Idaho Stabbing Victims’ Roommate Deserves Empathy, Defenders Say

This seven-and-a-half-hour gap and other details provided by the roommate — that she’d been awakened and had opened her door three times to check on noises she’d heard, including her roommate crying — are undeniably strange. People on social media pounced. Hundreds, if not thousands, of TikTokers, YouTubers, redditors, and Facebook and Twitter users responded with shocking vitriol, calling her behavior “suspicious” and accusing her of somehow being complicit in her roommates’ deaths because she did not immediately check on them or call for help.

It was just the latest round of hate that she and another surviving roommate have experienced. Before Kohberger’s arrest, while no suspect had been publicly identified, the roommates had been subjected to repeated harassment and doxxing by people who said they killed their friends. Moscow police said they had been cleared of suspicion — then repeated that message multiple times as the harassment continued.

The wave of criticism based on the newly released affidavit has been compounded by inaccurate claims that the roommate, identified as DM, ignored screams (not mentioned in the affidavit) or was posting on social media during the time of the killings. This was also debunked by at least one TikToker who pointed out that the pictures she posted at 12:33 a.m. Pacific Time had a 3:33 a.m. timestamp for people in Eastern Time — still earlier than the time of the killings.

It also hasn’t helped that “enhanced” audio purporting to be from a neighbor’s security camera is spreading like wildfire on social media platforms. It’s a terrifying listen — but it is fake. It’s based on original audio of a domestic violence incident, which a user posted as an example of what an outside camera can pick up.

But others are pushing back on the cruel comments, faulty information, and Monday-morning quarterbacking. “Imagine being more scrutinous and angry at a college girl who survived a psychopath in her home killing her friends and roommates, than the actual psychopath who killed her friends and roommates,” one person tweeted.