Idaho murders: New details reveal what surviving roommate saw and heard in the house

When investigators were working to solve the University of Idaho quadruple murders, what at first appeared to be an early lead to help gauge the killer’s familiarity with the victims quickly evaporated as the only surviving witness started to remember more details from that night.

Dylan Mortensen, one of two roommates who survived, first told detectives arriving at the scene that “sometime in the early morning hours” of Nov. 13, 2022 she “was awoken and opened her room door” and “heard a male say ‘it’s ok Kaylee, I’m here for you,'” referring to one of the victims, 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, according to newly released documents.

In a subsequent interview with investigators, Mortensen recanted that version, omitting Goncalves’ name from the quote, documents revealed.

Mortensen, who said she had a lot to drink that night, explained several times to investigators that she was “trying to determine what was real,” documents said. She said she was “being truthful, but some of what she has been discussing, she is not certain is factual,” the documents said. “She has been working through it to try to remember what happened.”

Defense attorney Anne Taylor repeatedly questioned Mortensen’s credibility as a witness, saying she “had too much to drink and couldn’t remember” and “said things that were just absolutely untrue and couldn’t have been true.” Prosecutors pushed back, saying while versions of Mortensen’s story varied, she was consistent enough, and the judge ultimately sided with prosecutors.

The newly-released documents revealed that Mortensen said she heard who she thought was Goncalves walking upstairs toward her third floor room and “heard Kaylee say ‘someone’s here,’ and she sounded frantic,” according to the police interview. Mortensen “described Kaylee’s tone as somewhere between talking and yelling it,” the interview said.

Mortensen “believed it was Kaylee who was walking up the stairs with [her dog] Murphy,” then “heard who she believed to be Kaylee running down the stairs,” the interview said. Mortensen said Murphy — who didn’t usually bark — “was barking at this time.”

Mortensen added that “she does not know if she actually heard this, or whether she was drunk,” the document said. “She then heard a male voice, which she stated she had never heard before, say ‘It’s okay, I’m going to help you.'”

She said the male voice was not victim Ethan Chapin, who was asleep in his girlfriend Xana Kernodle’s second-floor bedroom at the time.

Mortensen said she believed the man was in the second-floor bathroom with the person crying, the document said. Mortensen said she at first thought Goncalves was crying but later thought it was Kernodle.

Goncalves and her best friend, Madison Mogen, were found stabbed to death in Mogen’s third-floor bedroom. Goncalves was stabbed more than 30 times and had defensive wounds, according to a police report.

Kernodle — who investigators say may have interrupted admitted killer Bryan Kohberger on the third floor — was then attacked near her second-floor bedroom, suffering over 50 stab wounds, a police report said. Chapin was fatally stabbed in Kernodle’s bed.

Mortensen told police her vision was “blurry” when she opened her door, but she “saw a figure of someone that was dressed in all black, and they were masked and he was holding an item of what she initially perceived was a vacuum, but she said that did not make sense to her,” the interview said. “She described the suspect as not being muscular, but being skinny and toned, like a basketball player.”

“She looked down the hallway to Xana’s bedroom and could see Xana lying on her back in her underwear, but she thought at the time Xana was passed out,” according to the interview.

“She denied perceiving a threat, even after encountering the male in the hallway,” the document said. “She said there were people coming in and out of their house all the time.”

The newly released documents said Kohberger could’ve carried out the attack in less than four minutes.

One week after the murders, investigators returned to the King Road home to conduct “timed runs through the residence,” according to a report from Idaho State Police Lt. Darren Gilbertson.

“The purpose of the timed runs was to gain an understanding of the approximate time needed to have carried out the murders,” Gilbertson’s report said. Moscow police lead detective Brett Payne tracked the time, and a state police detective “walked through the residence with me calling out the number of strikes to simulate the number of wounds to each victim, based on autopsy reports,” Gilbertson wrote.

Gilbertson said he “conducted two timed runs, the first being a quick as possible run and the second a slower, deliberate timed run” during which he was quiet and more “methodical.”

The narrative about the run-throughs was written after Kohberger’s December 2022 arrest and calls him by name.

“The timed runs revealed that it was possible for Kohberger to have carried out the murders in as few as two minutes and six seconds, going at a fast pace on the shortest route to the vehicle, or as much as three minutes and forty-five seconds, going at a slower pace on the longer route to the vehicle,” the report said.

Photos of the crime scene released with the documents show a home common for college Greek life: counters littered with empty hard seltzer cans, wine bottles, snack wrappers and sticks of gum. A partially crushed beer can sat next to neatly displayed jewelry and a small vanity mirror, while a backpack was kept near a box of Bud Light Lime.

The police weren’t the only ones trying to make sense of the gruesome murders.

Friends and classmates of the victims tried to help investigators establish a timeline of their movements that night. Many of the students described heavy alcohol consumption and bar and party hopping, the documents said. The victims were well-liked, according to the interviews, and there wasn’t a reason to think anyone harbored a violent grudge.

Goncalves had “jokingly mentioned she thought she had” a “stalker” after someone followed her to her car at the grocery store “a couple months” before the murders, one of the victims’ neighbors said, according to the documents.

Another friend and sorority sister told investigators that the 21-year-old Goncalves “did not seem at all worried about a stalker, or any other dangers,” according to the documents.

Goncalves “would have been scared if she had a stalker,” but instead “was planning events for them all the time,” the friend said.

But a former roommate in the King Road home told police she “was always scared of ‘something like that happening,'” the documents said.

The 22-year-old, who had graduated six months before the murders, described the house “as an ‘open door policy,’ meaning people were constantly going in and out,” according to her interview with police.

“She would triple check the lock on her bedroom door, because she didn’t feel safe,” the document said. “… There were times she would hear footsteps in the house and would blow it off thinking someone just had a friend over.”

“There would be times she would wake up and would see the sliding glass door was unlocked. She thought it might have been from someone forgetting to lock the door after having people over the night before,” the interview said. “Only their close friends would use the sliding glass door in the kitchen.”

Investigators believe Kohberger used that sliding glass door to slip into the home and fatally stab Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle and Chapin.

Last month, Kohberger was given four life sentences plus 10 years after pleading guilty to all charges. A motive is not known, according to authorities. Moscow police said they don’t know which victim was the specific target and have not found any link between Kohberger and the victims. Kohberger declined to speak on his own behalf at sentencing.

ABC News’ Matt Furhman, Amanda Morris, Vanessa Navarrete and Bennett Garcia contributed to this report.