Newly released court documents relating to the deaths of the four university students in Idaho reveal that a survivor heard the alleged killer speaking before they left the scene.
Roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, and Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, were all killed on 13 November in an off-campus accommodation.
There were two other roommates in the home at the time, but they were left unharmed while the four victims were stabbed to death in what law enforcement have described as the 'worst' crime scene they’d ever seen.
Police have since arrested 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger in relation to the killings, and he appeared in Idaho on Thursday (5 January) as authorities released court documents providing further details about the investigation.
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One of the documents was an affidavit written by Moscow, Idaho Police Cpl. Brett Payne, which detailed how one of the surviving roommates told police that she had opened her door three times after waking up at around 4am to what she thought 'sounded like Goncalves playing with her dog in one of the upstairs bedrooms' on the third floor.
Evidence including phone records, a food delivery and CCTV footage has led police to believe the killings took place at some time between 4am and 4:25am local time.
Shortly after hearing the noises, she told police she heard a voice which she thought belonged to Goncalves saying something like 'there's someone here'.
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The roommate, identified as D.M. in the documents, told police she 'did not see anything' when she looked out of her bedroom after hearing the voice, though she opened her door a second time after hearing what she thought was 'crying coming from Kernodle's room'.
At that point, she told police she heard a man's voice say 'something to the effect of' the chilling the words, "It's ok, I'm going to help you," the affidavit said.
When she heard crying again, the roommate looked out of her room again and saw what she described to police as a 'figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person's mouth and nose walking towards her'.
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She described the person as a man approximately five feet 10 inches or taller, who was 'not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows'
The roommate claimed the man walked past her while she stood in the doorway, frozen in shock. He then left the home through a sliding glass door at the back entrance while the roommate locked herself in her bedroom.
D.M told police the four victims had come back to the home at around 2am and were in their rooms by 4am. Hours after the roommate saw the alleged killer leave the home, her roommates were found dead in two bedrooms.
Emily Brown