Why Idaho murders roommates waited so long to call 911 revealed in new Bryan Kohberger documents
Terrifying new details have emerged in the University of Idaho murders case, with a bombshell court order revealing how a surviving roommate says she saw one of the victim’s bodies minutes after coming face-to-face with the masked killer inside their home.
What survivors Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke saw and heard in the early hours of November 13, 2022, will play a central role in the looming trial of suspect Bryan Kohberger.
Kohberger is accused of killing their four roommates - Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin - in a stabbing frenzy in their shared student home.
Mortensen and Funke called 911 at around mid-day on November 13 - some eight hours after the killing spree.
Bombshell new court records reveal that Mortensen saw a man - who prosecutors say was Kohberger - walking past her bedroom door in the early hours of the morning, at around 4am.
She told investigators that she emerged from her room and saw Xana lying on the floor - presumably dead - but thought she was drunk and had passed out. Mortensen carried on towards Funke's room, and together they stayed there until daylight.
‘D.M. then exited her room and began running toward B.F.'s bedroom.
'On her way, she noticed Xana lying on the floor of her bedroom, with her head towards the wall and her feet toward to the door. D.M. thought Xana was drunk,’ the records state.
Around eight hours later, the roommates called 911 call after realizing their friends were dead.
New details about her terrifying ordeal and the events of that night were revealed in Judge Steven Hippler's court order Thursday, as he ruled that jurors will hear that 911 call at Kohberger's trial this summer.
Left to right: Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee's shoulders) Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke
'The Court finds that some of the hearsay statements on the 911 call do not qualify under the exceptions cited by the State and, therefore, must be redacted,' Hippler ruled.
The judge will also allow jurors to see the call transcript as well as texts between the surviving roommates during those terrifying hours.
'However, the balance of the 911 call as well as the texts and conversations noted herein are likely admissible provided that the requisite foundation is laid at trial. The transcript will be allowed as demonstrative aid, again assuming proper foundation is established.'
This marks yet another blow to suspected killer Kohberger who wanted to ban the call and texts from his high-profile trial.
In another order Thursday, the judge also refused to rule out the death penalty despite his recent autism diagnosis.
The 30-year-old criminology PhD student is facing the death penalty for the murders of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves in Moscow, Idaho, back on November 13, 2022.
The four University of Idaho students were brutally stabbed to death in the early hours of the morning in the off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, that the three young women shared with their two other roommates.
The horror murders - the first homicide in seven years for the small, tight-knit college town - plunged the community into fear and sent shockwaves across the country.
Around six weeks later, on December 30, 2022, police swooped on Kohberger at his parents' home in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania and charged him with the murders. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf at his arraignment.
Bryan Kohberger snapped this creepy selfie six hours after the brutal Moscow murders
The off-campus home where the four University of Idaho students were murdered on November 13, 2022
The Washington State University student was tied to the murders through DNA found on a Ka-Bar leather knife sheath left behind by the killer at the scene.
As well as the DNA evidence, prosecutors say Kohberger's white Hyundai Elantra also matches the car seen leaving the crime scene at the time of the murders.
Cellphone records also allegedly show that Kohberger may have stalked the King Road home at least a dozen times in the lead-up to the murders - and that he turned his phone off while committing the crime to try to cover his tracks.
Mortensen came face-to-face with an intruder inside the off-campus student home that night - making her the sole surviving eyewitness who saw the perpetrator who murdered her friends.
Judge Hippler's new court order revealed that new details about Mortensen's account of that night.
The four victims and their roommates had all spent the night of Saturday November 12 out at bars or parties.
At around 2am, Mortensen, Funke, Goncalves and Mogen were back at the home on 1122 King Road and 'met up in Kaylee's bedroom and talked for while before going to bed,' the document states.
Kernodle and Chapin - who had been at a frat party - were not home yet.
The four friends debated going out to a food truck for a late snack, but ultimately went to bed.
According to investigators, at around 4am, Mortensen heard strange noises in the home - followed by a man's voice, that was not Chapin, saying something to the effect of 'It's okay, I'm going to help you.'
When she peered round her bedroom door, she saw a man walk past her room on the second floor and head in the direction of the back sliding door.
The intruder, she described, was tall, dressed in all black and was wearing a mask.
Due to the mask, Mortensen could only see the eyes and eyebrows of the figure, and recalled seeing his 'bushy eyebrows.'
Following that terrifying encounter, Mortensen placed a series of panicked calls and texts to her roommates.
Only Funke answered.
The others were already dead.
Between 4.22am and 4.26am, Mortensen and Funke exchanged a string of texts where they frantically tried to determine what was going on in their home.
Mortensen - whose room was on the second floor, along with Kernodle's - then ran to Funke's room on the first floor. Goncalves' and Mogen's rooms were on the third floor.
'D.M. then exited her room and began running toward B.F.'s bedroom,' the court order reveals.
