FRANTIC text messages reveal the terror sweeping through the two surviving roommates at the house where Bryan Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students.
On the night the four students were killed, Dylan Mortensen frantically texted Bethany Funke, saying she saw someone in their off-campus home on King Road in Moscow wearing a “ski mask.”
University of Idaho victims: Kaylee Goncalves (bottom left), Madison Mogen (top left), Ethan Chapin (center), and Xana Kernodle (right)Instagram/kayleegoncalves
A makeshift memorial sat outside the home on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, the site of the quadruple murderGetty Images – Getty
Bryan Kohberger looks toward his attorney, Anne Taylor, right, during a hearing in Latah County District Court in Moscow, Idaho in January 2023AP:Associated Press
Bryan Kohberger escorted into court for a hearing in Latah County District Court in September 2023AP:Associated Press
A frightened and confused Mortensen told Funke she had called their other roommates, Xana Kernodle, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, and Madison Mogen, 21, but all the calls went unanswered, according to newly released court documents.
“No one is answering,” Mortensen texted Funke before 4:22 and 4:24 am, before following up, “I’m rlly confused rn.”
Mortensen then messaged Goncalves, 21, “Kaylee. What’s going on.”
Funke then responded to Mortensen, saying, “Ya dude wt*,” adding, “Xana was wearing all black.”
“I’m freaking out rn,” Mortensen replied to Funke.
Mortensen then described the seeing someone in the house, “No it’s like ski mask almost.
‘PLS ANSWER’
“Like he had soemtbinf [sic] over is for head and little nd mouth.
“I’m not kidding o am so freaked out.”
A panic-stricken Funke replied, “So am I.”
Mortensen then tells Funke her phone’s battery is about to die as Funke instructs her “run” downstairs to her bedroom.
At 4:24 am, Mortensen called Ethan Chapin, 20, Kernodle’s boyfriend, but it also went unanswered.
“I’m scRwd tho,” Funke messages Mortensen, who responds, “Ya IK but it’s better than being alone.”
About three minutes later, Mortensen again tries to get in contact with Goncalves and Kernodle, before texting Goncalves, “Pls answer.”
The next morning, Mortensen sends a series of follow up messages to Goncalves and Mogen.
“Pls answer,” she texts Goncalves at 10:23 am, and then messages Mogen, “R u up?”
Mortensen again messages Goncalves, “R u up??”
A text exchange between surviving roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, who were awake on the night of the murdersLatah County Prosecuting Attorney
Ethan Chapin and his girlfriend Xana KernodleInstagram
Investigators seen removing evidence from the off-campus home on King Road in November 2022AP:Associated Press
911 CALL
The terrifying text exchange offers the first glimpse of what was being said between the two surviving roommates at the King Road house on November 13, 2022, when Kernodle, Goncalves, Mogen, and Chapin were killed.
Mortensen had previously described the masked intruder she saw in the home on the night of the murders to investigators, describing him as at least 5’10, “not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows.”
The frightened roommate also told investigators she looked out of her bedroom door twice after hearing comments about someone being in the house.
The first time Mortensen looked out she did not see anything, but “she opened her door a second time when she heard what she thought was crying coming from Kernodle’s room.”
Mortensen then said she heard “a male voice say something to the effect of ‘It’s OK, I’m going to help you,’” according to court documents.
A 2024 mugshot of Bryan Kohberger after being transferred to Boise, IdahoAda County Sheriff’s Office
Included in recently unsealed court documents was the 911 call placed at 11:58 am, nearly seven hours after the four victims were fatally stabbed.
“Hi, something is happening. Something happened in our house. We don’t know what,” a woman at the scene tells the police dispatcher, according to a transcript of the call.
“Um, one of our – one of the roommates who’s passed out and she was drunk last night and she’s not waking up,” another woman conveys to the dispatch.
“Oh, and they saw some man in their house last night,” one of the people at the scene added.
“Is she breathing?” the dispatcher asks, before being told, “No.”
“I think we have a homicide,” another man tells the police dispatch.
Kohberger, 30, was arrested at his parents home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on December 30, 2022, six weeks after the four students were found dead.
He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
If convicted, Kohberger could face the death penalty, which his defense team is asking a judge to rule out arguing the Washington State University Ph.D student has autism spectrum disorder.
The quadruple murder trial is expected to begin in Boise, Idaho, in August.
University of Idaho murders timeline
On November 13, 2022, a brutal home invasion claimed the lives of four University of Idaho students.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in their Moscow, Idaho, off-campus home.
A six-week manhunt ensued as cops searched for a suspect.
On December 30, 2022, Bryan Kohberger, 30, was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania – 2,500 miles away from the crime scene.
He was taken into custody and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University, has been linked to the crime scene through phone records, his car’s location, and DNA evidence found at the home where the murders took place.
The house was demolished in December 2023 despite backlash from the victims’ families.
Kohberger is being held at Latah County Jail while he awaits trial.
On September 9, 2024, an Idaho judge ruled to move the upcoming murder trial out of Moscow after Kohberger’s lawyer argued that the town was prejudiced against him.
The state Supreme Court will decide the new venue and judge for the trial, which is expected to start in August 2025.
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