Before the families could speak, Hollywood did. In a stunning October 2025 announcement, Lifetime confirmed that actor Miles Merry will play Bryan Kohberger in an upcoming dramatization of the Idaho student murders. The film, part of the network’s long-running “Ripped From the Headlines” series, is already deep in pre-production — casting finalized, production crew set, and a release date likely locked. But the families of the victims? They were never asked. Never consulted. Never warned.

This is Lifetime’s formula: turn tragedy into prime-time content. They did it with Amanda Knox, Gabby Petito, and Chris Watts — all criticized for exploiting real people’s pain. But the Kohberger case stands apart. There was no trial, no testimony, no motive revealed under oath. Kohberger pled guilty in July 2025, receiving four consecutive life sentences without parole. The record is silent — and into that silence, Lifetime will now write fiction.

That’s what makes this story so unsettling. Without verified facts, screenwriters must invent them: imagined conflicts, fictional flashbacks, emotional arcs, and even dialogue for the killer himself. None of it comes from evidence or sworn testimony — yet millions will watch and remember those scenes as if they were true.

Alivea Goncalves, sister of victim Kaylee Goncalves, called it “really angering.” The families weren’t informed. They learned from the headlines. To them, the victims are not characters, and their grief is not a plotline.

This isn’t about one network being evil — it’s about the moral cost of entertainment that blurs the line between truth and storytelling. Because when a true crime story gets rewritten for television, it doesn’t just distort memory — it replaces it.

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