Hours after killing of 4 Idaho students, 911 call was made in Moscow

BOISE – The 911 call placed by the surviving roommates of the four University of Idaho students killed in an early morning attack in November 2022 was publicly released by dispatch this week – nearly 21/2 years later.

The audio recording, first obtained and released in its entirety Friday by KXLY-TV in Spokane, details the initial moments when law enforcement became involved in what developed into the case that has garnered international attention. NewsNation, which first aired a snippet of the call on Thursday night, shared the full recording with the Idaho Statesman on Friday evening.

Past public records requests for the recording, including from the Statesman, were denied, citing an ongoing investigation. A renewed request from the Statesman had yet to be filled Friday by the regional 911 dispatch center based in Pullman, just over the Idaho state line from Moscow.

This week, the call was finally released, about five months before the capital murder trial for suspect Bryan Kohberger, 30, a former Washington State graduate student, who is charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if a jury finds him guilty.

The victims were Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington. The three women lived in the off-campus Moscow home where they were found dead on Nov. 13, 2022. They lived there with two other young women who went physically unharmed in the early morning attack, while Chapin was Kernodle’s boyfriend and stayed over for the night.

The audio recording comes just a week after a redacted transcript of the 911 call was released for the first time in an unsealed court record. At the same time, text messages between the two surviving roommates shortly after the time police said the fatal stabbings took place also were publicly released.

Kohberger’s murder trial is scheduled for this summer in Boise, starting with jury selection in late July. It is expected to run through early November.