On the night that four University of Idaho students were fatally stabbed in a house near the campus, two roommates began urgently texting each other after one of them saw a masked man moving through the house.
“What’s going on,” one of the residents, Dylan Mortensen, texted to one of her friends upstairs, according to new court documents released on Thursday. The friend did not answer, but she was able to make contact with a downstairs roommate, Bethany Funke. “I’m freaking out,” she texted.
Ms. Mortensen and Ms. Funke — who ultimately were the only survivors of the stabbing spree — began texting back and forth shortly before 4:30 a.m., soon after Ms. Mortensen had seen a masked man walking in the hallway outside her bedroom door.
The texts on the night of Nov. 13, 2022, give new insight into the confusion and fright of the two surviving roommates, who appear to have hunkered down in Ms. Funke’s room until later that morning. Ms. Mortensen called or texted each of the stabbing victims around 4:30 a.m., but received no response. No one called 911 until more than seven hours later.
Ms. Mortensen, who had seen the masked figure in the house, told Ms. Funke by text that “no one is answering” the other roommates’ phones, and she described seeing someone wearing something like a “ski mask almost.” Ms. Funke told her to “run” downstairs to her bedroom so they could be together.
“It’s better than being alone,” she texted.
The messages provide a chilling new window into what has become an enduring mystery in the quadruple murder case: What were the two surviving roommates doing at the time that their housemates were being killed?
Prosecutors have charged Bryan Kohberger, now 30, with murdering the four victims, who were found in two bedrooms of the home in the college town of Moscow, Idaho. A trial is scheduled to start in August. At the time of the killings, Mr. Kohberger was a Ph.D. student in criminology at Washington State University, about a 20-minute drive away.
Little so far has been revealed about the actions of the two surviving roommates, who are expected to be called to testify at trial. Investigators had previously cited only a portion of Ms. Mortensen’s account, in which she had described hearing noises, and then seeing the masked man.
Recent court records have offered a more complete picture. Ms. Mortensen told law enforcement officers that she had been drunk and struggling to determine what was real and what was a dream. She indicated at one point that she thought the person she saw was a firefighter.
After seeing the masked man, she went to her roommate’s room and fell asleep, according to court records previously filed by the defense.
Hours after the initial round of texts, at 10:23 a.m., Ms. Mortensen sent more messages to her upstairs roommates — Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21 — asking if either of them were awake. “Pls answer,” she texted one of them. “R u up,” she asked another.
Later, one of their friends came to the house and discovered the body of one of the victims, Xana Kernodle. The group dialed 911, with someone on the call reporting that one of the roommates “was drunk last night and she’s not waking up.” One of the callers said a man had been seen in the house the night before.
When the police arrived, officers discovered a gruesome scene: Ms. Kernodle, 20, was found stabbed to death near the body of her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, also 20. In a room upstairs, Ms. Goncalves and Ms. Mogen were also found dead.
Investigators have not detailed any prior connections between the victims and Mr. Kohberger. They did find a knife sheath on the bed next to Ms. Mogen and have said that DNA found on the sheath matches Mr. Kohberger. Investigators identified him as a suspect, in part, after comparing the DNA profile on the knife sheath to those filed in consumer databases and building a family tree.
In their recent filings, prosecutors have detailed a range of evidence they plan to include at trial, including surveillance videos, phone records, banking details and records of Mr. Kohberger’s purchases from businesses including Dick’s Sporting Goods, Under Armour and Walmart.
Mr. Kohberger’s lawyers have sought to exclude some of the DNA evidence, noting that blood from unknown people was also found inside and outside the home. They have also asked the judge to rule out the death penalty, in part because Mr. Kohberger, they said, has autism spectrum disorder.
During his arraignment in May 2023, Mr. Kohberger did not enter a plea, leaving the judge to enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf. Mr. Kohberger had previously said through a lawyer that he expected to be exonerated.
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