Dylan Mortensen is one of two surviving roommates from the Idaho murders of November 13, 2022, in which four University of Idaho students were fatally stabbed at an off-campus house on King Road in Moscow. Mortensen, 19 at the time, came face to face with the masked intruder inside the home, and her account of what she saw and heard that night became central to the criminal case against Bryan Kohberger, who pleaded guilty in July 2025 and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
Mortensen and Bethany Funke, the other surviving roommate, both lived on the first floor of the three-story rental. Neither was physically harmed. The victims — Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20 — were killed on the upper two floors.
What Dylan Mortensen Saw and Heard That Night
According to police interviews, grand jury testimony, and court filings, Mortensen was awakened around 4 a.m. by sounds she initially thought were Goncalves playing with her dog, Murphy. She then heard Goncalves say something like “someone’s here” in a tone she described as frantic, “somewhere between talking and yelling.” Murphy, who Mortensen said did not usually bark, was barking.
Over the next several minutes, she opened her bedroom door multiple times. She reported hearing crying from the direction of a bathroom or Kernodle’s room, followed by an unfamiliar male voice saying, “It’s okay, I’m going to help you.” She told police the voice did not sound kind. In an early interview she recalled the voice using Goncalves’ name, but she walked that detail back in a later interview.
On the third time she opened the door, Mortensen saw a figure dressed entirely in black, wearing a mask that covered everything but his eyes and the bridge of his nose. She described him as male, roughly her height or a few inches taller, with a lean, athletic build she compared to “a basketball player.” She noticed one visible “bushy eyebrow” but could not identify its color. He was holding an object near his stomach that she initially thought was a vacuum. The man looked at her but said nothing, then walked toward a sliding glass door off the kitchen.
At the same time, she noticed Kernodle lying on her back near her bedroom doorway. Mortensen assumed Kernodle had passed out. She told investigators she did not perceive a threat at that moment, explaining that people frequently came in and out of the house. She had been drinking that evening and said her vision was blurry. She later told police she was “trying to determine what was real” and questioned whether her memories were actual events or her mind “playing with her.”
After the figure left, Mortensen went downstairs to Funke’s bedroom. She told police she believed everyone in the house was simply asleep.
Why 911 Wasn’t Called for Eight Hours
The 911 call was not placed until 11:58 a.m. on November 13, roughly eight hours after the attack. Text messages introduced in court filings show that around 4:20 a.m., Mortensen began texting and calling her roommates. She texted Funke that she was “freaking out” after seeing a “masked man” and described him as wearing “a ski mask almost.” Funke replied, “Come to my room” and “Run.” The two locked themselves in Funke’s first-floor bedroom. Mortensen also texted Goncalves, “Pls answer,” but received no reply.
Neither roommate contacted police, friends, or family for hours afterward. Defense filings introduced phone records showing both were active on their devices well before noon. Funke called her father around 7:30 a.m. about a toothache. Mortensen was active on Instagram for about two hours starting around 8 a.m. and also used Snapchat and Indeed. The two eventually asked a friend to come to the house because Mortensen was “too scared.” It was the friend’s boyfriend who told them to get out and call 911. When Funke placed the call, she told the dispatcher a roommate was “passed out drunk and not waking up” and that they had seen a man in the house the night before.
The delay drew intense public criticism. Elizabeth Cauffman, a professor of psychological science at UC Irvine, told reporters the brain’s amygdala can trigger a freeze response that overwhelms the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for decision-making. She said this effect is especially pronounced in 18- to 25-year-olds, whose prefrontal cortexes are still developing. Cauffman also cited cognitive dissonance, in which the brain rationalizes a frightening situation into the “least threatening explanation,” and suggested socialization may lead women to downplay fear to avoid seeming “overly dramatic.” If the roommates discussed the situation together, she said, they may have “reinforced each other’s doubts instead of escalating to call 911.”
Her Role as a Witness in the Kohberger Case
Mortensen and Funke were both placed under a broad gag order that kept them from speaking publicly for most of the case. In court filings they were identified only by their initials, “D.M.” and “B.F.” Both were expected to be key prosecution witnesses at trial, with prosecutors planning to use their testimony and text messages to establish the timeline of the night. Mortensen had already testified before a grand jury and given multiple interviews to law enforcement.
Kohberger’s defense team aggressively challenged her credibility. Defense attorney Anne Taylor pointed to Mortensen’s alcohol consumption, shifting descriptions across interviews, and the hours-long delay in reporting. Defense filings noted inconsistencies in her account, including evolving descriptions of the intruder’s height, the lighting, and whether she could hear specific names being spoken. Mortensen herself acknowledged she could not confirm the man she saw was Kohberger after viewing a photograph of him following his arrest; she said she only remembered the bushy eyebrow and the black clothing. The defense moved to exclude or limit her testimony. Prosecutors argued her account was consistent on its core details. The judge sided with the prosecution.
The case never went to trial. On June 30, 2025, Kohberger accepted a plea deal, and on July 2 he pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. The agreement eliminated the need for either surviving roommate to testify. He waived his right to appeal in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table, and on July 23, 2025, Judge Steven Hippler sentenced him to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole plus a maximum ten-year sentence for burglary.
What Mortensen Said at Sentencing
The July 23, 2025, sentencing hearing was the first time Mortensen spoke publicly about the murders. She addressed Kohberger directly, describing him as “a hollow vessel, something less than human, a body without empathy, without remorse.” She told the court the killings had “shattered me in places I didn’t know could break” and described panic attacks that hit “like a tsunami out of nowhere.”
“My nervous system never got the message that it is over,” she said. She spoke about the friendships taken from her and said Kohberger would not define her future. “He tried to take everything from me: my friends, my safety, my identity, my future,” she said. “But he will never get to take my voice.” She closed by drawing a contrast between her life and his: “I get to live, and while I will still live with this pain, at least I get to live my life. He will stay here, empty, forgotten and powerless.”
Funke did not attend the hearing, citing ongoing trauma. Her statement, read by friend Emily Alandt, described the guilt she carries for not realizing what had happened sooner. Funke wrote that she forces herself to go out in public despite still being afraid, because “I know that they would want me to keep living my life to the fullest.”