The father of one of the four slain University of Idaho students said that a wave of "relief" came over his family after law enforcement officials finally arrested a suspect in the brutal homicide case.
"It definitely provided relief for our family," Steve Goncalves, the dad of 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, who was killed in the November attack, told ABC's "Good Morning America" during an interview that aired on Tuesday.
The grieving father added, "It felt like a cloud was lifted off of us. I mean, it's like seeing sunlight after you've been stuck in a house for a month."
Authorities arrested 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger, a Washington State University criminal justice graduate student, late last month in his hometown of Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, in connection to the November 13 stabbing deaths in the small city of Moscow, Idaho.
The arrest, Steve Goncalves said, "definitely provided relief and comfort to know things were progressing and all this torture waiting had a purpose and a meaning."
Kohberger, who is currently in a Pennsylvania jail, was arrested on December 29 on first-degree murder charges in connection to the stabbing deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
A public defender for Kohberger has said that the suspect plans to waive his right to an extradition hearing in court on Tuesday.
Kohberger, who was also charged with one count of felony burglary, lives just miles away from the rental home where the four friends and college students were killed following a night out. Police connected him to the stabbings through DNA and his car, law enforcement sources told CNN.
Authorities have not yet released a motive for the killings, and a probable cause affidavit used to obtain the arrest warrant for Kohberger is expected to be released after the suspect is moved back to Idaho.
The document "won't give us a full view of the case, but it will give us some really good information about what hard evidence [police] have about the defendant in this case," Shanon Gray, an attorney for the Goncalves family told "Good Morning America."
Meanwhile, Kohberger's extradition attorney, Jason LaBar, said on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday that his client was "very calm" and "believes he's going to be exonerated."
"He said this is not him," LaBar said.
