Bryan Kohberger was trying to play out a “psychosexual fantasy” when he murdered four University of Idaho students, according to an expert who examined the barbaric wounds on his victims.
Forensic psychologist Gary Brucato believes the number and nature of the injuries show that Kohberger, who is serving four life sentences for the gruesome 2022 killings, had targeted Madison Mogen — but wound up committing “mass murder” when he found the others inside.
“This was a targeted psychosexual fantasy probably aimed at one individual in the house,” Brucato told the Daily Mail.
Kohberger pleaded guilty to murdering the four University of Idaho students in July 2025.AP
“But his intel failed him. So, when he got in there, he wound up committing a mass murder because he was not able to control everything as he expected,” said Brucato, who helped found Columbia University’s Mass Murder Database, which profiles the psychology of mass killers.
“He overestimated himself and underestimated women.”
Experts have long theorized that Kohberger did not expect to find so many people in the house. He slaughtered Mogen as she slept in her room — but her best friend Kaylee Goncalves decided to stay with her that night.
Xana Kernodle happened to be awake in the middle of the night and Kohberger hacked her to death on the stairs.
He then killed killed her sleeping boyfriend Ethan Chapin in the couple’s room.
Mogen, right, may have been Kohberger’s target. Goncalves, left, was killed beside Mogen.Maddie Morgan/Instagram
Mogen suffered fewer stab wounds than the other two women in the house, according to the autopsy, leading Brucato to believe she was the original target.
Kohberger sneaked into the Moscow, Idaho home on Nov. 13, 2022 and went straight to the third-floor bedroom where Mogen and Goncalves were sleeping together.
He wanted to fulfill his sexually-motivated fantasy with Mogen — but the unexpected witnesses interrupted sick intentions, fueling his anger, the expert said.
“You punish the ones who see you, the people who interrupt your fantasy,” Brucato told the paper.
Mogen suffered 28 stab wounds on her head, face, neck, extremities and chest, according to the autopsy. Goncalves was stabbed at least 38 times and also had asphyxial injuries and blunt force injuries to the head.
Brucato noted that while Goncalves could have been the target because she suffered more injuries of the two, he believes Kohberger “went in and made a beeline for Maddie [Mogen], who was his target, and found Kaylee [Goncalves] unexpectedly there.”
Final photo of the victims, pictured just hours before their untimely deaths. The four University of Idaho students who were killed in November 2022.
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The fewer injuries on Mogen suggest he attacked her first and then “ferociously” attacked Goncalves when she disrupted his plan, Brucato said.
“That’s why you see so much rage towards Kaylee. I think Maddie was the primary target and Kaylee was not supposed to be there,” he said.
Kohberger went on to slay Kernodle, stabbing her more than 50 times, the most of all the women, and Ethan Chapin — who had the fewest stab wounds.
Crime scene photographs showed bloodied sheets after the vicious murders.Idaho State Police
Kohberger’s anger was fueled at the women, who were attacked more viciously in order, Buscato said.
“Looking at the order in which we think the victims died – Maddie, Kaylee, Xana and Ethan – for the women, the numbers of injuries are increasing because it’s getting more and more frenzied as he’s moving away from the initial murder. He is losing control more and more so is attacking more intensely,” he said.
Kohberger pleaded guilty to murdering the four students in July. He is currently serving four consecutive life sentences without the possibility for parole.
