Documentary Director Suggests Kaylee Goncalves' Home Was Targeted Because It Was Filled With Women

Documentary filmmaker Skye Borgman has proposed that Bryan Kohberger deliberately selected the residence housing Kaylee Goncalves because of its concentration of female occupants, suggesting the motive for the 2022 murders may be rooted in hostility toward women. Kohberger, now serving four consecutive life sentences without parole, pleaded guilty to stabbing four University of Idaho students to death on November 13, 2022.

The Targeting Theory

In the Netflix docuseries "The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare," Borgman examined why Kohberger chose the specific residence on Moscow's College Hill to attack. The home housed five women: Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, Bethany Funke, and Dylan Mortensen. On the night of the murders, Kernodle's boyfriend Ethan Chapin was present, but the residence remained predominantly female-occupied.

Borgman told Fox News: "The fact that this was the house that he chose. This was a house that had five women living in it... it seems quite clear that he targeted it." The filmmaker emphasized that Kohberger had conducted surveillance of the property, noting he "was around the house in the days, weeks and months leading up to the murders," suggesting deliberate preparation rather than random selection.

Evidence of Misogyny and Possible Incel Connections

The documentary explores Kohberger's documented negative attitudes toward women. Former classmates from Washington State University recalled that he was "not particularly well liked" and frequently expressed derogatory views about women. The investigation revealed that a female student had reported Kohberger to university police for following her to her car while he was employed as a teaching assistant—an incident that cost him his job.

Borgman highlighted connections to the incel movement, an online subculture of self-identified involuntarily celibate men known for intense hostility toward women. "It's all conjecture, but he seemed to struggle with his relationships with women," Borgman explained. "And we look at this incel movement and the question of whether or not he was an incel, and whether or not he didn't like women. It seems to me that there was a hatred of women there."

The Investigation and Guilty Plea

Kohberger remained in custody after DNA evidence connected him to the crime scene, including a Ka-Bar knife sheath bearing USMC insignia discovered near a victim's body. In July 2025, he entered a guilty plea to all four murders as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty. His stated motive for the killings has never been disclosed, leaving the documentary's analysis as one of the few public examinations of potential psychological factors behind the crimes.