Police share chilling body cam video after murders of four University of Idaho students
Police have shared harrowing new video of the moment an officer found the bodies of four university students who were brutally stabbed to death.
Police have shared new footage showing the chilling moment they found the bodies of four university students stabbed to death at an off-campus residence.
In November 2022, the United States was rocked when Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were found dead at a property in the town of Moscow, Idaho.
It would be almost two months later before they found the killer, Bryan Kohberger, a criminology PhD student at Washington State University.
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The new footage released by Moscow Police showed the first officer arrive at the scene with the victims’ housemates, who earlier called for help, standing outside.
The policeman walked up the stairs where a few cans of drinks were scattered.
Once at the top, red cups, commonly used to drink alcohol from, were seen on the floor, and a table had been set up to play beer pong.
Seconds later, the officer finds the first of four bodies.
“Slow down,” he said to a colleague while informing him of the grim discovery.
They return to the patrol car to get crime scene tape to seal the area off.
The housemates are then moved away from the house to a nearby dumpster.
An officer is then seen speaking to one of the two survivors, Dylan Mortesnen, wrapped in a blanket as she relayed what she saw hours earlier.
She had heard Ms Goncalves go up to the third floor with her dog.
“That’s when I’m pretty sure (Ms Goncalves) said ‘someone’s here’. And she screamed and just ran downstairs,” Ms Mortensen said through tears.
“I just overheard this guy’s voice I didn’t recognise say, ‘You’re gonna be OK, I’m going to help you’. I don’t know how to explain it.
“Like it wasn’t a nice way. It was like a weird way, like a weird tone.”
Police believe it was Mr Kernodle who uttered those remarks.
Ms Mortensen was horrified at the unfolding situation and locked her bedroom door before calling out for Ms Goncalves after believing she heard her friend crying.
It is at this point she opened the door and spotted who she now knows was the killer.
“I saw the guy pass by. He looked at me, but didn’t come towards me or say anything. Which was really confusing,” she continued to tell the policeman.
“I’m almost positive he was wearing a full black outfit and he had this mask that was just over his forehead and over his mouth.”
Ms Mortensen then scrambled downstairs to another roommate, Bethany Funke, who had been answering her texts and spotted Ms Kernodle on the floor, assuming she was “sleeping”.
The two fell asleep convinced it was not as sinister as what they heard and saw, telling police previously that people were always coming in and out of the house.
Ms Goncalves - stabbed 30 times - and Ms Mogen were found dead in the latter’s room.
Police suspect Ms Kernodle then interrupted Kohberger, who lashed out and stabbed the college student more than 50 times.
Mr Chapin’s body was found in his girlfriend’s bed.
By the morning, four of their friends were dead.
Ms Mortensen and Ms Funke called out to their friends but there was no response.
Too scared to check, they rang two friends, Ms Mortensen told the officer.
A male pal went inside the house and made the horror find, telling them to go outside and to quickly call 911.
One report said the horror attack on the group may have lasted as little as two minutes.
Kohberger went on the run for weeks and was arrested on December 30, 2020, at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania.
Despite wanting to be exonerated, he admitted to killing the four young students at a plea hearing and was spared from the death penalty.
Kohberger is serving four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus 10 years for one count of burglary at Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
