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Father of Kaylee Goncalves tells ‘The Five’ suspects’ arrest ‘the first joy’ he has had in a while

December 31, 2022 | | Print Article

Following the horrific stabbing deaths of four Idaho university students in November, no one has been more vocal or more heartbreaking than the father of 21-year-old victim Kaylee Goncalves, and now that suspected murderer Bryan Kohberger has been arrested, Steve Goncalves says it’s the first “joy” his family has felt in quite a while.

“To me and my family, it feels like the first joy that we have had in seven days because it really is,” Goncalves told Fox News’s “The Five.”

(Video: Fox News)

“You can’t even smile when you have this over your head,” he said. “And it feels like a little bit of weight has been relieved, and things are on the right track, and we’re moving in the right direction.”

As American Wire News reported, Kohberger, 28, was arrested in Pennsylvania and is awaiting extradition to Idaho in connection to the deaths of Kaylee, Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; and Xana Kernodle, 20.

Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro revealed on “The Five” that, according to her sources, “genealogical DNA” evidence helped to identify the alleged killer.

Over the course of the investigation, Goncalves had been critical of the Moscow Police Department for their failure to produce a suspect.

On Friday, the grief-stricken dad thanked the investigators for their efforts.

“I want to commend those police officers in everything that they have done, because it has been very difficult to work with all the media, especially me being so vocal,” Goncalves said. “I think it’s gotten better. And I really appreciate that they have made some adjustments for our family. And we have noticed those things.”

Fox News analyst Lawrence Jones noted Goncalves’ reaction to the news that the killer wasn’t from his community.

“When we were talking earlier today, one of the things that stuck out to you was, this guy was not from Moscow,” Jones said. “He was an outsider.”

“Yes,” Goncalves replied. “The community is real in Idaho. And Idaho made a stand. And I wanted to be a part of that to where we said, hey, this is not our new normal. We’re not going to allow this messaging to be our new normal, and we’re going to put our foot down, and we’re going to pull in every resource that we can. We have nothing to hide.”

“If we have to pull in forces because we’re close to a location that jurisdictions are there, we’re still going to come together and unify for this,” he continued. “And I really feel like that’s what happened.”

“I mean, there was some forces that pulled us apart, but, in the end, we all, we all — we all came together,” the father said. “And we have a celebration of life today. And we actually have hope that we have somebody in custody that is a person of interest.”

“And, of course, he’s innocent until proven guilty,” Goncalves added, “but that’s a lot better off than we were 48 hours ago.”

Asked if his family had heard the name “Bryan Kohberger” before he was named as a suspect, Goncalves replied, “No, we had not.”

“Everything was kept under the wraps. The investigation did everything they could to keep this away from the public to keep the jury untainted, do everything by the book,” he explained. “And I believe they have done an amazing job of that.”

Melissa Fine
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