EXCLUSIVE She was supposed to be in Idaho murders house that awful night...until bizarre twist of fate saved her

Daily Mail​

10-05-2025

A woman who lived in the infamous Idaho murders house was likely saved from being slaughtered alongside four of her friends by a hurricane.
Ashlin Couch was the sixth roommate on the lease at 1122 King Road in Moscow.
She had been due to be there in the early hours of November 13 2022, when Kaylee Goncalves, Madison 'Maddie' Mogen, Xana Kernole and Ethan Chapin were all brutally-slaughtered.
Those plans were derailed because Couch's mother Angela Navejas, of Coeur D'Alene in Idaho, had been trapped in Florida by Hurricane Nicole.
That meant Couch had to stay home to care for the dogs.
She ended up missing a big campus football game that was a huge social event.
Had she attended, she'd almost certainly have been sharing a bed with close friend Mogen, who met a terrible end as she slept, with suspect Bryan Kohberger soon to stand trial for the murders.
'Ashlin was supposed to be there that night,' her mom Angela Navejas tells DailyMail.com.
'You know college girls - they'd just stay together half the time… they'd split like a twin bed or something. They'd go out for the night, they'd eat their little snacks and then go to sleep,' she says.
'Ashlin would stay with Maddie in Maddie's room with her. And she was supposed to be there [that night].'
The friends attended school together but grew even closer after deciding to study at the University of Idaho and joining its Pi Beta Phi sorority.
Najevas explained: 'They shared a very small room together, and they just bonded,' Navejas says.
'It was like an instant friendship, and after that, they were inseparable. They did yoga together, they studied together, they would walk to class together… that was Ashlin's person, her best friend.'
Couch also became good friends with Goncalves and Kernodle and, through her daughter, Navejas grew close to the young women too.
She remembers they would often all come to stay at her family home in Coeur D'Alene when they wanted a few days away from the college town.
In 2021, Couch and Mogen signed the lease for the three-story house at 1122 King Road with four other friends and moved in together.
But Couch ended up graduating early and moved out in the summer of 2022, with Kernodle taking over her room.
It was around this time that two other roommates called Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke also moved in. Both were at home the night of the murders but survived.
Despite moving home to Coeur D'Alene, Couch would often return to Moscow to spend weekends with her friends.
On November 13, 2022 - the morning after the big game - Couch started getting messages from friends that something bad had taken place through the night at 1122 King Road.
Soon, the horrifying details emerged: Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle and Chapin had been stabbed to death inside the home.
Mogen and Goncalves were both found dead in Mogen's bed in her room on the third floor - a room that Couch could also have been staying in.
Navejas remembers her daughter 'froze' when she learned her friends had been murdered.
'She just laid in bed and just cried and cried and wouldn't stop crying,' she says.
Bryan Kohberger goes on trial this August charged with the murders of the four students
To this day, Couch doesn't talk about how that night could have turned out very differently had her plans not changed and isn't ready to share her story herself.
'To be honest, she doesn't think about [the fact she could have been there] and she doesn't talk about it… She's grieving in a different way,' Navejas says.
But, as her mom, Navejas often thinks about how close her daughter could have come to meeting a terrible end.
'I honestly didn't even think about it when it happened. I think all I could think about was the girls, because they were like daughters to me. It wasn't just a tragedy that happened, we lost a part of our family,' she says.
'But as the years have gone by, I do think about that. And sometimes I feel guilty thinking about that because I still have my daughter and their families don't.'
Couch has since moved away from the area for a new start.
'It was her and Maddie's plan to move to San Diego together,' her mom says.
'So she decided to move to San Diego because she wanted to live her dreams for her best friend.'
Following the murders, the mom and daughter also launched the Made With Kindness Foundation in memory of their friends.
Kaitlyn Widmyer, creative director of the foundation who employed Mogen at her fashion business, tells DailyMail.com that the non-profit is about 'honoring their womanhood and their coming of age tale that they deserve to be safe and graduate college.'
As well as honoring Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle, the organization focuses on protecting young women and promoting safety for women on college campuses.
The foundation also runs scholarship programs and four signature events: the Make It Pink Gala, Maddie May Day, Kaylee Jade Day and XanaPalooza.
The gala is being held June 13 on Lake Coeur d'Alene.