Tag Archives: King Road

We all have questions involving the tragic quadruple murders of four University of Idaho students last November.

Whether you follow the case regularly or check in here and there, odds are you wonder about differing aspects of the case.

To say this is a puzzling case would be an understatement.

Thankfully, it is not everyday that four young and healthy adults are slain in a matter of minutes in their off-campus rental home. What went down that morning at 1122 King Road is still a mystery to many of us following the case.

With that in mind, here are but a few of the questions I have still some eight months later:

• Did Bryan Kohberger do it? – I have gone back and forth on this one for months. Part of me says he’s involved in some manner. Whether there on a drug deal gone sour or part of a bigger plan to take out four young adults, one could argue there are too many coincidences for BK not to have played some role here. On the other side of the coin, he could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yes, it is a possibility. The touch DNA on the sheath left behind will be argued in court when the defense team brings in its own DNA experts. As for the phone pinging and vehicle reportedly at and around the home, it sure does not look good. Having said such a thing, a good defense attorney can explain away these things. Yes, I believe Anne Taylor is such an attorney. Time will tell if the jurors buy what she and her team are selling.
• Where were the two surviving roommates? – One of the top questions I hear and see from online sleuths would be where were Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke during this tragedy? According to the PCA released a few months back, Mortensen was in a second floor bedroom (down a ways from victim Xana Kernodle and right below the third floor room of victim Maddie Mogen) and opened her door on three different occasions. As such, one can interpret that she was not asleep in the lead up to and the actual killings. If she has been sound asleep, she’d not reported seeing a figure in black and with a mask on pass by her door after opening it the final time. Let me ask you, is it common for masked individuals to be in your home between 4 ish and 4:30 ish a.m.? If you say yes, I question the kind of home and environment you live in. Seeing such a figure should have set off alarm bells in this young woman’s head. If nothing else, go check on your fellow roommates once the coast was clear to do so. If you could not wake any of them after knocking on their bedroom doors several times and texts or calls went unanswered, by all means call 911. Part two, was Funke sleeping through all this terror? There are reports she and Mortensen were in factor texting one another during the time period in question. While police reportedly confiscated both their phones, were burner phones in play by any chance?
• How could none of the neighbors not seen or heard anything? – I went to 1122 King Road back in late May. Walking around the outside of the home and through the immediate neighborhood, it is much more compact than what you may gather from TV or online pics and video. So, how could NO ONE nearby not heard or seen anything? I get it is a college neighborhood and that can mean young adults passed out from a Saturday night of partying etc. Still, you mean to tell me absolutely no one nearby heard any screams, saw people coming and going at the home etc.? Sorry, but I think one or more people know something and are afraid to or purposelhy won’t come forward for any number of reasons.
• Were drugs the motive for these deaths? – Last; one of if not the touchiest subjects along with the two surviving roommates would be the possibility of drugs being in play. We know for a fact that the stepmom of Maddie Mogen and the biological mom of Kernodle have drugs pasts and records. It is also know the defendant has a drug past. So, it is by no means a wild stretch of the mind to think these deaths involved drugs in some manner. Anyone kind enough to read my posts these last few months knows I have harped on the Moscow Police Department narrative of BK stalking one or more of the female victims. Put your commonsense thinking caps on folks. If you are going to stalk one or more college women, why on Earth try and break into a home full of healthy and fit young individuals in the middle of the night? You are playing with fire that there could be multiple people awake in the home, a gun could be there, a dog and more. If you had a fixation on one or more of these young college ladies, would you not try and kidnap them at the perfect opportunity? This could be walking to and from class, out for a jog, going to or from the grocery store etc. It makes little to no sense to try and break in the home at 4 ish in the morning and grab them. And please don’t tell me that BK was trying to emulate Bundy or some other notable killer. Given all the tragic and twisted terror Bundy created decades ago, BK is no TB.

As we await trial down the road, what questions do you have about the case?

Please feel free to share them here and thank you for reading.

There is not a lot of good news that will come from a quadruple murder when you stop and think about it.

On Wednesday, those of us following the case of the Idaho 4 did get some good news. That is the house at 1122 King Road will remain standing at least for now.

If you’ve followed the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, you know that the home they were killed in has been in the limelight for many months now.

Once the home was given by the owner to the University of Idaho months ago, the latter indicated it would demolish the residence sooner than later. In fact, recent talk had been the home would come down prior to students heading back to the Moscow campus on Aug. 21 for the start of fall classes.

To many of us following the case, the home is the prime piece of evidence that officials have. At least the evidence we know to come out up to now through the gag order in place.

So, why would either the prosecution or the defense want the home torn down before a trial has finished up? It would seem beneficial to one or both to leave the home standing until the trial is over and we have a guilty or not guilty verdict.

