Bryan Kohberger Took Selfie as a 'Trophy' for Idaho Murders, Victim's Father Believes

The father of one of the University of Idaho students stabbed to death at an off-campus residence in 2022 is speaking out after prosecutors released a selfie taken by accused killer Bryan Kohberger.

Steve Goncalves, whose 21-year-old daughter Kaylee Goncalves was among the four college students brutally stabbed to death overnight, said in an interview that he believes Kohberger took the photo as a way to celebrate his alleged crime.

“I see somebody that was there making himself a trophy,” he said while appearing on Fox & Friends.

Goncalves went on to say that in his mind, Kohberger wanted that “little trophy to let himself know: ‘Hey, I got away with it.'”

Latah County Prosecutor William Thompson stated in a court filing obtained by PEOPLE that Kohberger took the selfie just a few hours after the brutal massacre in the town of Moscow.

Thompson, however, did not discuss the possibility that the photo was a “trophy” or related to the murders. Authorities are requesting the photo be allowed into evidence because one of the surviving roommates — who is the lone eyewitness in the case — said in multiple interviews with police that the man she saw leaving the home after the killings had “bushy eyebrows.”

Thompson and Kohberger’s attorney Anne Taylor, who are prohibited from making extrajudicial statements about the case under a non-dissemination order filed just days after Kohberger’s arrest, did not respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

There were only four girls living in the house at the time of the murders, because Kaylee had moved out of the home.

Her father has said in multiple interviews that she returned to Moscow that weekend despite having graduated early. Kaylee wanted to spend one last weekend with her best friend Madison Mogen, 21, according to her father, before moving to Austin, Texas, where she had already lined up employment with an I.T. firm.

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Kaylee and Madison had been out together the night before their murders and returned home in the early morning hours of November 13, as did their roommate Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20.

Kaylee and Madison were sleeping in Madison’s bed on the third floor while Xana and Ethan were in Xana’s room on the second floor when all four were stabbed to death, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The killer did not target two other roommates, one asleep in her room on the first floor and one in her bedroom on the second floor. The latter of those two has said she saw a man exiting the residence that night, according to authorities. The roommate noted the man had “bushy eyebrows,” according to court documents.

Six weeks later, the Moscow Police Department announced the arrest of Kohberger, a doctoral candidate at nearby Washington State University.

The probable cause affidavit alleges that authorities linked Kohberger to the killings after finding traces of his DNA on a knife sheath, as well as tracing the location of his cell phone and obtaining surveillance footage that showed a car which appeared to be the same make and model as his driving to and from the scene of the crime.

In a motion laying out his alibi, Kohberger’s lawyer, Anne Taylor, said the suspect was out driving by himself on the night of the murders but that he did not kill the four victims.

Kohberger’s murder trial is set to get underway Aug. 11 in Idaho in Boise County after the defense successfully petitioned for a change of venue in the case. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

Kohberger told the public defender who represented him after his arrest in Pennsylvania that he expects to be exonerated at trial. He declined to enter a plea in court when the judge formally charged him with four counts of murder, at which time a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.