The father of one of the four University of Idaho students murdered in their beds two months ago says that his family is seeing connections between his daughter and the suspect who was arrested Friday in Pennsylvania.

But, Steve Goncalves said, he’s not ready to talk about what those connections are. His attorney, sitting by him during an interview with ABC News, said the family is “just trying to figure it out.”

“Now that there’s a person and a name that someone can specifically look for and see if there’s any connections in any way,” said Shanon Grey.

Goncalves’s daughter, Kaylee Goncalves, was stabbed to death along with roommates Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen and Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin in the early hours of November 13, as CrimeOnly has reported. Goncalves said the arrest of Bryan Kohberger for the murders puts them “on a path to justice.”

“The little coward that had finally got caught running,” said Goncalves, who had previously called Moscow, Idaho, investigators “cowards” for holding back information during the course of the investigation. “I still think everyone’s innocent until proven guilty, so I put that in the back of my mind.”

Kohberger, he said, looks like a “broken soul, pitiful human being.”

Moscow Police Chief James Fry said at Friday’s news conference announcing Kohberger’s arrest that he stood “100 percent” behind his department’s conduct of the investigation, including his decision to tightly control the release of information.

He told Fox News much the same thing in an interview on Saturday.

“It was good police investigation work,” Fry said when asked about how investigators cracked the case. “. … It is just good police work, and I’m very proud of the whole investigative team and what they’ve done.”

Fry repeated statements he and Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson made on Friday about why investigators weren’t revealing much detail about the work that led to Kohberger’s arrest: Idaho state law prohibits it.

“Idaho law says basically we cannot reveal anything until he has a court appearance in the state of Idaho,” the chief said.

At that point, the currently sealed probable cause affidavit can be unsealed and those details become public. And that could come as early as later this week. Kohberger is due in court for a hearing in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and his public defender there has said that the suspect intends to waive extradition, meaning he’ll come back to Idaho sooner rather than later.

The public defender in Monroe County, PA says Bryan Kohberger is “eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible.”
Says Kohberger intends to waive his extradition hearing to expedite his transport to Idaho.

— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) December 31, 2022

While Idaho authorities have held back on details, sources have leaked a few tidbits. Sources told WPVI in Pennsylvania that genetic genealogy helped narrow down the hunt to Kohberger, while other sources have said investigators learned he owned a white Hyundai Elantra — the car police had been looking for after one was seen near the crime scene on the night of the murders — and such a car was towed from his parents home, where he was arrested.

Investigators also said on Friday that they tracked Kohberger across the country as he left the northwest and headed to Pennsylvania, although they did not provide details on how they followed him. FBI agents had been surveilling his parents home for several days after his arrival there, they said, while authorities in Idaho prepared to make an arrest.

Finally, on Thursday, the authorities applied for arrest warrants, and the arrest was made early Friday morning.

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