Authorities said they never found a connection between Bryan Kohberger and the four people he murdered.

Asked about a link to some social media connection, Moscow police Cpl. Brett Payne said: “Trust us, we wanted that to be the case. We’ve looked for a link, and we have not found one.”

“We got every resource every possible and we worked that tirelessly. But we have never to this date found a single connection between him and any of the four victims or the two survivors,” Lt. Darren Gilbertson of the Idaho State Police added.

Bryan Kohberger got rid of the information on many of his devices before investigators could get any evidence from them, according to Moscow police Cpl. Brett Payne.

“We had the world’s foremost experts on this look into it and there was evidence that he used software to wipe many of his devices relatively effectively so there wasn’t much evidence obtained after that,” Payne said at a news conference today.

Officials say they still don’t know why Bryan Kohberger targeted the house that he did on the night of the fatal stabbings.

“The evidence suggested that there was a reason that this particular house was chosen. What that reason is, we don’t know,” Moscow police Cpl. Brett Payne said today at a news conference after Kohberger’s sentencing.

Investigators said they conducted an extensive search for the knife they believe Bryan Kohberger used to kill four students in Idaho.

“There’s no evidence that we found that would lead us to any specific, even general, location as to where the murder weapon or the clothes have been,” Moscow Police Department Corp. Brett Payne said at a news conference today.

Idaho State Police Lt. Darren Gilbertson added that everywhere there was evidence indicating Kohberger’s whereabouts, “we searched that.”

He said authorities searched on the ground and in the water and even sent soil samples to determine if Kohberger had used a shovel.

“We searched everywhere that we possibly could but the reality is we were looking for a singular, small — it’s not that small — Ka-Bar knife,” Gilbertson said.

Some context: Several court documents unsealed in March, including a limited search warrant, revealed Kohberger had bought a Ka-Bar knife, a sheath and sharpener on Amazon eight months before the homicides.

Prosecutor Bill Thompson said he didn’t require allocution from Bryan Kohberger because he didn’t think the truth would be told.

“I have to be perfectly candid. I don’t believe that there’s anything that would come out of his mouth that would be the truth,” Thompson said to reporters at a news conference following the sentencing of Kohberger. “I don’t believe that there’s anything that would come out of his mouth that would be anything other than self-serving and I don’t believe there’s anything that would come out of his mouth that would not further victimize the families.”

He said they made their decision in order to obtain accountability.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson acknowledged that psychological testing was conducted on Bryan Kohberger, but said it did not factor into the prosecution’s decision to reach a plea deal that has seen the defendant avoid the death penalty.

“Psychological testing was done on Mr. Kohberger. The results of that do not rise to a defense to his conduct under Idaho law,” Thompson said when asked by CNN’s Jean Casarez. “The results of the various testing – most of it done by the defense or on behalf of the defense – are also sealed by court order. So I can’t speak to specifics.”

He added: “No. Psychological testing or any potential psychological condition of Mr. Kohberger … did not play a role in our decision” to agree to a plea deal.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson acknowledged that not everybody was in agreement with the decision over a plea deal for Bryan Kohberger.

“We accept and recognize that not everybody agrees with the decision we made. But this isn’t a popularity contest. We made what we thought was the most appropriate decision under the law, around the facts,” he said at a news conference after court adjourned today.

“We respect the families. We realize we had tough decisions to make, and we made them. We did not make them in vacuum. As I said in court today, we reached out to the families, we asked their thoughts,” he added.

Kohberger, earlier in court today, declined to make a statement. Thompson said any statement would not have been helpful.

“It would give him a forum to share whatever he thought to control the dialogue — not going to happen to our victims,” Thompson said.

Bryan Kohberger’s sentencing secures the safety of the community, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said this afternoon.

“Our communities are safe from him, and we have finality and conclusion,” Thompson said at a news conference after the sentencing. “Not just for the families, but for everyone who suffered because of this.”

Kohberger, he said, pleaded guilty “straight up,” and will remain in custody “until he dies.”

Thompson’s voice broke as he thanked law enforcement, praising their collaboration as “indescribably phenomenal.”

Moscow Police Department Chief Anthony Dahlinger said that while the legal process is over in the case of Bryan Kohberger, it is not over for the families of those killed.

“While this marks the end of a long and challenging journey through the criminal justice system, we acknowledge that for the families, friends and loved ones of these four young people, the grief does not end because the losses are permanent and the pain remains,” he said at a news conference after sentencing today.

Dahlinger thanked the victim’s families for “strength and resilience” and promised to make sure their lives of the students are not forgotten.

He said the investigation was one of the most “complex and high-profile cases in our state’s history.” The police chief also thanked the community for playing an “invaluable” role.

Kaylee Goncalves was stabbed more than 30 times and there was “quite a bit of damage” to her face, her father, Steve Goncalves, told reporters outside court today.

“This guy’s just an absolute monster,” he said. “When I was looking at him, we had a stare-down, and he’s just filled with demons.”

Kaylee Goncalves was not just stabbed, her mother, Kristi Goncalves, shared.

