Shortcut: The Idaho Four Murders - ATC International

**Meshel Laurie** (0:03)
This is Australian True Crime International with Michelle Laurie. One of the biggest crime stories in recent memory is the 2022 murder of four college students in the small town of Moscow, Idaho. Ethan Chapin was 20, Xana Kernodle was also 20, Kaylee Goncalves 21, and Madison Mogen also 21 They became known as the Idaho Four.
For their friends and families, their violent deaths were literally unbelievable. They didn't seem to have an enemy between them. In December of 2022, six weeks after the murders, criminology student Bryan Kohberger was arrested and charged. Last year, he pled guilty to all four murders. But to this day, no one knows how he chose the victims, whether or not he'd ever met any of them, which one was his actual target, or how he seemed to know the layout of the house. Kaylee Goncalves' family have always been very vocal. Recently, they've channeled their anguish into setting up a foundation in Kaylee's honor called Murder Has a Name, and it has a very practical mission. Kaylee's mother Kristi Goncalves and Foundation Board member Tracie Brocco joined me recently on what would have been Kaylee's 25th birthday to talk about the case and the foundation.
This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. And a warning, this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.

**Kristi Goncalves** (1:40)
Well, today, you know, we all kind of went about our normal day, you know, people had to work and so in the past, we've kind of taken it off and stayed together. But this year just didn't work out that way. So I was, I was here by myself for the most of the day. And, you know, I was just able to really just reflect on Kaylee's birthday and really think about what we're really missing. You know, it's hard not to notice it every day.
But then, you know, you sit here and think, you know, what would she be doing here? You know, four years, well, it's, it's her fourth birthday that she has not been here. So what would she be doing now? Where would she be?

**Meshel Laurie** (2:32)
And we'll get to what you are doing right now, which is huge. And joining us also is Tracie Brocco. Tracie, you are part of this Murder Has a Name project.
Can you tell us how you met the family? Are you an old friend or how has this worked out?

**Tracie Brocco** (2:52)
I am not an old friend, although it does seem like I am at this point.
I just got interested in the case like everyone else did. And I just wanted to start reaching out to Kristi just with notes, just to let her know that somebody was thinking about her. And over time, I would say it was probably a year that I was sending cards and just gifts, just thinking about Kaylee and the family. And she just texted me back one day and said, you know, can we talk? And I thought, yeah, absolutely. And I basically just said to her, can we, would you think about starting a foundation for her? I mean, I just, I didn't want her remembered for that awful day in Idaho. She was worth more than that. Her family's worth more than that. And she deserved more than that.

**Kristi Goncalves** (3:36)
And you know, as her mother, it's very hard for me not to think about those last moments, you know, what she was thinking, what she endured, you know, that the fact that she was probably very confused, probably extremely scared, terrified.
And I hate that. It's terrifying that someone can actually do this to another human being.

**Meshel Laurie** (4:07)
And all four families had raised by that stage really pretty great kids, pretty great, smart, kind, motivated, ambitious kids. And Ethan Chapin's family, his parents talked about having that feeling a week before the kids died, that they sort of looked at each other and said, we've done it. We've got them through childhood. Here they are. They're all at college and few, we can relax. Yeah, I think that's also the feeling that a lot of us parents can relate to is feeling like you've done your job at some point and you have to trust that you've done it and you have to let them go and spread their wings.

**Kristi Goncalves** (4:46)
Yeah, you know, you do.

**Meshel Laurie** (4:49)
When he pled guilty, there's always a conversation around, oh, this is better for the family because we don't want to put them through a trial. But do you feel that or do you feel that you lost something in not going to trial?