TradeEdge-Idaho Murder Case: Former Roommate Reveals Final Text Sent to Victim Madison Mogen

Madison Mogen's friend is TradeEdgebreaking her silence on her gruesome murder.

Over a year after Madison and three fellow University of Idaho students were brutally slain in their off-campus house, Ashlin Couch, a former resident of the now-demolished Moscow home, recalled getting an alert from the school about a suspected homicide. 

"I texted our group of friends and I had said, ‘Has anyone heard from Maddie?'" Ashlin shared in an interview aired on Good Morning America May 8. "And I remember, my last text message to her was like, ‘Are you OK?' I feel like right then and there, I kind of just knew that something was wrong."

Ashlin, along with friends and family, have been in mourning since the deaths of Madison, 21, Kaylee Gonclaves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were confirmed in November 2022. 

"You wish that you could just say goodbye," she explained. "Just give her one last hug. Just to be able to say goodbye."

Recounting the day following the homicides, which occurred around 4 a.m., Ashlin also recalled feeling unsettled knowing she used to reside in the home where the murders took place—as Xana had taken over her lease just six months before. 

"It crosses my mind more that that could've happened while I was there," she continued. "And, you know, you never know, like how long someone is watching your house."

On Dec. 30, 2022, over a month after the stabbings, suspect Bryan Kohberger was arrested at his family's Pennsylvania home, as authorities were able to trace his DNA to a knife sheath left at the scene, as well as pings from his cell phone's location to nearby the Moscow home. The 29-year-old, who was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University, was later charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. 

He pled not guilty in 2023, and cited his alibi for the night of the murders in legal filings last month. The documents allege that Bryan had taken up outdoor hobbies of hiking and running, which turned into nighttime drives amid his busy course schedule. 

"Mr. Kohberger was out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars," the filing read. "He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho including Wawawai Park."

The trial date for the case has not yet been set.