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Former roommate of University of Idaho murder victims reveals final message to friend

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Former roommate of University of Idaho murder victims reveals final message to friend


Featured Image Credit: KXLY

Ashlin Couch has admitted the murders impacted her for months afterwards

A former roommate of the University of Idaho students who were murdered in their college house has shared the last text she sent to one of the victims.

The house

Ashlin Couch moved in to the off-campus house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho in 2020, joining Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves as they settled in to student life.

Couch ultimately moved out in May 2022, with no idea that just a few months later her former roommates and two other students would be killed in the place she’d called home.

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The murder

Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were identified alongside Mogen and Goncalves as the victims of the murder that took place in November 2022, when they were found dead in their upstairs bedrooms after a night out.

Kernodle and Chapin were found dead in the same room that Couch had lived in just six months earlier.

Couch herself had graduated by that time, but she kept in touch with her former roommates and was made aware that there was something wrong when she got a text from the University of Idaho alerting her to a suspected homicide.

The student house has since been demolished. (KXLY/ABC News)

The student house has since been demolished. (KXLY/ABC News)

The final text

After receiving the message, Couch sent a message in a group chat with her former roommates, asking if anyone had ‘heard from Maddie?’

In an interview with Good Morning America, she recalled one final message she sent to Mogan.

“And I remember, like my last text message to her was like, are you OK?” she said. “And, I feel like right then and there, I kind of just knew that something was wrong.”

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Looking back, Couch expressed her wish that she’d had the chance to say a proper goodbye to her roommates.

“That’s one thing that I just wish that I could do at least one more time,” she said. “Like, you know, just give her one last hug. Just to be able to say goodbye.”

“It crosses my mind more that that could’ve happened while I was there,” Couch added. “And, you know, you never know, like how long someone is watching your house.”

Ashlin Couch moved out just a few months before the murders. (KXLY/ABC News)

Ashlin Couch moved out just a few months before the murders. (KXLY/ABC News)

The arrest

The month after the murders, police arrested Washington State University graduate student Bryan Kohberger and charged him with first-degree murder and burglary.

However, the impacts of the murders stayed with Couch for long after Kohberger was arrested.

“I couldn’t even walk to my car in the dark for months after it happened, like you just want to at least feel a little bit safer,” she recalled.

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In May 2023, a judge entered a plea of not guilty for Kohberger, whose lawyers have claimed he was 40 minutes away when the murders took place. He is currently in jail awaiting trial.

Police arrested Bryan Kohberger in relation to the killings. (Ted S. Warren-Pool/Getty Images)

Police arrested Bryan Kohberger in relation to the killings. (Ted S. Warren-Pool/Getty Images)

The tribute

In honor of her friends who lost their lives, Couch has started the Made with Kindness Foundation, which helps to raise awareness and educate students on how to protect themselves at home.

Noting that the actions of others are out of our control, Couch said: “Horrible people are going to do what they’re going to do. It’s not anything that they could have done. They absolutely did nothing wrong.”

Topics: Crime, True crime, US News



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Idaho resolution opposing same-sex marriage advances

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Idaho resolution opposing same-sex marriage advances


For the second year in a row, House lawmakers will consider urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

The nonbinding resolution, which carries no legal weight, says the decision in Obergefel v. Hodges violates the longstanding religious definition of marriage between one man and one woman.

“The current definition of marriage that allows for same-sex marriages is a defilement of the word marriage,” said Rep. Tony Wisniewski (R-Post Falls), who sponsors the measure.

The resolution further states that the Obergefel decision “arbitrarily and unjustly” rejects the historical definition of marriage.

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Idaho voters passed a constitution amendment in 2006 that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, which was invalidated by the Obergefel ruling.

Wisniewski said regulating marriages should be a power left to the states.

Rep. Brent Crane (R-Nampa) agrees.

“If you want to get things … closer to the people with respect to some of these more complex social issues, I think the best place for those things to happen is in the states,” Crane said.

Doing so is a risk, he said.

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“You may have states that choose to acknowledge [polyamorous relationships]. You may have states that choose to have relationships between adults and younger children,” Crane said.

Cities in neighboring Oregon and Washington, for example, are considering giving those in polyamorous relationships legal recognition.

But he said that risk is worth it to allow other states that choose to only recognize traditional marriages.

Four lawmakers on the House State Affairs Committee opposed the resolution.

Rep. Erin Bingham (R-Idaho Falls) said she’s tried to balance her own religious beliefs with those of others while considering the measure.

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“I do feel like that it is important for us to work together, to find ways to compromise and to live together in peace and mutual respect,” Bingham said.

The resolution now goes to the House floor for consideration.

House lawmakers last year passed a similar measure, but it never received a hearing in a Senate committee.

