Roommates' terrified texts to each other after four slain in their home

More details have been disclosed in court documents regarding the Bryan Kohberger quadruple murder case. The suspect purchased a knife through Amazon months before the crime, and the surviving roommate of the victims exchanged text messages with family and was active on social media before calling 911.

Newly released documents show that both the prosecution and the defense are attempting to submit evidence favorable to their respective sides. Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in an off-campus residence in 2022. Currently, Kohberger has pleaded not guilty.

New documents from the prosecution show that Kohberger, a 30-year-old former criminology graduate student, purchased a military-style knife, a sheath, and a knife sharpener on Amazon months before the murders. Additionally, the prosecution submitted a selfie believed to have been taken by Kohberger on the morning of November 13, 2022, just hours after the murders occurred. The photo shows the suspect smiling and giving a thumbs-up to the camera.

The defense also released new evidence this week, highlighting phone records from the morning of the murders, showing that two surviving roommates waited approximately eight hours to call 911 after noticing suspicious circumstances. The defense objects to the prosecution's selective use of the phone records of surviving roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke on the morning of the tragedy and has asked the judge to prohibit the prosecution from presenting its selected information to the jury or to allow more phone records to be introduced at trial.

According to documents recently filed by the prosecution, a series of text messages between Mortensen and Funke show that they were unable to reach their roommates and felt fear and panic around 4:22 a.m. local time. Investigators believe Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were murdered between 4:00 a.m. and 4:25 a.m. Around 4:22 a.m., Mortensen texted Funke, saying, "No one is answering." Funke replied, "Yeah, bro, what's going on." Mortensen then texted Funke, saying she saw a masked man in their house. "I'm scared," Mortensen wrote. Funke later texted Mortensen, "Come to my room" and "Run."

Previously released records from the prosecution showed that Mortensen tried to contact others in the house again around 10:23 a.m. after "waking up and realizing she hadn't heard back from her roommates." But new documents from the defense indicate that the surviving roommates were awake and using social media hours earlier. Kohberger's lawyers stated that after Mortensen joined Funke in her room, their phone activity was only interrupted for about three hours. The defense documents state that the surviving roommates also accessed Snapchat and Instagram between 4:22 a.m. and 4:37 a.m. The new defense documents claim that Funke and Mortensen started using their phones again around 8:00 a.m.

The defense listed details of Funke's and Mortensen's social media and call activity in the hours after their roommates' deaths. Court documents identified Funke and Mortensen in the timeline by their initials, including: 8:00 BF called another number; 10:00:43 – 10:00:45 DM on Instagram; 8:41-8:42 BF took a photo; 10:00:56 – 10:01:40 DM messages, incoming and outgoing (Snapchat); 10:01:53 – 10:03:05 DM on Instagram; 10:03:30 – 10:04:02 DM on Indeed; 10:04:54 – 10:23:02 DM messages, incoming and outgoing (Snapchat).

In the motion, Kohberger's lawyers refuted the prosecution's claim that Mortensen only realized her roommates had not replied to her overnight texts when she woke up. Mortensen began trying to contact Goncalves and Mogen again at 10:23 a.m., asking if they were awake: "Are you awake??" The new defense documents state that Mortensen used Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok, and texted her father hours before contacting Mogen and Goncalves again. The timeline includes phone activity such as: 10:24:01 – 10:25:04 DM on Instagram; 10:30:18 – 10:45:43 DM messages, incoming and outgoing (Snapchat); 11:26:49 – 11:29:08 DM messages on Instagram and Snapchat; 11:29:41 – 11:32:45 DM messages on Instagram and Snapchat; 11:37:36 DM message (Snapchat); 11:39:09 – 11:40:14 DM and father text messages; 11:44:06 – 11:50:38 DM on Instagram; 11:54:39 – 11:57:01 DM on Instagram.

Records show that Funke eventually called 911 at 11:56 a.m., reporting that Kernodle was unconscious inside the residence. The voices of two other friends could be heard during the call. One of the surviving roommates, Mortensen, stated that she saw a masked man dressed in black inside the house at the time of the murders and described the intruder as having "bushy eyebrows." But according to court documents, after Kohberger was arrested, Mortensen could not definitively say whether he was the person she saw in her home at the time of the murders. Kohberger's lawyers have asked the judge to prevent the prosecution from showing the jury the newly released selfie of the defendant. Defense attorneys argue that the photo recovered from Kohberger's phone could unfairly prejudice the jury. But the prosecution argues that the jury should see Kohberger's smiling selfie taken at 10:31 a.m. – just hours after the alleged murders – because his photo matches Mortensen's description of the intruder she saw that night. The prosecution also argued that jurors can decide for themselves whether Kohberger's eyebrows are bushy and what that might have to do with the case. "This description may or may not implicate the defendant, but that is not a reason to prevent the jury from considering the fact," the prosecution said. "It is unreasonable to think that the jury will convict the defendant based on his trimmed or untrimmed eyebrows."

Kohberger's trial is expected to begin in August. The prosecution stated that they expect both surviving roommates to testify and hope to use their text messages to illustrate the timeline of the night. But defense attorney Anne Taylor pointed out what she said were inconsistencies in law enforcement's interviews with Mortensen and Funke. Defense documents state that the prosecution also plans to call law enforcement witnesses to testify about a test they conducted to show that it was possible to commit four homicides in minutes, including the time to travel to and from the car and remove blood-soaked clothing. Kohberger's lawyers stated that they need an expert to testify about his developmental coordination disorder to show the jury that he did not have the physical ability to commit the crimes they believe required such speed and coordination.