Nearly four years after Kaylee Goncalves was killed alongside three fellow University of Idaho students, her two sisters — Alivea Goncalves and Aubrie Goncalves — have emerged as two of the most outspoken voices demanding justice for the victims.
Both sisters have taken on public roles in recent months, with Alivea featured prominently in Netflix’s July 2026 docuseries The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare and Aubrie breaking her silence for the first time to condemn Bryan Kohberger’s attempt to withdraw his guilty plea.
Here’s everything to know about Kaylee’s sisters and how they’ve spoken out.
Alivea Goncalves Is Kaylee’s Older Sister
Alivea is the eldest sister of Kaylee, their younger sister Aubrie and brother Steven Goncalves Jr. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and family. According to her LinkedIn, Alivea previously worked as a project manager in the short-term rental industry until May 2022.
Since Kaylee’s murder in November 2022, Alivea has been the family’s most visible advocate, regularly speaking to media outlets and making public statements about the case.
Alivea Goncalves Appears in Netflix’s ‘The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare’
Netflix’s July 2026 docuseries features detailed interviews with law enforcement and the loved ones of Kaylee, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. Alivea’s perspective is central to the series.
Director Skye Borgman opened up about working with Alivea while speaking to Netflix’s Tudum.
“If you look up the definition of firecracker in the dictionary, there’s a picture of Alivea,” Borgman said. “She is just a force of nature. She’s very straightforward, so intelligent, so passionate, and amazing.”
Borgman added that Alivea had to learn “how to talk to the press, how not to talk to the press… how to honor Kaylee publicly and privately” after her sister’s killing, which ultimately became a storyline of its own in the docuseries.
The series also included Alivea’s emotional victim impact statement she made during Kohberger’s sentencing hearing in July 2025.
“You’re a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser who thought you were so much smarter than everybody else,” she told her sister’s killer, according to ABC News. “You aren’t special or deep, not mysterious or exceptional. … No one thinks you are important.”
Aubrie Goncalves Is Kaylee’s Younger Sister
Aubrie is the youngest daughter of Steve Goncalves and Kristi Goncalves. She is currently a college student at Baylor University, which she announced in a 2025 Instagram post.
“No, I do not work at Subway. Yes, I am committed to Baylor,” she captioned a photo of herself wearing a green and yellow shirt that read, “Baylor Forever.”
Aubrie shared more about herself in an Instagram post for Baylor University’s Class of 2031 page. “I live in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. I plan on majoring in Biology. I am currently wanting to become an Anesthesiologist, and I have been for quite some time,” she wrote.
“I plan on rushing in the spring which I’m super excited for! I love playing any sport, meeting people, going on spontaneous trips, and really anything that gets me out of the house,” Aubrie continued. “My family and God mean absolutely everything to me.”
Aubrie Goncalves Slammed Bryan Kohberger for Filing to Withdraw Guilty Plea
Aubrie initially remained silent after her sister was killed in her off campus home in November 2022. However, she issued an impactful statement shortly after Kohberger announced his plans to withdraw his guilty plea in July 2026.
“1,352 days. That’s how long it’s been since Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, and Xana Kernodle were murdered,” Aubrie began in a July 27, 2026, post shared via her family’s Facebook page.
She said she “wasn’t planning on saying anything,” but decided to speak up because she “couldn’t stay silent” after Kohberger filed to withdraw his plea.
“For him, this may be another legal filing. For me, it’s another day without my sister,” she wrote. “I’m Kaylee’s little sister, and Maddie wasn’t just Kaylee’s best friend she was family. She was my big sister too.”
Aubrie went on to detail the extensive evidence against Kohberger, criticizing those who question his guilt.
“They ignore the DNA recovered from the knife sheath left beside my sister, the surveillance footage tracking the white Hyundai Elantra before and after the murders, the cellphone data documenting his movements that night, his phone disconnecting from the network during the window of the murders before reconnecting afterward, the repeated trips investigators documented to the King Road neighborhood before November 13, the eyewitness testimony, the forensic evidence, the digital evidence, and the countless hours law enforcement spent piecing everything together until it all pointed to one person,” she wrote.
While reflecting on the public fascination with the case, Aubrie said she and the loved ones of the victims will never be able to remove themselves from the situation.
“We walk past an urn every day holding what we have left of Kaylee. That’s our reality. People tell families like mine to ‘move on,’ but how do you move on when your sister’s life has been reduced to an urn sitting in your family’s home?” she continued.
Aubrie Goncalves Revealed Why She Was Ready to Speak Out
Aubrie continued to speak out while appearing on the August 4, 2026, episode of The Today Show alongside her parents.
“When everything happened, I was a sophomore in high school,” she said, noting that she not only lost Kaylee but also Mogen, who was also like a sister to her. “I was only 16 years old, and at the time I kind of just decided no words are going to bring back either one of my sisters, so I didn’t feel like saying anything.”
Aubrie said that now that she’s “gotten older,” she has realized that “no words are going to bring back my sisters, but words are going to keep their memories alive.”
“I’m not really one to put myself in a situation like this, I don’t really like to, but I know that I have to keep Maddie and Kaylee’s name alive, and that’s why I’m here today,” she added.
What Happened During the Idaho College Murders?
Kaylee, Mogen, Kernodle and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Chapin, were asleep in their off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022, when they were brutally murdered.
Law enforcement officials said they linked Kohberger to the crime after his DNA was found on a Ka-Bar knife sheath that was reportedly left in the home. Amazon records also showed that Kohberger bought a Ka-Bar knife and sheath months before the victims were killed. Investigators also cited a white Hyundai Elantra seen circling the crime scene via surveillance video.
Kohberger was arrested in December 2022 and pleaded guilty in July 2025. He was sentenced to four consecutive fixed life sentences without the possibility of parole and an additional 10-year fixed sentence for felony burglary as part of his plea deal.
Just days before the docuseries premiered, Kohberger announced his plan to withdraw his guilty plea on July 26, 2026.
“My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,” he told The New York Times while announcing that he filed a petition to reopen the case.
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
