University of Idaho Murders

Yeah, the details are pretty incriminating. Not criticizing the roommate who saw him but damn:

"Identified only as D.M., the witness told authorities she heard what she thought was Goncalves playing with her dog in one of the upstairs bedrooms at around 4:00 a.m. – which was the time the stabbings took place. Shortly after, she said she heard Goncalves say something to the effect of "There's someone here."

D.M. told police she checked outside her door, but did not see anyone. She then opened her door a second time after she heard crying coming out of Kernodle's room, and a man say something to the effect of "it's okay, I'm going to help you."

D.M. told police she opened the door a third time, and saw the suspect walking toward her. He walked past her as she stood in a "frozen shock phase." She said the suspect then walked toward the back sliding glass door, and she locked herself in heroom."

https://www.fox9.com/news/idaho-mur...ohberger-less-than-2-weeks-aftr-idaho-murders
 
Yeah, the details are pretty incriminating. Not criticizing the roommate who saw him but damn:

"Identified only as D.M., the witness told authorities she heard what she thought was Goncalves playing with her dog in one of the upstairs bedrooms at around 4:00 a.m. – which was the time the stabbings took place. Shortly after, she said she heard Goncalves say something to the effect of "There's someone here."

D.M. told police she checked outside her door, but did not see anyone. She then opened her door a second time after she heard crying coming out of Kernodle's room, and a man say something to the effect of "it's okay, I'm going to help you."

D.M. told police she opened the door a third time, and saw the suspect walking toward her. He walked past her as she stood in a "frozen shock phase." She said the suspect then walked toward the back sliding glass door, and she locked herself in heroom."

https://www.fox9.com/news/idaho-mur...ohberger-less-than-2-weeks-aftr-idaho-murders
Got a 404 error trying to follow the link.

Weird things happen at college party houses. Might not have been unusual to hear/see the kinds of things the room mate saw or heard (crying, load noises, strange man in the house). Especially if the witness was drowsy/intoxicated.
 
Got a 404 error trying to follow the link.

Weird things happen at college party houses. Might not have been unusual to hear/see the kinds of things the room mate saw or heard (crying, load noises, strange man in the house). Especially if the witness was drowsy/intoxicated.

Yeah, thinking back to my kid's college days...student housing...they keep to their rooms, come out once in a while to microwave popcorn then disappear back into the room. Maybe she thought the dude had been partying with some of the others...maybe she was scared and suspicious but didn't want to call 911 and be wrong and ostracized later.

Nothing in the report indicates screaming or alarm. Heavy sleepers maybe, and as you say, drowsy with alcohol.

Still...she'll carry it for life.
 
Yeah, thinking back to my kid's college days...student housing...they keep to their rooms, come out once in a while to microwave popcorn then disappear back into the room. Maybe she thought the dude had been partying with some of the others...maybe she was scared and suspicious but didn't want to call 911 and be wrong and ostracized later.

Nothing in the report indicates screaming or alarm. Heavy sleepers maybe, and as you say, drowsy with alcohol.

Still...she'll carry it for life.
Totally. It's a college party house. 0430 in the morning. Everyone was partying. It's normal (for them) to have strange people come and go. It's normal to see people masked up in the post(?)-COVID era. It's probably normal for a young woman to want to protect herself from a strange man she doesn't know, dressed in dark clothes with a mask over his face, that she sees in her house in the dark hours of the morning, by locking herself in. I've never been a young woman so I'm not sure about how normal it is, but that seems pretty prudent to me.

She's going to wonder "why didn't he kill me too" and "why didn't I do something different" for the rest of her life.

The answer to the first question is, "It doesn't matter. You lived. Make yours a life worth living" and the second is "It most likely wouldn't have made any difference, and if you had intervened, there would probably have just been one more body."
 
