Xana Kernodle Fought for Her Life to Stop Bryan Kohberger — and Possibly Ensured He Didn't Get Away with Murders

Xana Kernodle is very likely the reason Bryan Kohberger left behind his knife sheath and why there was an eyewitness to the crime.

But he failed to pull it off, most likely because of the actions of one of his victims — Xana Kernodle.

A trove of newly unsealed police reports released by the Moscow Police Department sheds new light on the final moments of the victims' lives.

The Latah County Prosecuting Attorney previously suggested that Kernodle may not have been one of Kohberger's intended victims, and had instead encountered the killer upon returning upstairs after collecting a DoorDash delivery left outside the door on the first floor.

New information from both the DoorDash driver and surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen suggest that Kernodle was actually on the third floor just before and after the murders of Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves.

The DoorDash driver struggled to find the victims' home that night after Kernodle placed a late-night food order.

That driver reported seeing a young woman in the third-floor bathroom of the residence multiple times, and revealed that the person ducked out of sight each time.

The driver could not identify the woman as one of the victims but did say she had "long brown hair: — a description that eliminates every person in the house at that time except one: Kernodle.

It would make sense that Kernodle was keeping an eye out the window, waiting for her delivery to show up.

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Police say that during this entire time, Kohberger was driving around the neighborhood — and he would have entered the residence just minutes after Kernodle's delivery was placed at the front door of the home at 4 a.m.

Kohberger may have very likely made his way into the house from the second-floor sliding door in the rear of the home while Kernodle was collecting her food from the front door on the first floor.

Mortensen, meanwhile, told police that she heard Goncalves say "someone is here" in a frightened voice after Kohberger entered the home. Mortensen said she then heard someone she thought was Goncalves running on the stairs to the third floor.

The person she heard running up and down the stairs into the other second-floor bedroom was most likely Kernodle — first rushing to Goncalves' aid and then fleeing from Kohberger by running back to her bedroom on that floor.

That is crucial to the case, because if Kohberger did in fact chase after Kernodle, it would explain why he might have left behind the biggest piece of evidence in the case — his KA-BAR knife sheath.

Kernodle resisted and fought once cornered by Kohberger, according to police.

Sgt. Shaine Gunderson noted in his incident report that she is the one victim who was not found in her bed and that "there was blood cast-off on the walls in various places, including above Xana's body."

Her autopsy report reveals that she had more than 50 stab wounds covering her body, which were "mostly defensive," and that she died from one laceration in her right lung and two lacerations in her heart.

Sgt. Gunderson wrote in his report that "it was obvious an intense struggle had occurred" between Xana and her killer.

The struggle between the two caused enough of a "commotion" to get the attention of Mortensen, who then opened her door to check on her roommates and instead saw Kohberger as he exited the residence, making her the lone eyewitness in the case.

A friend of Kohberger's later told police that he had scratches all over his face and knuckles around the time of the murders, injuries likely caused by Kernodle.

As for Kernodle, she had been stabbed so many times that Mortensen initially identified her as Goncalves when questioned by police.

Kohberger then fled the scene, and likely took Kernodle's fast food order with him out the door.

If not for Kernodle, Kohberger may have very well collected his knife sheath and then quietly slipped out of that Moscow home and drove off into the night, leaving police with no evidence beyond the make and model of his car.