SEATTLE — “I went into complete shock. Absolute complete shock. I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t think,” Kristi Goncalves said on the TV show “Dateline” this past week.
The parents of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the Idaho murder victims, recounted to “Dateline” the moment they learned their daughter had been killed.
"My knees were shaking, I mean my whole body was shaking," said Steve and Kristi Goncalves. "That's when you lose all hope, you know. you have a little bit of hope and then it smacks you that there is no hope."
In the two-hour special, Kaylee’s parents revealed she had recently moved from the King Street house and had only gone back to show her best friend her new car and attend a nearby party.
Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, was brutally murdered on Nov. 13.
More than eight weeks later their accused killer, Bryan Kohberger, was in a courtroom. Kohberger’s attorney asked for six months to gather evidence to identify alternative suspects.
Dr. Casey Jordan, a criminologist and attorney, said that’s their only defense as she described the evidence laid out in probable court documents as overwhelming.
“I'm expecting a really multi-layered defense that blame someone else, either another person or get ready for it an alter ego,” Jordan said.
Jordan points out that argument won’t fly in Idaho, one of the few states that don’t accept a mental condition as a defense. She does, however, expect prosecutors to put capital punishment on the table for a possible plea deal.
“I wouldn't be surprised if they demand as part of that plea bargain that he articulates, in other words, owns the murders and make him describe in very clear detail exactly what he did on the night of the crime,” Jordan said.
While we won’t see the accused in court again for months, experts said his lack of emotion shown this week in court is consistent with someone who could commit a violent act.
“I think he loves the attention," Jordan said. "If he starts talking well, then the cameras go away. I think he will be a stonewall, if you will, not talking, not confessing, not giving us any clues pleading not guilty, demanding a trial to keep his name in the news."
Kohberger maintains his innocence. He is currently being held without bail and has said through an attorney, he expects to be exonerated.