Final Hours of Univ. of Idaho Stabbing Victims Detailed as Judge Denies Attempt by Bryan Kohberger to Silence Survivors

The judge in Bryan Kohberger’s murder trial is revealing new details about the final hours of the four University of Idaho students who were stabbed to death in a new court order.

Those new details come from the testimony and text messages of the two surviving roommates, who were with victims Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022.

Those texts and testimony reveal that the four girls almost went back out again that night just two hours before a masked intruder broke into their home and stabbed four people to death.

That night, the four girls “met up in Kaylee’s bedroom and talked for a while before going to bed,” according to an order by Judge Steven Hippler on whether to allow the survivors’ text messages and 911 call into evidence.

This was at around 2 a.m., and the order notes that the their fifth roommate Xana Kernodle was still out with her boyfriend Ethan Chapin.

At one point that night, the four roommates even talked about going back out, a decision that might have drastically changed the events of that evening.

“The roommates debated going out to a food truck for a late snack, prompting D.M. to send text at 2:10 a.m. to an Uber driver she knew to see if he was driving,” the order reads. “Ultimately, however, the girls decided to just go to bed.”

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.   

D.M., one of the surviving roommates, then “heard strange noises and crying coming from the bathroom” at around 4 a.m. When she went to investigate, she saw a person “dressed in black with a ski mask on walking by her bedroom door.”

At that point she texted all four roommates but only B.F., the other surviving roommate, responded, according to the affidavit.

D.M. and B.F. both discussed how “freaked out” they were about what D.M. saw and the lack of response from their other three roommates,

At around 4:26 a.m., D.M. decided to join B.F. in her bedroom, and while quickly rushing to get downstairs unknowingly saw Kernodle’s dead body, according to the order.

“On her way, [D.M.] noticed Xana lying on the floor of her bedroom, with her head towards the wall and her feet toward to the door,” the order says. “D.M. thought Xana was drunk.”

The two girls then locked themselves in B.F.’s room and spent the next eight hours trying to get in touch with the victims.

These details were included in a court order that largely granted a request by prosecutors to present the text exchanges between the surviving roommates, testimony about their conversations with each other about what D.M. saw and the 911 call made at noon that day.

Kohberger and his defense team filed a response to the initial motion asking the judge to block all the evidence from being admitted at trial.

The judge did rule that select portions of the texts, testimony and 911 call were hearsay and could not be admitted during trial.

Kohberger is accused of murdering Mogen, 21; Goncalves, 21; Kernodle, 20; and Chapin, 20 on Nov. 13, 2022. The four were found stabbed to death inside the home that Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle shared with the two surviving roommates, D.M. and B.F.

The probable cause affidavit alleges that authorities linked Kohberger to the killings after finding traces of his DNA on a knife sheath, as well as tracing the location of his cell phone and obtaining surveillance footage that showed a car which appeared to be the same make and model as his driving to and from the scene of the crime.

In a motion laying out his alibi, Kohberger’s lawyer, Anne Taylor, said the suspect was out driving by himself on the night of the murders but that he did not kill the four victims.

Kohberger’s murder trial is set to get underway Aug. 11 in Ada County after the defense successfully petitioned for a change of venue in the case. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

Kohberger told the public defender who represented him after his arrest in Pennsylvania that he expects to be exonerated at trial. He declined to enter a plea in court when the judge formally charged him with four counts of murder, at which time a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.

Latah County Prosecutor William Thompson and Kohberger’s attorney Anne Taylor, who are prohibited from making extrajudicial statements about the case under a non-dissemination order filed just days after Kohberger’s arrest, did not respond to requests for comment.