“We do know that another weapon was used on Kaylee. We don’t know what that weapon was,” she said. “Kaylee was not just stabbed. There was other things that happened to Kaylee.”

Steve Goncalves said authorities didn’t recover the other weapon.

Scott Laramie, the stepfather of Madison Mogen, said he hopes his family can start to move on after Bryan Kohberger was sentenced today to life in prison.

“The sentence will ensure that this evil will never again terrorize a family as he did ours and three others,” he said.

Kohberger took a plea deal, confessing to the four murders to avoid the death penalty. Laramie said a trial “would have involved risks.” And even when it was over, there would have been a long process for justice to be carried out.

“This way, his fate is sealed,” Laramie said. “Society is protected and we can move on with our lives and attempt to recover.”

He said his family will “remain lost” without Mogen, “but we will find our way.”

Steve Goncalves, father of victim Kaylee Goncalves, said any details from Bryan Kohberger would have been useful in protecting survivors.

“No better way to protect them than by getting some of those details. If you got those details, then you know — simple as just saying, ‘I did it solo’ would have been, you know, valuable,” he told reporters after court adjourned.

Goncalves said the plea deal negotiation wasn’t justice, but a shortcut.

“We said from the very beginning: We we’re not interested in a shortcut for our daughter, you know. We wanted everything,” he said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a message of support to the victims’ families following the sentencing of Bryan Kohberger.

“We are so sorry for the grief and the pain you have experienced at the hands of such vicious and evil killer. Our nation grieves with you and we will never forget the precious souls who were lost in this horrific act of evil. If it were up to the president, he would’ve forced this monster to publicly explain why he chose to steal these innocent souls. May God bless and watch over everyone affected by this unimaginable tragedy, especially the parents who lost their children,” Leavitt said during today’s White House briefing.

Bryan Kohberger has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murders of four University of Idaho students.

Kohberger, a 30-year-old former PhD student of criminology, admitted his guilt to four counts of first degree murder and one count of burglary and entered a plea deal that removes the possibility of the death penalty.

He is likely to be sent to Idaho’s only maximum-security prison, the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, which opened in 1989 to confine the state’s “most disruptive male residents.”

With still many questions left unanswered, Judge Steven Hippler said by continuing to focus on why Bryan Kohberger killed four Idaho students in 2022, “we give him agency and we give him power.”

Addressing Kohberger’s decision not to address the court at his sentencing hearing today, Hippler questioned whether the defendant would tell the truth.

“Even if I could force him to speak, which legally I cannot, how could anyone ever be assured that what he speaks is the truth?” the judge said.

“Do we really believe after all this, he’s capable of speaking the truth or giving up something of himself to help the very people whose lives he destroyed?” he said.

Rather, the judge said, he anticipates the truth of what happened will eventually come out in a “self-serving” way, pointing to possible book or movie deals.

Hippler said he believes “the time has now come to end Mr. Kohberger’s 15 minutes of fame.”

Judge Steven Hippler is about to sentence Bryan Kohberger, the man who admitted to the killing of four University of Idaho students in 2022.

Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders earlier this month. Family members of the victims and other members of the community gave statements earlier in the sentencing hearing.

As a reminder, here’s what was in the plea agreement:

• On the burglary charge, Kohberger will be sentenced to 10 years in jail.
• On the four counts of first-degree murder, he will receive fixed consecutive life sentences.
• The five counts will run consecutively.

Judge Steven Hippler in his emotional remarks today said Bryan Kohberger “slithered through that sliding glass” of the house to kill the victims.

“This unfathomable and senseless act of evil has caused immeasurable pain and loss. No parent should ever have to bury their child. This is the greatest tragedy that can be inflicted upon a person,” he said, ahead of announcing Kohberger’s sentence.

“Parents who took their children to college in a truck filled with moving boxes had to bring them home in hearses lined with coffins,” he added.

Judge Steven Hippler called the killing of four Idaho students a “unspeakable evil” and said he hopes sentencing in the case helps bring some closure to families.

On that November morning in 2022, a “faceless coward breached the tranquility of six beautiful young people and senselessly slaughtered them, four of them,” the judge said from the bench.

“Who committed this unspeakable evil was unknown for several weeks, but due to the killer’s incompetence and outstanding police work,” the person was caught “and now stands before the world and this court, unmasked.”

Bryan Kohberger chose not to speak at his sentencing hearing when given the opportunity by the judge.

After the prosecution argued for the judge to sentence Kohberger to life in prison — a sentence he agreed to as part of his plea deal — the defense said it had no evidence to present.

“Mr. Kohberger, you have an opportunity to make a statement,” Judge Steven Hippler told the defendant. “I take it you are declining?”

“I respectfully decline,” Kohberger said, leaning forward slightly in his chair.

Judge Steven Hippler, who is overseeing today’s sentencing hearing, appeared to become emotional as the prosecutor talked about the victims killed by Bryan Kohberger.

Earlier, Hippler was seen wiping his eyes while the families of the victims read their statements aloud.