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Rathdrum, Idaho

A livea and Kristi feel like they’ve hit a wall.

They are going to need housing in Boise for three months, but they learn that there is no federal, state, or local assistance for families who have lost a loved one.

The only option, they realize with input from Jack DuCoeur’s aunt, Brooke Miller, is to start a Goncalves family GoFundMe page.

The family asks initially for fifty thousand dollars to house them for the three months they will need to be in Boise next summer for the trial.

They explain there will be ten of them (as well as pets) for the long haul.

They need the basics: money for housing, food, travel, and compensation for loss of work.

Money pours in.

But the trial date remains uncertain.

In his first hearing in Boise, Judge Hippler says he’s leaning away from the June date set by the previous judge because he thinks it will be hard to pick a jury, given family vacation schedules. Thompson suggests May; Taylor suggests September.

Taylor hits her usual theme of being overloaded with discovery.

She’s received an additional three hundred ninety-eight gigabytes of information since August, she says, “and I can tell the court that nobody on the team has read every bit of that yet.” She also has a new mitigation expert she needs to bring up to speed because this person replaced someone who passed away.

But in a sign, perhaps, that Judge Hippler has less appetite for delay than John Judge, he tells her she needs to get it done by the deadline he sets.

“There are twenty-four hours in a day, but if you use enough of those hours, enough days in a row, you get it done if you have to.”

The judge delivers a stern lecture to both teams at the outset.

“I’d like to say I’m happy to be here, but why start with an untruth?

” He adds, “I do expect—and this will come as no surprise to you—for you all to get along. I understand the stakes in this case are as high as they can possibly be in any case. But you are professionals. You have taken oaths, both as officers within your jurisdictions but also as attorneys before this bar. So I expect at all times for you to remain civil to one another, that you not engage in personal attacks, ad hominem attacks, that you not engage in theatrics, not misstate the facts or the law to the court, and that when you cite arguments in your briefs, if there is contradictory precedent, I expect to see that.”

On October 9, Judge Hippler issues his ruling: The trial will start on August 11 and run through November 7.

The Goncalves family finally feels optimistic. The atmosphere in Judge Hippler’s courtroom is palpably fresh, electric even.

Once they get to trial, Steve hopes events will be anticlimactic.

He has reason to be hopeful. Steve’s FBI sources have told him that when the agency is involved in a capital murder case, they secure a conviction over 93 percent of the time.

The odds, therefore, of getting a conviction in a quadruple homicide—“Well, you do the math,” he says.

A lawyer for the FBI has told Steve that in all his years of experience, he’s “never seen a case where DNA has been found at the crime scene and it didn’t lead to that conviction.” A piece of evidence like that is “insurmountable.”

Cathy Mabbutt, the coroner, and other investigators agree.

But there’s one person in Moscow who is worried.

Mike Pattinson, the Moscow lawyer and Anne Taylor’s old classmate, isn’t so confident. “Anne’s a sharp litigator,” he says. He wouldn’t want to bet against her.

Mike hopes he’s wrong, but “if it’s just a knife sheath that happens to have Kohberger’s DNA on it, what does that mean?” he asks. Is the DNA by itself enough proof?

Taylor will argue that it isn’t. She will also likely “challenge the process upon which [investigators] came about his DNA,” Mike believes. She may even offer alternative theories or suggest that somebody—perhaps a crooked police officer—could have planted it.

So now the stage is set for the drama that will begin in August, the moment when Emily, Hunter Johnson, Bethany, Dylan, Ava, Jack DuCoeur, Adam, and so many others in the victims’ circle will likely have to take their positions in the witness box and relive the horrific events of November 13.

As to whether Bryan Kohberger will be found guilty or be acquitted?

That’s a story for another time.