Maddie, with a few of Kaylee. A few days later, the police arrest Bryan Kohberger. Kristine sees an uncanny resemblance between him and the profile picture of Pappa Rodger.

The emergency response team prepares to enter the Kohberger home. Fry creates a diversion by giving a press conference updating the public on the state of the crime scene and thanking them for the almost 20,000 tips that had come in. The arrest goes smoothly. Kohberger waives his right to counsel but later changes his mind. WSU Police Chief Gary Jenkins searches Kohberger’s home and office. That afternoon, Fry holds a press conference to announce the arrest. He hopes that this will show the good police work his team did.