Mom whose daughter lived with Idaho murder victims interviewed by ‘Dateline’

Angela Navejas’ daughter, Ashlin Couch, was planning to hang out with friends and former roomates at the University of Idaho on the night of Nov. 12, 2022. 

But then her mom asked her to stay home to watch the family dogs — a request that most likely saved Couch’s life.

Couch formerly lived at the large, off-campus house where four University of Idaho students were brutally murdered at 1122 King Road in the small community of Moscow, Idaho. 

Four students were stabbed to death in the early hours of Nov. 13: Madison “Maddie” Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20. 

“They were so fun, and just beautiful and kind,” Navejas said in the May 9 episode of “Dateline,” in an episode entitled, “The Terrible Night on King Road.”

Najevas said her daughter and one of the victims, Mogen, had been best friends. They grew up together in Coeur D’Alene, a town north of Moscow.

“They had coffee together, they did yoga together. They walked to class together,” Navejas said. “When the girls would get bored in Moscow, they would come and stay with us, and my husband, he’s like, ‘Oh no, those sorority girls are coming this weekend, better watch out.’”

Couch had recently graduated and moved back home to her parents’ house to save money, her mom said.

She had planned to head to Moscow to hang out with her former roommates on Nov. 12, but when her parents were delayed returning home from a trip, they asked Couch to stay in Coeur D’Alene one extra day to watch their dogs. 

“She was bummed because it was a big game day,” Navejas recalled.

Not long after, Couch and her mom heard the unthinkable news: Mogen and three others had been killed in a quadruple homicide.

“It was a pain inside … you can’t really explain how your body’s feeling,” Najevas said. “It was just like my house stopped, just stopped for months.”

Najevas said she didn’t process “right away” that her daughter could have been in the King Road house that night. 

“All I could think about was the kids,” she said. 

She added that her daughter “just cried in her bed” when she heard the news.

“She didn’t want to talk about it,” Navejas said. “We just cried together for a long time.”

Couch was so rattled by the incident that she moved away from the area, her mom said.

“She just needed to get away and regroup. She wanted to go somewhere where nobody knew who she was, didn’t ask questions, she could make new friends, start a new life,” Navejas said.

Couch was not interviewed for the “Dateline” episode.

Navejas added that her daughter is “not the same” since the murders, and she is “not sure” when she will feel comfortable enough to come back home. 

“Once the trial is over, I think that that’s really when you’re going to be able to start grieving the right way,” she said.

Bryan Kohberger, a former doctoral student in criminal justice at Washington State University, has been charged in the killings and faces four counts of first-degree murder. Kohberger has pleaded not guilty.

His trial is set to begin in August in Boise, Idaho. If Kohberger is convicted, prosecutors can pursue the death penalty, a judge ruled last month.

Navejas says “there’s nothing that will ever take” the pain away from the murders, but hopes that her daughter and other grieving students will find a way to move forward in time.

“Maybe after the trial they’ll have more better days than bad days,” she said. 

In 2024, Navejas and Couch launched The Made With Kindness Foundation, a non-profit organization created in the memory of Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle. 

The foundation’s mission is to create college scholarship opportunities and to offer workshops and training related to on-campus safety and security. 

“We just decided that we wanted to start something to be able to remember and honor the girls and how they were — their optimism, empowerment, confidence,” Navejas said during a visit to TODAY in December.

Karen Laramie, the mother of slain student Maddie Mogen, appeared alongside Navejas on TODAY and spoke of her late daughter’s kind spirit.

She also showed a sentimental piece of jewelry her daughter once gave her.

“So it’s a two-piece ring, and my half, I think, says, ‘You are my sunshine,’ and hers said, ‘My only sunshine,’” Laramie said. 

The parents of Ethan Chapin also created a foundation, Ethan’s Smile, in their son’s honor, which provides scholarships.

The new “Dateline” episode exploring the Idaho student murders will air at 9 p.m. ET/ 8p.m. CT on NBC.