Copyright 2026 Boise State Public Radio

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University of Idaho professor awarded $10M after TikTok tarot influencer claimed she ‘ordered’ quadruple murders

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University of Idaho professor awarded M after TikTok tarot influencer claimed she ‘ordered’ quadruple murders


A University of Idaho professor won a $10 million judgment after a tarot TikTok influencer publicly pushed false claims that she was behind the savage quadruple slayings of four college students.

A Boise jury in US District Court ordered fortune-telling Texas TikToker Ashley Guillard on Friday to pay $10 million after concluding she falsely accused professor Rebecca Scofield of having a secret romance with one of the four victims and orchestrating their killings, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Following the verdict, Scofield thanked the jury and said she hopes the case sends a clear warning that making “false statements online have consequences in the real world.”

Ashley Guillard posted TikTok videos falsely linking a University of Idaho professor to the Idaho college murders, leading to a defamation lawsuit. TikTok/ashleyisinthebookoflife4

“The murders of the four students on November 13, 2022, were the darkest chapter in our university’s history,” Scofield told Fox News.

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“Today’s decision shows that respect and care should always be granted to victims during these tragedies. I am hopeful that this difficult chapter in my life is over, and I can return to a more normal life with my family and the wonderful Moscow community.”

Scofield, the university’s history department chair, filed the lawsuit in December 2022 — just weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were brutally stabbed to death at an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.

Guillard began uploading videos to her more than 100,000 TikTok followers in late November 2022, accusing Scofield of a secret relationship with one of the students and claiming she had “ordered” the killings, garnering millions of views across the social media platform.

The complaint states that Scofield had never met the victims and was out of state when the murders occurred.

Idaho murder victims Madison Mogen, 21, top left, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, bottom left, Ethan Chapin, 20, center, and Xana Kernodle, 20, right, and their two surviving roommates.

Even after being served with cease-and-desist letters and after police publicly confirmed Scofield had no connection to the murders, the Houston-based tarot reader continued posting videos, the history professor’s legal team argued.

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Guillard doubled down on her accusations against Scofield after being sued, posting a defiant video saying, “I am not stopping,” and challenging why Scofield needed three lawyers to sue her “if she’s so innocent.”

The professor’s legal team argued the defamatory accusations painted her as a criminal and accused her of professional misconduct that could derail her career.

Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to the savage slayings in July 2025 in a plea deal that took the death penalty off the table. AP

Bryan Kohberger, then studying criminology at Washington State University, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the quadruple murders in a deal that took the death penalty off the table. He is currently serving four consecutive life sentences in Idaho.

In June 2024, Chief US Magistrate Judge Raymond Patricco found Guillard’s statements legally defamatory, leaving damages to be decided by a jury.

During the damages trial, Scofield described the anguish of seeing her name tied to the murders online, the Idaho Statesman reported.

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The off-campus home where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death on Nov. 17, 2022, in Moscow, Idaho. James Keivom

However, Guillard, acting as her own attorney, insisted her comments were simply beliefs based on tarot card readings.

She claimed to have psychic powers and testified that she relied on tarot cards to try to solve the shocking homicides that shook the rural college town and sparked global attention.

It took jurors less than two hours to return their verdict, the outlet reported.

The jury awarded Scofield $7.5 million in punitive damages in addition to $2.5 million in compensatory damages.

With Post wires

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Gas prices expected to exceed $3 as the Iran conflict prompts supply shortages

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Gas prices expected to exceed  as the Iran conflict prompts supply shortages


BOISE, Idaho — AAA is warning Idaho gas consumers that pump prices will likely rise as the conflict in Iran disrupts oil and gas supply chains worldwide.

The ongoing turmoil in the Middle East will likely push the price for a gallon of regular gasoline past the $3 mark over the coming days.

“On one hand, the crude oil market had time to account for some financial risk in the Middle East as forces mobilized, but a supply shortage somewhere affects the global picture,” says AAA Idaho public affairs director Matthew Conde. “If tankers can’t move products through the region, there could be ripple effects.”

On Monday, March 2, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $2.97, reports AAA, which is 12 cents more expensive than it was a month ago but 20 cents less than this time last year.

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State / Price: 1 gallon of regular gasoline

  • Washington / $4.37
  • Oregon / $3.92
  • Nevada / $3.70
  • Idaho / $2.97
  • Colorado / $2.89
  • Montana / $2.82
  • Utah / $2.74
  • Wyoming / $2.73

In terms of the most expensive fuel in the nation, Idaho currently ranks #14. However, buying a gallon of regular gas in neighboring states such as Oregon and Washington could cost a whole dollar more. In contrast, gas prices in Utah, Montana, and Wyoming are anywhere between 15 to 24 cents cheaper than fuel in the Gem State.





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