Chilling text messages shared between two surviving roommates on the night of the University of Idaho murders provided fresh and crucial insight into the fear and confusion felt on the night of the horrific killings as suspect Bryan Kohberger awaits trial.

Kohberger is accused of killing Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, in an off-campus home in the town of Moscow in November 2022.

In Touch obtained the newly unsealed docs including the texts shared between surviving roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke.

Text Messages Are Released Ahead of Bryan Kohberger’s Trial Date in August 2025

Mortensen and Funke, who were identified via their initials in the docs unsealed on March 6, 2025, expressed their concern when their four roommates stopped responding to messages and calls.

“No one is answering,” Mortensen texted Funke at 4:22 a.m. on November 13, 2022. “I’m rlly confused rn.”

The duo were writing about an alleged masked man dressed in black in their house during an exchange that took place nearly eight hours before the roommates called authorities to report Kernodle unconscious.

Mortensen said she spotted a man wearing what appeared to be a “ski mask.”

“Like he had soemtbinf [sic] over is for head and little nd mouth,” she continued, adding, “I’m not kidding [I] am so freaked out.”

Funke replied, “Come to my room. Run. Down here.”

According to the docs, “This is supported by [Mortensen]’s grand jury testimony where she indicates she just witnessed a startling event (i.e. heard noises in residence and saw an unknown male in the residence).”

Mogen was brutally stabbed alongside Goncalves in an upstairs room of the six-bedroom house. Police also found a knife sheath under her body that had DNA that led police to name Kohberger as a suspect.

One floor down were the remains of Kernodle and her boyfriend, Chapin, who were also viciously stabbed to death.

Idaho Police Found a 3-Person Mixture of DNA Underneath Victim Madison Mogen’s Fingernails

The newly released text messages made headlines after it was revealed that Idaho investigators discovered DNA evidence from three individuals under Mogen’s fingernails, which was mentioned in a motion unsealed and reported on by E! News on March 4, 2025.

“Mr. Kohberger’s inconclusive [likelihood ratio] is similar to almost every other person for whom an LR was generated and focusing on his ‘inconclusive’ LR would mislead the jury in that it implies that the LR means that Mr. Kohberger’s DNA might be present in the sample,” said defense attorney Bicka Barlow, who is now representing the defendant.

Kohberger’s defense team argued that the evidence should be excluded from his death penalty trial.

“Allowing such testimony would violate Mr. Kohberger’s Federal and State Constitutional rights to due process, a fair trial, effective assistance of counsel, and confrontation of witnesses,” Barlow argued.

Bryan Kohberger’s Alibi Is That He Was Stargazing While Out Driving Late That Night

A judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf in May 2023 after the criminology student “stood silent” at his arraignment.

Lawyers for Kohberger recently said that their client allegedly having autism means he should not face the possibility of the death penalty if convicted in Idaho, where they reinstated execution by firing squad in 2023.

Prosecutors believe their smoking gun is not only the knife sheath, but also that Kohberger’s car is similar to one captured in CCTV footage. Furthermore, cell phone records placed him in the vicinity of the victims’ house before and after the quadruple murders.

“Mr. Kohberger was out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars,” his lawyers claimed in court docs. “He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho including Wawawai Park.”

The trial is set to begin in Boise, Idaho, on August 11, 2025.