A group of University of Idaho students were murdered inside of an off campus home in 2022. Newly released text messages show the panicked conversation between the two surviving roommates. These text messages lay out a timeline that prosecutors aim to lean on in their case against the suspect.

The killings took place in November of 2022 at an off campus home in Moscow, which is a town of 25,000 people. The four University of Idaho students were Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, and Xana Kernodle.

Two roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were texting about a man they saw in their house dressed in all black and wearing a mask.

“I’m freaking out,” Dylan wrote to Bethany. This took place around the time the police believe the victims were murdered.

The group of roommates had gone out for the night and returned late to their shared home. Police found four students slaughtered inside the following day, without any signs of damage or forced entry into the home.

This led to frustration from the victims’ families due to the pace of the police’s work. The local community also feared a mass killer on the loose.

Nearly two months later following the murder, police arrested Bryan Kohberger, who was then a 28-year-old man in Pennsylvania. He was on a murder warrant for the killings of the students.

Kohberger lived in Pullman, Washington, and he was a graduate student in criminal justice. He is set to face trial in August. A not-guilty plea has been entered, and he will face the death penalty if he is convicted.

Mortensen was awakened around 4 a.m. in her first-floor bedroom. She thought her roommate, Goncalves, was playing with her dog in one of the bedrooms on the third floor.

Kernodle received a DoorDash order at approximately 4 a.m. and was still up on her phone using TikTok around 4:12 a.m.

In the newly released court filing, records show Mortensen tried calling her other four roommates, but she got no response. This was around the time when a security camera from a nearby residence picked up a whimper, distorted audio of voices, followed by a loud thud, and a barking dog at 4:17 a.m.

Mortensen texted her roommate Goncalves: “Kaylee” and “What’s going on.”

According to the filing, Funke, who is the other surviving roommate, answered her messages while they were both in their bedrooms.

Funke and Mortensen sent the following text messages to one another around 4:22 a.m.

DM to BF: “No one is answering.”

DM to BF: “I’m really confused rn.”

BF to DM: “Ya dude wtf”

BF to DM: “Xana was wearing all black”

DM to BF: “I’m freaking out rn”

Mortensen told Funke that he saw what looked like a man wearing a ski mask in the house. Mortensen’s grand jury testimony was described by previously released court filings. It recalled a masked man wearing all black, as well as noises she heard.

Mortensen said to Funke: “No it’s like a ski mask almost”

BF to DM: “Stfu”

DM to BF: “Like he had [something] is for head and little nd mouth”

DM to BF: “I’m not kidding [I] am so freaked out”

BF to DM: “So am I”

Funke tried to convince her roommate Mortensen to go to her room so they could be together: “Run”

911 call transcript says, ‘Something happened in our house”

Prosecutors have indicated they want to use both surviving roommates text messages to illustrate a timeline of the night, as well as having both of them testify. Defense attorney Anne Taylor mentioned inconsistencies during multiple interviews with law enforcement.

Another newly unreleased court filing shows Mortensen trying again to reach Goncalves and Mogen starting at 10:23 a.m. asking if they are awake: “Ru up??” This occurred before calling 911.

A transcript of the surviving roommates’ 911 call was released. The transcript shows the chaos going on within the call as Mortensen and Funke pass the phone between them, answering the dispatcher in fragmented responses.

The filing describes crying and heavy breathing throughout the call. The transcript also shows another unnamed friend with them who also spoke to the dispatcher, but it does not identify the speakers by name.

They reported that 20-year-old Kernodle was unconscious on the call, and telling the dispatcher she returned home drunk the night prior.

The roommates were struggling to tell the dispatcher their phone number and address, then saying Kernodle is unresponsive and they “saw some man in their house last night.”

The transcript shows the students’ panic and unfinished thoughts over finding Kernodle’s body. The filing shows dispatchers ended the call when first responders arrived at the murder scene.

The judge in Latah County had ruled the messages and 911 transcript were permissible evidence before the case was moved to Ada County, the associated filings and order were sealed at the time.

An unsealed defense motion in Kohberger’s capital murder case offers a detailed picture of the suspect’s personality, which has emerged since his arrest. It cited an evaluation by a neuropsychologist who found Kohberger “continues to exhibit all the core diagnostic features of ASD currently, with significant impact on his daily life.” It is unknown if Kohberger was ever diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The newly unsealed filing is the latest in a flurry of defense motions which was aimed at taking the death penalty off the table for the only suspect in the fatal stabbings. The case has jolted the public, but the police have not yet released a potential motive. A sweeping gag order kept the parties from speaking publicly and revealing further details.

A DNA sample was taken from a knife sheath left at the crime scene. This is the prosecution’s most important piece of evidence. According to prosecutors, investigators used investigative genetic genealogy.

This is a forensic field that combines DNA analysis with genealogical research, which connected the DNA sample to Kohberger’s family. DNA testing found Kohberger to be a “statistical match” to the sample, which led to his arrest.

According to Kohberger’s attorneys, the death penalty should be taken off the table because it is impossible for them to review the enormous amount of discovery in time for the trial, which takes place in August.

Pennsylvania law enforcement recovered trash from the Kohberger family residence. The trash was sent to the Idaho State Lab for DNA testing. This was used to help the investigators narrow it down to having Kohberger as the suspect in the brutal killings.

Kohberger’s defense team questioned the accuracy, use, and legality of the DNA testing. Testimony from witnesses raised questions in a closed hearing last month about investigators and how they used the DNA sample from the knife sheath left at the scene, which helped identify Kohberger as the suspect.