Saying there was no threat to the public was definitely a mistake. There were all sorts of things they could have said besides that. That might have been enough to tip off the killer that they knew he where he was (or wasn't). I definitely think they should have also not said the killings were targeted. That's something else that leads to other questions and risks tipping off the killer. I think somebody with some real expertise in this stuff had a "come to Jesus meeting" with them about the importance of keeping their mouths shut. Once they got through their heads they did the right thing. When I was a reporter I often asked questions of cops that I either knew wouldn't be answered or that I actually hoped wouldn't be. It was my job to ask questions. It was their job to protect the integrity of their investigations. I never took it personally when my questions didn't get answered; it goes with the territory. As for the parents apologizing, well, if it was my kid that was killed I might say some regrettable things to, but I expect that dealing with pressure from grieving families is part of their job too. What makes no sense whatever to me is how four people could be killed so horribly with a knife and the other 3 victims and the survivor didn't hear anything? Without going into gory details can anyone tell me if it's possible to do something like that so quietly that no one would have noticed?
 
Without going into gory details can anyone tell me if it's possible to do something like that so quietly that no one would have noticed?

Of course it can be done. It's been done many times and it was done by this dipshit without any special training whatsoever. Richard Speck killed eight student nurses in the same house with a knife on one night in 1966. One example among many.
 
Of course it can be done. It's been done many times and it was done by this dipshit without any special training whatsoever. Richard Speck killed eight student nurses in the same house with a knife on one night in 1966. One example among many.
I think Speck was grabbing them as they came in the door. At least that's what I remember from "Mindhunter." ;)
 
I think Speck was grabbing them as they came in the door. At least that's what I remember from "Mindhunter." ;)

Not exactly. But you're right, it can't really compare to the Idaho murders. This is from Wikipedia on Speck

Murder of eight student nurses​


At 11 p.m. on July 13, 1966, Speck broke into the 2319 E. 100th St townhouse in Chicago's Jeffery Manor neighborhood; the townhouse was functioning as a dormitory for student nurses. He entered and, using only a knife, killed Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Jo Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Pasion. Speck, who later claimed he was both drunk and high on drugs, may have originally planned to commit a routine burglary.[9] Speck held the women in a room for hours, leading them out one by one, stabbing or strangling each to death, then finally raping and strangling his last victim, 22-year-old Gloria Davy. Intervals of between twenty and thirty minutes elapsed between each murder.[10]


Still, the question...is what happened in Idaho "possible?" Obviously it's possible.
 
Last edited:
If I’m going to stab a bunch of people, a Kabar would be one of my last choices for a knife type. It’s got a thick blade, better for hacking at trees and survival type situations than mass murder.
 
Last edited:
Sort of. Yes he killed 4 people but I’d bet that weapon got super dull and he got hurt on it as a result.


Unrelated to the murders, but yeah, a Kabar is a fighting knife and utility tool. A bayonet is engineered for one specific purpose. It’s also better balanced and can be thrown with more accuracy. I know this because we spent hours of downtime throwing bayonets into banana tree trunks.

If we’re talking Marine stabbing weapons, some of the Raiders in WW2 took big aviation screwdrivers and sharpened them to a point on a grinder.
 
Not exactly. But you're right, it can't really compare to the Idaho murders. This is from Wikipedia on Speck

Murder of eight student nurses​


At 11 p.m. on July 13, 1966, Speck broke into the 2319 E. 100th St townhouse in Chicago's Jeffery Manor neighborhood; the townhouse was functioning as a dormitory for student nurses. He entered and, using only a knife, killed Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Jo Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Pasion. Speck, who later claimed he was both drunk and high on drugs, may have originally planned to commit a routine burglary.[9] Speck held the women in a room for hours, leading them out one by one, stabbing or strangling each to death, then finally raping and strangling his last victim, 22-year-old Gloria Davy. Intervals of between twenty and thirty minutes elapsed between each murder.[10]


Still, the question...is what happened in Idaho "possible?" Obviously it's possible.
You're right. It's just something that I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around.
 
Back
Top