There’s ‘a Big Secret,’ Crisis Manager Says

At around 4:19 a.m. on November 13, 2022, the young woman, identified in court documents as D.M., was frozen in fear. After seeing a strange man in the house, she began frantically texting and calling her roommates, including fellow University of Idaho students Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen. Only one, identified by her initials as B.F. in the recently unsealed documents, responded. “I’m rlly confused rn,” D.M. texted her. “I’m freaking out.” B.F. urged D.M. to “run” from the second floor to B.F.’s bedroom on the first floor of their off-campus Moscow, Idaho, rental, assuring her terrified roommate that “it’s better than being alone.” A few minutes later, D.M. texted both Xana and Kaylee, begging them to answer, as she hunkered down with her other roommate.

But unbeknownst to the two women, they were the only survivors of a horrific massacre, which left Kaylee, Madison, Xana, and Xana’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, dead. The recently unsealed texts, as well as a panicked 911 call, reveal chilling new details about the victims’ final moments — and how the killer stalked them in their home. The documents were filed as part of the case against Bryan Kohberger, who has been charged with the murders. (He has pleaded not guilty.)

Both roommates are expected to testify at his trial, the court documents say, to provide a timeline, describe what they witnessed — and how they were “trying to make sense of the startling event.”

Inside the Night of the Idaho Murders

Authorities believe the victims were stabbed to death right around the time their roommates were texting. D.M. told cops that she was awakened at 4:00 a.m. by noises, including what she thought was Kaylee’s voice saying, “There’s someone here,” according to a previously released affidavit, which also states that Xana was using TikTok at 4:12. Five minutes later, a nearby security camera “picked up distorted audio of what sounded like voices or a whimper followed by a loud thud” and a barking dog, the affidavit says.

That’s when D.M. opened her door — and came face-to-face with the man police believe to be the killer. She “saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” the affidavit reads.

It felt like a nightmare, she told cops. According to court documents obtained by The New York Times, D.M. “told law enforcement officers she had been drunk and struggling to determine what was real and what was a dream.” That’s when she began texting everyone.

After running to the first floor, she and B.F. reportedly fell asleep for several hours, before trying Kaylee and Madison again starting around 10:23 in the morning. When they still got no answer, they summoned two friends over. One of them, identified as H.M., found Xana’s body and they placed a chaotic 911 call, in which the phone was passed around to all four people. The police arrived while they were still on the line, at 11:58 a.m. — more than seven hours after the murders.

Why did they wait so long to call for help? “That was a raw, emotional breakdown of two girls that were scared for their life,” Kaylee’s father told NewsNation of the texts, adding that there was always “a lot of pranking going on” in the house. “There was part of them that was probably thinking, ‘Am I getting messed with?’ So my heart goes out to those two girls. I think a lot of people are questioning why [the texts were] hidden.”

Crisis Manager Calls Idaho Murders ‘Very Strange’

Many details of the case remain a mystery. “It’s very strange,” legal coach and crisis manager Wendy Feldman exclusively tells In Touch of the fact that both sides have tried to keep their filings secret. “It’s very unusual in a murder case where the suspect is already incarcerated but awaiting trial to keep everything under seal.”

Some information is starting to see the light of day. After a judge rejected an attempt by Kohberger’s attorneys to exclude key DNA evidence found on a knife sheath at the scene, prosecutors filed a motion about the defense’s recent disclosures, which suggested that Kohberger’s attorneys plan to argue that “the knife sheath itself could have been planted.” And in another recently unsealed document, Kohberger’s attorneys, who have said he was driving around stargazing at the time of the murders, reveal that their client is autistic, and therefore should not face the death penalty. He “displays extremely rigid thinking … demonstrates little insight into his own behaviors and emotions … and frequently shifts the topic back to himself even when it is inappropriate. He uses abrupt, matter-of-fact phrases that would be considered rude,” they argue, adding that he is also obsessive-compulsive and has an eating disorder.

The attorneys also filed a list of demands for the trial. According to another recently unsealed document, they have requested that photos of the grisly crime scene — one responding officer described “visible stab wounds” and blood was seen dripping through the walls outside the house — be limited.

They also want to block words like “murderer,” “psychopath” and “sociopath” and even the phrase “bushy eyebrows” to be used in reference to Kohberger. “Although she has never identified Mr. Kohberger, testimony by [the roommate] from the witness stand, describing bushy eyebrows while Mr. Kohberger sits as the accused at trial, will be as damning as her pointing to him and saying, ‘He is the man that did this,’ ” his attorneys argue. Those demands “are all shocking or absurd,” says Feldman. “You may describe things in a courtroom like that as they were part of the police report.” Feldman expects even more bombshells before the trial in August. “Things will be released,” she says, adding that she believes there’s still “a big secret we do not know.”