Aubrie Goncalves criticized Kohberger’s recent claim of innocence and questioned if he should be allowed to “reopen old wounds”
Credit: Kaylee Goncalves/Instagram; Zach Wilkinson-Pool/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Kaylee Goncalves’ younger sister released a statement after Bryan Kohberger claimed innocence and sought to have his guilty plea withdrawn
- Kohberger filed a petition for post-conviction relief this week, claiming his attorneys withheld information before he accepted a deal with prosecutors
- In 2025, Kohberger pleaded guilty to the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students
Kaylee Goncalves’ sister is speaking out after Bryan Kohberger claimed he was innocent in a bid to have his guilty plea withdrawn.
Aubrie Goncalves, the younger sister of Kaylee — one of the four University of Idaho students stabbed to death on Nov. 13, 2022 — posted a lengthy message on her family’s Facebook page criticizing Kohberger and any theories that he could be innocent.
“For him, this may be another legal filing,” Aubrie wrote. “For me, it’s another day without my sister.”
Aubrie said her sister and the three other victims — Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — were “silenced without a choice, without a second thought.”
“Why should the man convicted of taking four innocent voices continue to have a platform loud enough to reopen old wounds, while Kaylee, Maddie, Xana, and Ethan will never get another chance to tell the world who they were?” she wrote.
She also blasted “conspiracy theories” surrounding the case.
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“And every time this case is dragged back into the spotlight because of another filing, another theory, or another attempt to rewrite history, families like mine are forced to relive the worst day of our lives,” her post reads. “For years, people have ignored the evidence because it doesn’t fit the narrative they’ve convinced themselves is true.”
Related: Bryan Kohberger Says He’s Innocent of Idaho Murders and Seeks to Take Back Guilty Plea
Related: Sister of U. of Idaho Murder Victim Kaylee Goncalves Slams Plea Deal with Suspect Bryan Kohberger: 'The System Has Failed'
On Monday, July 27, Kohberger filed a petition for post-conviction relief, claiming he had “ineffective counsel” and was unaware of potential “exculpatory evidence” before agreeing to a deal with prosecutors that spared him the death penalty.
The petition comes just over a year after Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders of the four students in Moscow, Idaho, avoiding what would have been a closely watched trial.
In her post, Aubrie added: “You get to put this case away when you’re tired of hearing about it. My family doesn’t. We live it. Every single day.”
Kohberger was sentenced to four lifetimes in prison without the possibility of parole on July 23, 2025.
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