Why University of Idaho murders survivor waited hours to call cops after finding roommate dead

One of the surviving roommates of the four University of Idaho students allegedly killed by Bryan Kohberger didn’t immediately call police because she thought her friend was passed out drunk – not realizing she was likely already dead, a new court ruling reveals.

After a night out partying, Dylan Mortensen “heard strange noises and crying” before opening her bedroom door and seeing “a man dressed in black with a ski mask on walking by her bedroom door,” around 4:00 a.m., according to a new decision by Boise District Court Judge Steven Hippler.

Mortensen then got on the phone with the other surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, and texted furiously. “I’m freaking out rn,” she wrote, adding “I’m not kidding o [sic] am so freaked out.”

“So am I,” Funke texted her back before encouraging Mortensen to come to her room.

The roommate “began running toward” Funke’s room and “on her way, she noticed Xana [Kernodle] lying on the floor of her bedroom,” but Mortensen “thought Xana was drunk,” the judge’s order explains, citing the surviving roommates’ communications.

Funke and Mortensen didn’t end up calling 911 until roughly eight hours after Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin were slain in their off-campus housing in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.

But the duo sent many messages before emerging from Funke’s room and trying to piece together what had happened.

Mortensen texted Goncalves at 4:32 a.m., “Pls answer” and texted Mogen at 10:23 a.m. “R u up” and then around 11:20 a.m. she texted Goncalves again saying, “R u up??”

Finally at 11:56 a.m., Funke called 911 saying, “something is happening. Something’s happened in our house and we don’t know what,” the court papers reveal.

The contents of text messages and a 911 call, which lay out Mortensen and Funke’s actions following the killings, were revealed in Hippler’s order about what evidence could be presented to the jury at the upcoming August trial and what evidence would be blocked as hearsay.

Kohberger has pleaded not guilty in the quadruple homicide case and could face the death penalty if convicted.