Ex-roommate reveals final text sent to Idaho slayings victim Madison Mogen
A former roommate of the four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in their off-campus home in 2022 shared the last text she sent to one of the victims, Madison Mogen.
Ashlin Couch, a University of Idaho graduate who moved out of the house in May 2022, said in an interview with local news station KXLY she remembered getting an alert from the school that there had been a suspected homicide.
“I texted our group of friends and I said, ‘Has anyone heard from Maddie?’” Couch recalled. “I remember my last text message to her was: ‘Are you OK?’ I feel like right then and there, I kind of just knew that something was wrong.”
Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were found dead with multiple stab wounds in a Moscow, Idaho, home on Nov. 13, 2022.
Though Couch moved out of the home a few months after she graduated in December 2021, she said she kept in touch with her friends Mogen and Goncalves.
“It crosses my mind more that that could’ve happened while I was there,” Couch said. “And, you know, you never know, like how long someone is watching your house.”
“I mean, I couldn’t even walk to my car in the dark for months after it happened,” she added.
Authorities arrested Bryan Kohberger about six weeks after the slayings after investigators linked his DNA to a knife sheath found near one of the victims, according to court documents.
Kohberger, 29, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. A judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in May 2023.
Attorneys for Kohberger submitted an alibi to the court last month, saying he was “out driving alone” on the night of the slayings, according to court documents.
“Mr. Kohberger was out driving in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and the stars,” Kohberger’s attorneys wrote in a filing.
A trial date still has not been set due to motions from the defense attempting to change the venue of the trial, as well as allegations that prosecutors have withheld key evidence in the case. The prosecution has denied they were keeping any materials.
The three-story home where Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle and Chapin were found slain was demolished in December 2023.
About a year and a half after the slayings, Couch said she wished she was able to say goodbye.
“That’s one thing that I just wish that I could do at least one more time,” she said. “Like, you know, just give her one last hug. Just to be able to say goodbye.”
