Idaho Slain grad's roommates named professor on 911 call

By Jessie L. Bonner Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- In the immediate aftermath of a brutal killing on their back porch, the roommates of a slain Idaho graduate student told a 911 operator that they could think of only one person who could have fired the fatal shots -- a university professor whom their friend had recently dated. Meghan Walker-Smith and Emma Gregory were heard on the 911 recording released last week telling a dispatcher that Katy Benoit had been involved with a University of Idaho professor named Ernesto Bustamante, who police say alternately referred to himself as a "psychopathic killer" and "the beast." Benoit's roommates told the dispatcher Bustamante had just been asked to leave the school. The operator asked the two, who could both be heard speaking on the call, whether Bustamante's departure was because of Benoit, one roommate replied, "Yeah." "He just got asked to leave the university," she said. "That's why I'm assuming this would happen." Bustamante, 31, committed suicide in a hotel room shortly after shooting Benoit, 22, multiple times outside her Moscow home late Monday, according to authorities. Benoit's roommates told police they had been baking cookies that night when she stepped outside for a cigarette and about two minutes later, they heard gunfire. During the 911 call, the roommates told the dispatcher they fled the home after finding Benoit covered in blood. The 911 dispatcher asked whether the women knew anyone who would want to shoot Benoit, one roommate said Bustamante. "That's the only person I know of," she said. A neighbor, Lorne Hetsler, later told police he also heard the shots and saw a man, whom authorities later identified as Bustamante, leaving the home in a dark trench coat and hat. Court documents released earlier this week offered details into the relationship between Bustamante and Benoit, including violent encounters described by friends and roommates in a police affidavit. Benoit's roommates told police her romance with Bustamante ended in March and after the breakup Benoit said Bustamante had pointed a handgun at her on multiple occasions -- and at one point had put a gun in her mouth. Benoit filed a complaint with the university in June and Bustamante was either fired or forced to resign as a result, her roommates told police. Their frantic 911 call was first obtained by KREM-TV. The university hired Bustamante in 2007 and he was an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Communication. Published: Mon, Aug 29, 2011