Idaho murder victim Kaylee Goncalves’ family reveals why they are returning $85,000 from GoFundMe
The family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of four University of Idaho students murdered in 2022, say they want to return $85,000 raised through a GoFundMe campaign.
Steve Goncalves, Kaylee’s father, told TMZ that he does not want to mislead the public who donated in support of the family as they prepared for a lengthy capital murder trial.
Bryan Kohberger, the former PhD student charged with the first-degree murders of Kaylee, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, pleaded guilty last week to avoid the death penalty.
Kohberger, 30, will now avoid trial and serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is expected to be sentenced on July 23.
The plea deal was a crushing blow to the Goncalves family who long advocated for a trial with possibility of the death penalty.
“I will not bait and switch these beautiful people like (Latah County Prosecutor) Bill Thompson did to our family,” Goncalves said, referring to the GoFundMe supporters.
“I am sorry if you don’t agree with our recent decisions on the plea deal,” the Goncalves family also wrote in a Facebook post on July 3.
“BK literally is too afraid to die, but he wasn’t afraid to kill. BK wanted a plea deal and he was given one. Kaylee wasn’t offered a plea deal. The state is showing BK mercy by removing the death penalty. BK did not show Kaylee ANY mercy.”
The post continued: “People tell us we should be happy with life in prison without parole as he will never get out (how is that not a win they ask). Well, the death penalty also means life on death row. We knew it would be decades before he ever would face the firing squad. We knew that his execution was not going to happen anytime soon, BUT his life on DEATH ROW while serving his time would have been much worse than serving his time as life in prison. He doesn’t deserve life in prison. He deserved life on death row.”
The family also acknowledged the thousands of dollars in GoFundMe donations, which were intended to support travel and legal expenses during the trial.
Now that the case will not go to trial, the Goncalves family said they are trying to return the funds.
“Please give me time to figure out the best way to do this,” the post reads. “I can’t just ask GoFundMe to reimburse everyone, as the money has already been deposited into my bank account, and is no longer held by GoFundMe.”
“I understand this is a priority for many people … Steve and I need a few days alone to process what has just happened. It is so hard to describe what we are going through right now. It is VERY mentally and emotionally exhausting. My whole body aches, from my fingertips to my toes. Please give us some grace, I promise we won’t skip town.”
Despite their intention to return the donations, many of the family’s Facebook followers encouraged them to use the money to create something meaningful in Kaylee’s memory.
The GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $85,000 from supporters across the country, many of whom followed the case closely since the November 13, 2022 killings.
At last week’s plea hearing, the victims’ loved ones filled the courtroom, many of them becoming emotional, as prosecutors described how Kohberger broke into the off-campus house in Moscow through a second-floor sliding glass door, passed a surviving roommate’s bedroom, and killed Mogen and Goncalves on the third floor.
On his way back downstairs, he encountered Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, killing them before fleeing the house.
Six weeks after the slayings, Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania.
Investigators found a dirty Q-tip used by Kohberger’s father in the trash, which police were able to match with DNA on the knife sheath left behind at the crime scene and secure an arrest warrant.
Thompson said there was no evidence that Kohberger, who had been pursuing an advanced degree in the criminology program at Washington State University, had previous contact with the victims, but he noted that phone data showed him in the neighborhood nearly two dozen times.
At his plea deal hearing last week, Kohberger remained impassive as he casually admitted to killing the four students.
Prosecutors did not reveal a motive behind the slayings.
