Bryan Kohberger Book Slammed By Victim’s Family

The family of one of the four University of Idaho students who were fatally stabbed has slammed a new book about the murders as “fiction.”

Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 29, were found stabbed to death in a rental home near the college campus in Moscow on November 13, 2022. Bryan Kohberger, 29, is charged with the murders. Prosecutors have not released a motive for the killings.

But a new book by author and journalist Howard Blum, called When The Night Comes Falling: A Requiem for the Idaho Student Murders, alleges Mogen was the killer’s sole target on the night of the killings.

Goncalves’ family has criticized Blum’s book, calling it a version of events “made up by him relying on sources that have no responsibility or duty to speak the truth.”

Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania about six weeks after the killings. Investigators said they had linked Kohberger—then a graduate student at nearby Washington State University—to the crime using DNA evidence, cellphone data and surveillance video.

He is charged with four counts of murder and one count of burglary. A judge entered not-guilty pleas on Kohberger’s behalf last year, but a trial date has yet to be set. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday to discuss the schedule for the case, including dates for the trial. Kohberger faces the death penalty if convicted.

“If he were aimless, driven only by furious emotions, he would burst forward into either of the second-floor bedrooms. But he has a plan. He knows where he is going. He is a hunter stalking his prey,” Blum writes in the book, which was published on Tuesday.

“Another speculation: since Kaylee no longer lives full-time in the house, his target has always been, since the madness first crept into his thoughts, petite Maddie.”

Blum, who has reported on the killings for Air Mail, told ABC News that he came to that conclusion because authorities believe the suspect entered the house through a sliding door on the second floor of the house, went past bedrooms on that floor and up one flight to where Mogen’s bedroom was. Mogen and Goncalves were found stabbed to death in Mogen’s bedroom.

“If he was just on a killing spree, it would have been natural, instinctive, to go to one of those doors,” Blum told ABC News. “Instead he goes up this narrow staircase and he turns directly into Maddie’s room, and I think Maddie was his target.”

Goncalves’ family added in a statement to KHQ-TV: “Mr. Blum’s book in our opinion is fiction. We have never spoken with Mr. Blum about the contents of his book.

“As a seasoned writer Mr. Blum has learned to write in a way that as long as he claims his information came from a source, he is protected.

“But all this book does is tell a STORY by Mr. Blum, a version made up by him relying on sources that have no responsibility or duty to speak the truth.”

They said it was “just another book and another dollar to be made” about the deaths of four young students.

Blum has been contacted for comment via his publisher. Goncalves’ family has been contacted via social media.