911 call released after 4 college students were brutally murdered on college accommodation
John Nick
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were found brutally killed in their off-campus residence while two of their roommates were unharmed.
Following an investigation, Kohberger was arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
The suspect pleaded not guilty ahead of his trial, which is set to begin in August in Boise, Idaho.
Two surviving housemates, who were unharmed, made the shocking 911 call in the early hours of that morning.
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Now, for the first time, the recording has been made public after being obtained by KXLY Spokane and published by the New York Post.
"Hi… Something happened here, something happened in our house and we don’t know what," a frantic young woman tells the 911 dispatcher in the distressing audio.
Through sobs and panic, the caller tries to explain the unthinkable scene inside the home, saying: “One of the housemates is passed out… she’s not waking up.”
Then, another voice jumps in, delivering a terrifying detail: “And they saw some man in their house last night.”
As the call continues, the phone is passed between three to four people - believed to be the two surviving housemates, a female friend, and another male friend who rushed to the scene.
Their voices are shaking, confused, and desperate, forcing the dispatcher to repeatedly ask for their address and clarify details as they struggle to explain what they’ve found.
“I need to know right now if someone is passed out! Can you find that out?” the dispatcher urgently asks.
A young woman cries out in distress: “What’s wrong? She’s not waking up!”
Shortly after, a police officer arrives, and the call abruptly ends.
The haunting four-minute recording has now become key evidence in the case against Bryan Kohberger, 31, the PhD criminology student arrested in December 2022 for the killings.
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Prosecutors allege Kohberger entered the home just before 4:30 AM, murdered four students, and left two housemates alive.
The mention of a “man in the house” in the 911 call supports the earlier testimony of one of the surviving housemates, who told investigators she saw a man in a black mask with “bushy eyebrows” leaving through the back door that night.
Although the court had previously kept the 911 audio private, the defense fought to keep it out of the trial entirely, dismissing it as "hearsay."
The 911 call isn’t the only piece of evidence that Kohberger’s defense team has worked to keep from the jury.
In a series of suppression motions, defense attorneys have requested the court to disqualify: Security camera footage showing a car similar to Kohberger’s near the crime scene, DNA evidence found on a knife sheath left at the scene, and additional DNA samples discovered under a victim’s fingernails.
Kohberger’s lawyers have also pushed to ban the use of words like “murder,” “murder weapon,” “psychopath,” and “bushy eyebrows” during the trial, arguing that they could prejudice the jury.
Despite the release of the 911 call, Kaylee Goncalves’ father, Steve Goncalves, says it does little to bring him closure or understanding.
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“Your brain wants to gravitate to ‘make this make more sense,’” he told NewsNation.
“But the truth is, murder never makes sense. This is a psychopathic person who does something that breaks the norm.”
Hunter Johnson, a close friend of Ethan Chapin who was at the scene that morning, can also be heard on the 911 call searching the house.
“I talked to Hunter directly and it sucks, he had a broken soul,” Steve Goncalves said.
“This is a man who had seen his best friend dead. He was literally just responding to what he probably thought was a prank.
“Thinking his friend, his best buddy, had these girls rolling. He showed up there and he saw the opposite of a prank.”
