Accused Malibu ‘killer’ Fraser Bohm begged to call his mother and ‘wanted to go home’ after learning horror car crash killed four Pepperdine sorority sisters
Newly obtained court documents reveal that Fraser Bohm, accused of causing a horrific October 2023 crash in Malibu that killed four Pepperdine University sorority sisters, repeatedly asked police if he could call his mother and said he wanted to go home after learning the women may have died. Instead, officers detained and questioned him for hours about the circumstances of the crash before he was read his Miranda rights, and his defence team is now trying to get those pre-Miranda statements thrown out ahead of his upcoming murder trial.
Bohm, now 24, faces four counts of second-degree murder and four of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence over the deaths of Niamh Rolston, 20, Asha Weir, 21, Peyton Stewart, 21, and Deslyn Williams, 21, who were struck while walking after his BMW slammed into parked vehicles on Pacific Coast Highway. Prosecutors say the car's black box showed Bohm accelerating from 93mph to 104mph just seconds before the crash, in a 45mph zone, while a witness testified he had been driving "like a bat out of hell" at 70-80mph beforehand. Judge Thomas Rubinson is due to rule on whether jurors can hear Bohm's roughly six hours of body-camera-recorded comments and answers to police, given they were made before he was formally cautioned.
- Fraser Bohm begged to call his mother after fatal Malibu crash
- Crash killed four Pepperdine sorority sisters in October 2023
- Judge to rule on admissibility of his pre-Miranda police statements
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Fraser Bohm, now 24, is accused over a crash on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu in October 2023 that killed four young women, all students at Pepperdine University and members of the same sorority: Niamh Rolston, Asha Weir, Peyton Stewart and Deslyn Williams. They were walking when Bohm's BMW hit parked cars, and prosecutors allege he had been driving at extremely high speed shortly beforehand. He is charged with second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter and is awaiting trial.
A key legal question in the case is what Bohm said to police in the hours after the crash, before he was formally cautioned with his Miranda rights (a US legal requirement that tells a suspect they can stay silent and have a lawyer). His lawyers argue that anything he said before that caution should not be allowed as evidence, while prosecutors want it included. A judge, Thomas Rubinson, will decide whether jurors get to hear those recorded exchanges.
This dispute matters because it could shape what evidence is available to the jury when the case goes to trial, and because the crash caused significant public attention given the number of young victims and the university community affected.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Advocates for suppressing the pre-Miranda statements argue that constitutional safeguards exist precisely for moments like this: if Bohm was effectively in police custody and not free to leave, he was entitled to be cautioned before extended questioning, regardless of how sympathetic or clear-cut the case against him may appear. They would say that upholding this principle protects everyone's rights, including the wrongly accused, and that allowing convenient shortcuts around Miranda in emotionally charged cases erodes a safeguard that only matters when it is inconvenient to apply.
The case against
Those who favour admitting the statements argue that Miranda protections apply only to formal custodial interrogation, and that if Bohm was not under arrest or formally detained during those hours, officers were entitled to ask questions as part of a standard crash investigation. They would emphasise that juries deserve to hear all relevant, voluntarily given evidence when weighing such serious charges, and that excluding lengthy, spontaneously offered remarks on a technicality risks obstructing a full and fair reckoning with what happened to four young women, for the families seeking accountability.