I get the pain the home causes many in the community, especially the students living within eyesight of the six-bedroom residence.

Despite such emotional pain, I’ve always said leaving the home up until this tragedy is over with a court verdict was critical. Once the home is gone, it is gone forever. In my mind, you can have all the photos, state-of-the-art videos and so on of the inside and it will not replace actually being there.

Now, the question of actually being there in person should a jury make such a request is up in the air. The judge in this case would have to sign off on such a thing. Right now, there is no indication such an approval would be given. Of course we do not have a jury in place yet for a scheduled Oct. 2 trial of the defendant Bryan Kohberger.

It has been reported the inside of the residence is a bio-hazard among other things. It was also reported some of the floorboards and other key pieces of the home have been removed.

So, even if a jury was granted permission to tour it, the home would not be in the same shape it was on the morning of Nov. 13, 2022 when the murders took place.

I would still argue that should a jury be given the okay to tour the place that it would be worthwhile to them. Even if it is not the same conditions that were present the day four young adults lost their lives, just being there could sway one or more jury members in that they can better grasp what the defendant is accused of.

I visited the home (outside only) during my visit to Moscow back in late May. I can honestly say being there gave me an entirely different perspective of this case than what I had viewed on television or the Internet.

Short of any surprises in the coming weeks and months, 1122 King Road will remain for now.

I was raised to respect the police and do in large part to this day.

I’ve always admired and been thankful of anyone willing to put their life on the line for others.

With that as the backdrop, I also believe that some police get things wrong at times. There are also going to be the occasional few bad apples in an otherwise overall good group of hard working men and women.

So, is it okay to question the narrative that was put forth by the Moscow Police Department into the Idaho 4 killings?

What seemed like a relatively straightforward case early on remains that to a fair amount of people out there.

In their minds, accused killer Bryan Kohberger was stalking one or more of the women living at 1122 King Road. He allegedly entered the home in the overnight hours and killed Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin. So, to a sizable portion of those following this case, it is an open and shut matter.

On the flip side of the coin, you’ve got others who say not so fast.

I was in the former camp for several months after this case broke. Now, I’ve got a lot more questions than answers.

Among the prosecution issues that persist in my mind:

• Why would Kohberger risk breaking into a home in the middle of the night when he supposedly had no idea how many people were there? – This includes the fact several guys could have been there besides Chapin. Would you enter a home in the middle of the night with multiple vehicles parked out front and armed only with a knife? The risk seems a lot greater than the reward. If you had a thing for one of the women in the home, why not take time to follow her routine and then kidnap her? Seems a much less riskier proposition than barging into a strange home and potentially taking on multiple guys not to mention five women.
• Was it Kohberger at the wheel of the Elantra? – To date, your vehicle has not been positively identified as the car at the scene of the crime, arriving beforehand, and departing afterwards. Unless MPD is withholding it, I’ve not seen any footage that clearly shows a Pennsylvania or Washington license plate on the reported white Elantra (Kohberger lived in Pullman at the time of the killings and reportedly got plates for his new state residence at some point in November) nor a clear security camera image of BK at the wheel. While police say they have evidence of his vehicle and phone being in the area, those things could be explained away by a good defense attorney.
• How could no one hear or see anything? – I’ve seen so much contradiction in one of the Facebook chat groups I’m in related to the case that my head spins at times. On one hand, the BK is guilty mob says the majority of neighbors (college kids) would be asleep if not passed out from being drunk at 4 a.m. ish when the terror reportedly began. As such, no witnesses to report anything other than what one of the surviving roommates (Dylan Mortensen) told cops. Keep in mind her info in the PCA does NOT clearly identify a specific individual. On the flip side of the coin, many in the BK is guilty mob also say it is quite common for college kids to be up at 4 a.m. and coming and going. Yes, I agree with that assessment. As such, wouldn’t one or more of these college kids coming and going in the neighborhood of King Road have seen or heard something?
• Is it possible there is a cover up going on? – Let’s be quite honest, we don’t always get the truth from those in a position of power. While I want to believe the narrative we’ve been given, there is nothing wrong with questioning it. The City of Moscow, the University of Idaho, and the Moscow Police Department know rumors of a serial killer on the loose is bad for business. As such, getting the killer or killers off the streets as soon as possible is priority number one. I think that is something we can all agree on. In getting BK off the streets, did we get the right guy? He may well be guilty. If he is, I hope he gets the harshest sentence out there. On the other side of the coin, I also leave open the possibility others were allegedly involved. I’m also open to the fact BK is not the guy and in fact was possibly in the wrong place at the wrong time when things got out of control inside that home.

At the end of the day, we all want justice for the families involved. No parent should ever have to bury their child or look at their remains in an urn.

Hopefully at some point we get definitive answers and the person or persons responsible for this tragedy are held fully accountable.