Why Is Kaylee Goncalves' Family Returning $85,000 Given to Them on GoFundMe?

The father of one of the four slain University of Idaho students said he is trying to refund more than $85,000 his family received on a GoFundMe page that was created to support their expenses during Bryan Kohberger’s trial.

Kaylee’s father Steve Goncalves told TMZ that he will not “bait and switch these beautiful people like [Latah County Prosecutor] Bill Thompson did to our family.”

Kohberger’s quadruple murder trial was scheduled to take place in August but in a deal with Thompson and the prosecutor’s office last week, the 30-year-old former PhD student at Washington State University pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the 2022 deaths of Kaylee, Xana Kernodle, Maddie Mogen and Ethan Chapin.

The Goncalves family was livid over the plea deal with prosecutors, which spared Kohberger a trial and a potential death penalty sentence.

“I am sorry if you don’t agree with our recent decisions on the plea deal,” the family wrote on Facebook on July 3. “BK literally is too afraid to die, but he wasn’t afraid to kill. BK wanted a plea deal and he was given one. Kaylee wasn’t offered a plea deal. The state is showing BK mercy by removing the death penalty. BK did not show Kaylee ANY mercy.”

“People tell us we should be happy with life in prison without parole as he will never get out (how is that not a win they ask) well the death penalty also means life on death row,” the post continues. “We knew it would be decades before he ever would face the firing squad. We knew that his execution was not going to happen anytime soon, BUT his life on DEATH ROW while serving his time would have been much worse than serving his time as life in prison. He doesn’t deserve life in prison. He deserved life on death row.”

In the same post, the family also said they needed time to figure out how to give back the GoFundMe donations.

“Please give me time to figure out the best way to do this,” the post reads. “I can’t just ask gofundme to reimburse everyone, as the money has already been deposited into my bank account, and is no longer held by gofundme.”

“I understand this is a priority for many people … Steve and I need a few days alone to process what has just happened. It is so hard to describe what we are going through right now. It is VERY mentally and emotionally exhausting. My whole body aches, from my fingertips to my toes. Please give us some grace, I promise we won’t skip town.”

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At the plea hearing last week, Thompson said Kohberger broke into the off-campus residence in the college town of Moscow on Nov. 13, 2022, through a sliding glass door on the second floor.

He then walked past the bedroom of one of the surviving roommates and then upstairs to the third floor where he murdered Mogen and Goncalves. He came across Kernodle on his way downstairs, stabbing her and her sleeping boyfriend Ethan Chapin before fleeing the scene, Thompson said.

He left behind a knife sheath in Mogen’s bedroom. The sheath contained trace amounts of DNA, which was later linked to Kohberger, leading to his arrest.