need to know
- Details from Zanna Kernodle’s autopsy report are included in a newly unsealed court filing obtained by PEOPLE
- Kernodle was stabbed 67 times by Brian Kohbarger and evidence found at the crime scene showed that he fought against his killer
- The bones in his hands were fractured and he was stabbed multiple times, with his surviving roommate initially misidentifying him to the police.
On November 13, 2022, Brian Kohbarger murdered four University of Idaho students after breaking into their off-campus rental home in downtown Moscow.
His three victims – Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; and Ethan Chapin, 20 – were murdered while lying in bed, suffering fatal injuries before they could stand on their feet, according to autopsy reports.
His fourth victim, 20-year-old Zanna Kernodle, was neither sleeping nor in bed at the time of the attack and, according to her autopsy report and crime scene descriptions included in an unsealed court filing recently obtained by People, she put up a brutal fight against her killer as he stabbed her 67 times.
Evidence from the crime scene supports the theory that on the night of the murder Kernodle heard noises and ran up to Mogen’s bedroom to investigate the situation.
Kernodle had received a food delivery order at about the same time Kohburger entered the house that night, and previously released crime scene photos of Jack’s half-eaten meal in a box left in the second-floor kitchen show that she was eating when she heard a commotion upstairs.
She then went to investigate, which is when she met Kohbarger, presumably after he had murdered Mogen and Gonçalves.
After witnessing the horrific scene, Kernodle apparently ran downstairs to her bedroom, followed by Kohbarger.
This sequence of events is supported by the fact that according to the filing, traces of Mogen and Goncalves’ blood were found on the door of Mogen’s bedroom, the staircase leading from the third to the second floor of the home, and the walls near the bannister and Kernodle’s bedroom.
Mogen and Goncalves’ autopsy reports revealed that both young women were never standing when Kohbarger began attacking them, meaning that the transfer scars must have been left by another person.
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Kohbarger managed to capture Kernodle, who, despite being nine inches shorter and unarmed, proceeded to fight against his attacker.
During this period he was stabbed 67 times.
His autopsy revealed that he suffered 23 stab and slash wounds to the face, neck and skull; Seven stab wounds on the chest; Four knife wounds in the stomach; three cut and puncture wounds to the back; 25 lacerated wounds of upper limbs; and five lacerated wounds to the lower limbs.
Kernodle continued to fight when Kohburger attacked him – as evidenced by the presence of blood under his feet and wiping blood on his body.
By the end, Kernodle had suffered: a hole in the outer shell of the skull; Perforation of the jugular vein, heart, lungs, and pulmonary blood vessels; Bleeding into the chest cavities; Wounds extending to the bones of the right hand; And there are scratches and bruises on the face, torso and arms and legs.
Her body was found on the bedroom floor just a few feet away from her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, who, according to her autopsy, had been murdered before she had a chance to stand up.
Kernodle was stabbed so many times that his surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen initially identified him as Goncalves when questioned by police.
There is also evidence that Kernodle and Chapin were close to each other at some point in their final moments, according to their autopsy reports.
Kernodle’s blood and DNA were found under the fingernails on Chapin’s right hand, and Chapin’s blood and DNA were found under the fingernails on both of Kernodle’s hands.
If Kohlbarger had indeed stalked Kernodl, as the blood transfer suggests, it might explain why he left behind a Ka-Bar knife sheath with traces of his DNA on it. And, the fight between the two was likely the “mess” that caused Mortensen to open his door in time to see Kohlberger walking out of the house that night.
Kernodle is the reason Kohbarger’s classmates saw him covered in cuts and bruises after the murders.
It is because of the evidence against him that Kohbarger decided to enter a guilty plea to four counts of murder, agreeing to a deal with prosecutors that spared him the possibility of getting the death penalty.
Had it not been for Kernodl, Kohberger would have neatly sheathed his knife, quietly walked out of that Moscow house and driven off into the night – with the police having no evidence other than the make and model of his car.
Instead, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
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