One of the surviving roommates of the Nov. 13 Idaho student massacre came face-to-face with the alleged killer on the night her four housemates were murdered, but didn’t call the police for nearly eight hours.
Suspected quadruple murderer Bryan Kohberger appeared in court on Thursday, and the affidavit released by law enforcement authorities raised serious questions about the behavior of survivor Dylan Mortensen.
Mortenson told police that she was awoken out of sleep in her second floor bedroom at 4:00 a.m., by what she believed was victim Kaylee Goncalves, 21, playing with her dog in one of the third floor bedrooms, where she and best friend Madison Mogen, 21, resided.
The Idaho University student said that after a short time, she thought that she heard Gonclaves say “there’s someone here,” and looked out of her bedroom door when she heard the comment.
Mortenson once again opened her bedroom door when heard crying coming from from 20-year-old victim Xana Kernodle’s room, which was located on the same floor as her bedroom.
She also heard a male voice say something along the lines of “it’s okay, I’m going to help you.”
At around 4:17 a.m., a neighbor’s security camera picked up a thump, whimpering, and a dog barking loud enough to be heard around fifty feet way, the court documents detailed.
Mortenson then heard distinguishable crying and opened up her room’s door for a third time.
At this point, she saw “a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose” walking towards her.
She described the person as male that she did not recognize, who was “not very muscular, but athletically built,” 5’10’ or taller, with bushy eyebrows.
Though the man had allegedly just gruesomely murdered four of her roommates, he walked right past Mortenson as she stood “frozen” in shock.
Instead of attacking her, he moved towards the back sliding glass door and she locked herself in her room.
By the next morning, Gonclaves, Mogen, Kernoodle, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were found stabbed to death by surviving roommates Bethany Funke and Mortenson.
A 911 call placed to law enforcement authorities about an “unconscious” victim wasn’t made until 11:58 a.m. the same day.
Since the release of the affidavit, social media has gone wild speculating on how Mortenson could come face-to-face with a masked man, but failed to alert her roommates, or local police.
“Dylan Mortenson really needs to tell the world why she didn’t call the police. PLEASE help us understand. What was she doing for 8 hours?” One person questioned.
“Dylan Mortenson was too afraid to call 911, BUT not too afraid to go back to sleep and revisit things in the morning? Nope. Makes no sense,” someone tweeted.
“I don’t know how Dylan Mortenson lives with herself,” another added.
“Heard her roommates being murdered and crying, for help, sees a masked intruder in her home, does nothing, then goes back to bed. This story is mind boggling.”
“Dylan Mortenson didnt call 911 immediately???? Wtf?! How is she not a suspect?” A Twitter user asked.
“Does the failure to call 911 or otherwise act like a human being (e.g., checking to see if the victims need medical help) qualify someone as an Accessory After the Fact?” someone posited.
“After all, she gave him 8 hours to get away.”
“If this gets to trial which it won’t the Defensive Lawyers are going to cut Dylan Mortenson up like a steak and devour her!” A replier speculated.
According to police, neither Mortenson or Funke are suspects, but investigators were looking into “every possibility.”
The night of the murders, Goncalves and Mogen went to a downtown bar and bought pasta from a nearby food truck, before returning home around 1:45 a.m. on Saturday morning.
Kernodle and Chapin came back at the same time after going to a frat party, while both surviving roommates had been out somewhere in the community and were already home by one in the morning.
Mortenson’s online defenders have pointed out that “no one knows how they would react until they’re in” a similar situation.
“We have NO idea the details of the situation or frankly what she did or didn’t do or what she was or wasn’t able to do,” someone pointed out.
“Timelines previously released have been debunked already.”
“How DARE you judge her for how she reacted to an IMPOSSIBLE situation we know nothing about,” wrote another livid Twitter user.
“Pretty sure 99% of society calls the cops if we hear our roommates crying for help and see an intruder in the home but okay,” someone else shot back.
Also amongst the affidavit’s reveals, authorities presented plenty of evidence linking Kohberger to the quadruple slaying.
According to the document, the suspect left behind a tan leather knife sheath next to Mogen’s body.
Investigators were able to link the “single source of male DNA” on the button snap to trash recovered from Kohberger’s parent’s Pennsylvania home.
Cell phone records indicated that the 28-year-old criminology post-graduate student had been near the residence of the victims 12 times between late June and November.
The night morning of the homicide, he reportedly shut his phone off from 2:47 a.m. until 4:48 a.m. on Nov. 13, presumably to avoid GPS tracking.
The white Hyundai Elantra that was registered to Kohberger was caught on camera passing by the slain student’s residence four times in the hour leading up to the murders.
It was the same car he was pulled over in twice on a cross-country trek from Washington to Pennsylvania with his father.
Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30 on four counts of felony murder and a burglary charge and could face the death penalty if convicted.
He was denied bail at his first court appearance in Moscow, Idaho on Thursday.