'On her way, she noticed Xana lying on the floor of her bedroom, with her head towards the wall and her feet toward to the door. D.M. thought Xana was drunk.
'Once D.M. arrived at B.F's room, they locked the door and both made additional unanswered calls to the other roommates.'
Over the next eight hours, Mortensen's cellphone data shows she made several more texts and calls to her roommates, while also creating, editing and deleting images and videos, and accessing various social media sites including Instagram and Snapchat, court documents show.
On Snapchat, she used the Snapmap function to try to check Chapin and Kernodle's location.
With still no response from any of the four victims, at around 11.50am Mortensen called a friend and asked her to 'come over and check the house because she was scared,' the document states.
Best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen (left) were found dead in the same bed in Mogen's room on the third floor. Young couple Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle (right) were found dead in her room on the second floor
Kaylee Goncalves family arrive for a court hearing in 2023. The family said an earlier 911 call would not have saved the victims
The friend E.A. and her boyfriend H.J. came to the home and met Mortensen and Funke at the bottom floor of the three-story house.
The two roommates and H.J. made their way to the second floor, where H.J. 'went to the kitchen to grab kitchen knife,' the document states.
According to the documents, Mortensen and Funke then saw Kernodle lying on the floor.
Mortensen testified to the grand jury that she saw Kernodle that time for a 'split second' and 'just started bawling because thought she had just like don't even know. thought maybe she was still just drunk and all asleep on the floor.'
At that moment, H.J. told the young women to 'get out' and they all went outside.
When H.J. emerged from the house soon after, he 'was pale white and mentioned something about someone being unconscious,' the document states.
He told them to call 911 and the distressing phone call was placed.
Kohberger's defense wanted the judge to ban jurors from seeing the texts or the 911 call, claiming they were hearsay and that 'there is no evidence they were sufficiently startled by the events.'
Bryan Kohberger (pictured during his extradition in January 2023) is facing the firing squad if convicted
The defense claimed that 'despite stating she was scared, [Mortensen] ran to B.F.'s room instead of leaving the house or otherwise calling other friends and family for help.'
The judge disagreed, writing that 'the events are sufficiently startling to both D.M. and B.F for purposes of the excited utterance exception.'
'D.M. and B.F. are young female college students and the self described "scaredy cats of the house,"' he wrote.
'They were awoken from sleep after night of drinking with D.M. reporting that she heard noises and saw masked intruder in their home. None of the other roommates were responding to their calls and texts, further indicating something was amiss. It would be potentially terrifying for anyone, including these young women.
'To argue that they would have run out of the house or called someone else for help had they really been startled unempathetically ignores these circumstances and the trauma and confusion they were evidently experiencing, which likely offset logical thought... They were clearly under stress and attempting to make sense of frightening situation.'
The harrowing details come as Mortensen is expected to be a key witness in Kohberger's trial.
Last week, the judge ruled that she will be able to use the term 'bushy eyebrows' to describe the man she saw inside the home, saying it is 'highly relevant in this case.'
The defense wanted to block the phrase 'bushy eyebrows' from the trial and have tried to pick holes in Mortensen's reliability as a witness - including that she admitted she was drunk at the time, told police she was in a ‘dream-like state,’ had drawings of people with prominent eyebrows on her walls, and that she was not separated from other witnesses following the discovery of the murders.
Prosecutors, however, argued that her account and description of the intruder had been consistent in every interview - the man was white, a few inches taller than her, dressed in all black, wearing a mask, was skinny and had a voice she did not recognize.
Prosecutors want to show jurors a chilling selfie captured by Kohberger around six hours after the murders as evidence of his 'bushy eyebrows' at the time of the murders.
The judge sided with the state.
'D.M. is the only eyewitness to the intruder responsible for the homicides. It is the jury's task to determine whether Defendant is that person,' the judge said.
He pointed out that Mortensen's accounts have been 'consistent' and that 'there is nothing confusing about her testimony.'
In another blow to Kohberger's defense strategy, the judge also ruled that Kohberger can face the death penalty if convicted.
Due to changes in state law, he could be executed by firing squad.
The judge also ruled that the defense can only present evidence of his autism diagnosis as a reason for his courtroom behavior if Kohberger himself takes the stand to testify.
Footage captured a white Hyundai Elantra around the victims' home at the time of the murders
DNA was found on a Ka-Bar knife sheath (seen in a stock image) left behind at the scene
The judge also ruled that jurors can be presented with Kohberger's Amazon shopping history, which reveals he bought a Ka-Bar knife, sheath and sharpener from Amazon back in March 2022.
It was shipped to his parents' home in Pennsylvania.
Following the murders, Kohberger searched to buy a replacement knife and sheath, prosecutors allege.
The murder weapon itself has never been found.
The flurry of court orders have been made after the defense and the prosecution went to battle in a courtroom showdown earlier this month over critical evidence in the high-profile case.
Kohberger is next due in court in mid-may for a pre-trial hearing.
He is slated to go on trial in August.
