More than a year after her friends and former roommates were killed at an off-campus house in Idaho, Ashlin Couch said she wishes she could say a proper goodbye.
Couch had lived until May 2022 in the sixth bedroom of an off-campus house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho. Four University of Idaho students were killed in the house months later in November 2022.
“It occurs to me more that this could have happened while I was there,” Couch said in an interview on “Good Morning America” Wednesday. “And, you know, you never know, like how long someone is watching your house.”
Ashlin Couch, who lived in the home on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, until May 2022, speaks with ABC News affiliate KXLY.
KXLY
In December 2022, police arrested Bryan Kohberger, a graduate student at Washington State University, and later charged him with first-degree murder and burglary. A judge entered a not guilty plea for Kohberger in May 2023.
Couch had moved out months after graduating in December 2021, but had stayed in touch with her former roommates, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, she said. Both were killed in the house, along with 20-year-old Xana Kernodle and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, in November 2022.
Couch remembers receiving a text message from the University of Idaho alerting him of a suspected homicide on King Road. She remembers texting with her former roommates about it, she said, asking if anyone had “any news about Maddie?”
“And I remember, like my last text message to him was like, are you okay?” » said Couch. “And I feel like at that moment I kind of knew something was wrong.”
In this December 22, 2022 file photo, the crime scene where four University of Idaho students were found dead is seen on King Road in Moscow, Idaho.
Angela Palermo/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images, FILE
The three-story house where she lived with her friends was demolished in December 2023.
The murders often preoccupied her, and more than a year later she still had difficulty walking to her car in the dark, she said.
But she also wished she could say goodbye to her friends.
“And that’s something I wish I could do at least one more time,” she said. “Like, you know, just give him one last hug. Just so you can say goodbye.”
ABC News’ Emily Shapiro, Sasha Pezenik and Kayna Whitworth contributed to this report.
ABC News
