A roommate who survived the fatal attack on University of Idaho students came face to face with alleged killer Bryan Kolberger just moments after he slaughtered her friends as they slept in their beds, according to police. Dylan Mortensen, 21, saw the suspect exit the house after one of the victims was heard crying while another was dying.
According to the police affidavit, Mortensen assumed that the sound was of her roommate, Kaylee Goncalves, playing with her dog upstairs. However, she later heard one of her friends crying, which she believes was that of Xana Kernodle, and peeked out of her room a second time when she heard a male voice.
Face-to-Face With the Killer
According to the police affidavit, Mortensen saw the culprit, who was masked and wearing all-black clothing, leave the residence after she heard one victim crying and another said, “There’s someone here.”
Mortensen said she was sleeping and heard a little noise and opened her bedroom door around 4 am. Mortensen, however, saw nothing when she peered out of her bedroom window. Shortly after, she heard crying coming from her other roommate, Xana Kernodle’s, bedroom, so she took another look outside her door.
“It’s OK, I’m going to help you,” Mortensen told authorities she heard a male voice say.
The third time Mortensen opened her bedroom door to a far more terrifying sight. This time, she saw the killer. “[Mortensen] saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” a police affidavit reads.
“Mortensen described the figure as 5â² 10â³ or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows. The male walked past [her] as she stood in a ‘frozen shock phase.’
“The male walked towards the back sliding glass door. Mortensen locked herself in her room after seeing the male.”
After investigating the disturbances, Mortensen, who still wasn’t aware that the murders had taken place, was confronted by the suspect, according to the recently disclosed document, which refers to Mortensen as DM.
Moments earlier, the mysterious killer, who police suspect to be Kohberger, had allegedly stabbed to death Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21. Bethany Funke, a 21-year-old roommate, was unharmed in the November 13 attack.
Shocked and Puzzled
Police “believe the homicides occurred between 4:00 a.m. and 4:25 a.m.,” the affidavit states. A neighbor’s security camera captured sounds of “what sounded like voices or a whimper followed by a loud thud” around 4.17 in the morning. There are also repeated barks from a dog.
Although Mortensen’s encounter with the killer and the murders took place about 4 a.m., it is still unclear why police weren’t contacted until lunchtime, or nearly eight hours later.
One of the surviving roommatesâwhose identity has not been made publicâcalled 911, at 11:58 am, according to information shared by the police more than a week after the horrific murders. Cops claimed that call, which was made from one of the roommates’ phones but is not referenced in the affidavit, involved “multiple people” speaking to the dispatcher.
The affidavit also describes how authorities connected the killings to Kohberger, a PhD student in criminal justice who lived in Pullman, Washington, the nearby town, and whose DNA was found at the crime scene. On Thursday, he appeared in court in Idaho to be charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
The six people, who were all close college friends, were all inside the three-story home at 1122 King Road in Moscow by 2 am on November 13, according to the police report. A little over two hours later, the murderer struck.
Mortensen, who lived on the first floor, claimed that shortly after 4 a.m., she was startled out of her sleep by what she believed to be Goncalves saying, “There’s someone here.”
At that point, according to police, the murderer fled the bloody crime scene, and surveillance footage from surrounding homes showed a vehicle that matched Kohberger’s leaving the area.
Both surviving roommates were swiftly ruled out as suspects shortly after the horrifying murders and assisted with the investigation, according to authorities.
The two broke their silence at a memorial service in early December by reading letters in which they discussed their recollections of the “four beautiful people.”
Kohberger was denied bail on Thursday during a brief court appearance in Moscow. He will return to court on January 12 for a status hearing.
