Idaho murder victim's parents call for accused killer to get the death penalty if convicted
Joe Harker
Featured Image Credit: @brianentin / Twitter / UPI / Alamy Stock Photo
The parents of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the four university students found brutally murdered in Idaho on 13 November, say they support the death penalty for their daughter's killer.
20-year-olds Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were murdered alongside 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves at their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.
The coroner confirmed that each of the victims had been stabbed multiple times in the 'worst crime scene police had ever seen', with the young students described as having been 'butchered'.
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Two other people were in the house at the time of the attack and were not injured, and were ruled out as potential suspects by the investigation.
On 30 December police arrested 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger in connection to the four murders, with a SWAT team apprehending him in Pennsylvania with an order to extradite him to the state of Idaho.
A court has since heard claims that Kohberger left the sheath of the knife used to commit the murders at the scene of the crime and his DNA was found on it.
Kohberger, a PhD student in criminal justice at the University of Washington, has denied the charges of murder against him.
Just days before his arrest he had been pulled over by police twice while travelling from Seattle to Pennsylvania.
A statement from Kohberger's attorney, Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, said Bryan was 'eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible'.
However, if he is found guilty he could face the death penalty, and the family of one of the victims in the gruesome quadruple murder has said they would want whomever killed their daughter to be executed.
When the parents of Kaylee Goncalves were asked about the possibility of the prosecution asking them if they'd want the death penalty for the person who killed their daughter they were very clear where they stood on the matter.
Kaylee's father said: "If our daughter could switch places with him, we'd do it in a heartbeat.
"f they could sit there and have their squares, a place to live where we could call them, we could write them letters, they could watch TV, they could go get educated.
"That's not a punishment equivalent to being killed. That's god's role, if you want to play god's role you're gonna have to go answer to him."
Kaylee's mother said she was 'glad that we live in Idaho', which is a state with the death penalty, and added: "I would love if Maddie and Kaylee were doing life in prison right now, at least we could talk to them. They'd be breathing."