Idaho murder victim Kaylee Goncalves had moved out of home before stabbings

Murder victim Kaylee Goncalves didn’t live in the three-story Idaho home the night she was brutally killed along with three others.

Kaylee, 21, had moved out of the off-campus home weeks before she was murdered, but returned to Moscow to visit her childhood best friend Maddie Mogen, also 21, and show off her new Range Rover.

The parents of Kaylee told Dateline that their daughter was set to graduate early and move to Texas for an IT job. 

When Kaylee arrived back in town she had plans to visit Maddie and attend a nearby party. The two shared a room and were slayed in the same bed on November 13. 

‘These girls were best friends since sixth grade, like inseparable,’ Kristi Goncalves said.  ‘That was the last time that I saw Kaylee.’ 

Maddie (left) and Kaylee (right) were described as being ‘inseparable’

Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle, both 20, were also allegedly murdered by 28-year-old Washington State University criminology student Bryan Kohberger. 

Chapin didn’t live in the home, but was visiting his girlfriend Kernodle when he was killed. 

Kohberger was arrested on December 30, during a raid on his family’s Pennsylvania home, where the white Hyundai Elantra – which was seen nearby the Moscow home the night of the murders – was also found. 

A sheath that fit the KA-BAR knife believed used in the brutal slayings was found beside Kaylee and Maddie’s bodies, according to an affidavit released last week.

DNA found at the bottom of the sheath linked Kohberger to the crime scene. 

Steve and Kristi Goncalves told Dateline NBC in a recent interview that the new details seemed to paint a clearer picture of their daughter’s final moments. 

The investigation has given them hope that through the struggle, she played some hand in solving her own murder by snatching the all-important sheath from her assailant. 

Kristi Goncalves told Dateline’s Keith Morrison that when she read the new details, she felt that her daughter did everything she could to fight back.

‘I just… I just said, “Can you believe that?” And I said, “I hope that maybe a struggle, she pulled it off him, in the struggle or whatever…’

Kaylee’s father Steve was teary-eyed as he interjected: ‘Yeah, it’s a checkmate type moment. And our girls were a part of it.’

Goncalves was found stabbed to death on November 13, along with her roommates Maddie Mogen, 21, top left, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20

DNA found on the button of the sheath linked Bryan Kohberger, 28, to the crime scene and he was arrested after more than a month following the murders

Kaylee went back to Moscow to visit her friend and show off her new silver Range Rover (above) 

Kaylee Goncalves’ parents say they take some comfort in the hope that their daughter’s will to put up a fight against her killer was possibly what helped lead police to the arrest of a suspect

A law enforcement source claims that the sheath found at the crime scene matches a 7-inch knife sold by KA-BAR – a manufacturer of hunting weapons

Police are yet to offer a motive for the killings and it remains unconfirmed whether Kohberger knew any of the victims. 

An attorney for the family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the victims, told Business Insider earlier this week that Kohberger was ‘not known’ to any of the students. 

‘No one knew of this guy at all,’ attorney Shannon Gray said.  

Police say they matched a sample of DNA found at the scene to DNA taken from Kohberger’s trash in Pennsylvania. 

They also traced his cell phone to the area of the crime scene several times and matched his white Hyundai Elantra to the suspicious vehicle seen in the area on the night of the attacks. 

Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen told police she saw the killer in the house wearing a black ski mask covering his face and nose. 

She noticed that he had ‘bushy eyebrows’ – a feature police say they immediately noticed in Kohberger once they had his name.