A former roommate who once lived in the Idaho house where four college students were murdered recalled the terrifying moments after the killings in an interview with “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
Ashlin Couch moved out of the Moscow residence in May 2022, six months before Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death just steps from the University of Idaho campus.
But Couch remained friends with Mogen and Goncalves, who were her roommates while she lived there.
Couch told “GMA” she received a text alert about a homicide near the home and said she remembered messaging a group chat to ask if anyone had “heard from Maddie?”
“My last text message to her was like, ‘Are you OK?’” Couch said Wednesday. “I feel like right then and there, I kind of just knew that something was wrong.”
Bryan Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University, was arrested in December 2022 and charged with killing the four students, all of whom were 20 or 21 years old. He has pleaded not guilty in the case, and his trial has not yet been scheduled.
“It crosses my mind more that that could’ve happened while I was there,” Couch said on “Good Morning America.” “And you never know, like how long someone is watching your house.”
The home was demolished in December 2023, and the university has said it plans to create a memorial to the students on the site.
Couch, who started a foundation alongside her mother to honor the victims, told “GMA” she simply wished for a chance at a proper goodbye.
“That’s one thing that I just wish that I could do at least one more time,” she said. “Just give her one last hug. Just to be able to say goodbye.”
