Xana Kernodle’s Father Gets Emotional Reflecting on the Night of His Daughter’s Murder: ‘Things Would Have Been Different’

Xana Kernodle’s father is looking back on the night his daughter was murdered and wondering whether a different decision might have changed the outcome.

Jeff Kernodle was attending a Washington State University football game in Pullman on Nov. 13, 2022, when he considered driving to Moscow, Idaho, to visit Xana and possibly spend the night at her off-campus home.

In the Netflix docuseries The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare, Kernodle recalled thinking about calling his daughter and making the trip.

 

“I should give Xana a call and maybe I’ll just go over and stay at her house tonight,” he recalled.

But he ultimately decided not to go. Kernodle said he had been drinking that evening and did not believe Xana would want him driving after drinking.

Looking back years later, he remains haunted by the decision.

“I could have gone, and things would have been different,” he said. “Maybe they would have had a chance, you know? Some of them.”

Four Students Were Killed

Xana, 20, was killed alongside her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, and their friends Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21.

The four University of Idaho students were fatally stabbed inside their off-campus residence in Moscow during the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022.

Kernodle and Chapin were found on the second floor, while Mogen and Goncalves were discovered together in a third-floor bedroom.

For Jeff Kernodle, the tragedy remains difficult to comprehend.

“It is just the wrong thing to have to deal with,” he said. “It is like everybody’s worst nightmare.”

Kohberger’s Connection to WSU Shocked the Family

The investigation eventually led authorities to Bryan Kohberger, a former criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University.

Kohberger was arrested more than a month after the killings.

 

Kernodle said he was particularly disturbed when he learned that Kohberger had been attending the same university as his other daughter, Jazzmin.

“When I found out that he lives a little ways away from Jazzmin on [the] WSU campus, I was flipped out,” Kernodle recalled.

He said the discovery made him wish Jazzmin had not remained at the school, although he ultimately found some relief when Kohberger was arrested.

“But at least they got him,” he said. “That’s what I was happy about — the only thing.”

Kernodle Questioned Kohberger’s Plea Deal

Kohberger ultimately pleaded guilty to the four murders in July 2025 as part of an agreement with prosecutors that spared him the possibility of the death penalty.

He was subsequently sentenced to four life sentences without the possibility of parole.

For Xana’s father, however, the plea agreement was difficult to accept.

“I was surprised they gave him a plea,” Kernodle said. “He shouldn’t have got one.”

Kernodle said he wanted Kohberger to explain why he committed the murders and answer questions from the victims’ families.

“He should have to tell them why he did it,” he said. “Tell all of us parents why he did it if he was going to get the plea.”

Kohberger Now Wants to Withdraw His Guilty Plea

The case took another unexpected turn in July 2026 when Kohberger filed a petition for post-conviction relief seeking to withdraw his guilty plea.

Kohberger claims his attorneys provided ineffective assistance and that he was not properly informed about potentially exculpatory evidence before agreeing to plead guilty.

His filing has reopened questions surrounding a case that had appeared to be resolved.

The development has drawn strong reactions from the families of the victims.

Steve Goncalves, Kaylee’s father, said he was not surprised by Kohberger’s latest claims of innocence and compared the convicted killer to “the mosquito you can’t seem to swat.”

 

Goncalves also said his family was prepared for whatever happens next and expressed confidence in the evidence against Kohberger.

“Regardless of how this turns out, our family is 100% ready,” he said.

He added that he believed Kohberger could ultimately face the death penalty if his request for a new trial were granted.

For Jeff Kernodle, however, the legal developments cannot erase the question that has stayed with him since that November night: what might have happened if he had simply driven to Moscow and stayed with his daughter?

It is a question with no answer, leaving a grieving father to wonder whether a single different decision could have changed the fate of Xana and the other young people who were killed that night.