Text messages between the two surviving roommates of the four University of Idaho students that were murdered more than two years ago have been revealed.
Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, both aged 21, and 20-year-olds Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle, were all found dead in an off-campus home they shared in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.
Bryan Kohberger has been accused of the slayings and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder, with the 30-year-old having pleaded not guilty and provided an alibi that he was driving alone at the time of the killings.
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“Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at night,” public defender Anne Taylor wrote in a court filing.
She added: “He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022.”
While a newly released, and unsealed, court document has revealed the text messages that took place between the surviving roommates, identified only as DM and BF.
With the killing spree understood to have taken place between 4am and 4.25am, the masked murderer fled shortly after - with DM being the only person to have seen the intruder, whom she described as a masked man with 'bushy eyebrows'.
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The first message between the survivors was sent by DM to BF at 4.22am.
"No one is answering," it read. "I'm rlly confused rn."
DM then made reference to the intruder saying they were wearing a 'ski mask almost', adding: "Like he had soemtbinf over is for head and little nd mouth [sic]."
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The next morning DM texts both Mogen and Goncalves, asking whether they are up and urging them to answer their cell phones.
After no reply, an hour and a half later, at 11.40am DM calls her father and 20 minutes later dials 911.
The transcript form the call reveals that DM and BF were joined by another friend, when they were asked to go and check on the 'patient' that they were calling about.
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The dispatcher asks: "Okay. I need to know what's going on right now, if someone is passed out. Can you find that out?"
Speaking between each other, one of the callers responds: "Yeah, I'll come - come on. Let's - we gotta go check. But we have to. Is she passed out? She's passed out. What's wrong?"
Before tragically adding: "She's not waking up."
Later on in the call, the dispatcher asks whether the patient is breathing, to which they respond 'no'.
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Talking between each other, a third person can be heard saying: "I need you to - to talking to them, okay? I can't talk to them. I need you to talk to them."
The two roommates have been ruled out as suspects in the killings, which the police described the crime scene as the 'worst they've ever seen'.
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt confirmed that the cause of death in each case was murder by stabbing, saying the four students had been ‘butchered’.
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It took almost two months before the force arrested and charged someone - and that was Kohberger, who had driven to his parents' house in Pennsylvania and was cuffed in the Scranton area of the state.
The accused will stand trial from July 30, the date when jury selection begins, and is expected to last for three months - with court documents explaining that jurors will need time to deliberate over the death penalty if Kohberger is found guilty.
Joe Yates