CASE: Idaho Student Murders
ROLE IN CASE: Surviving roommate / eyewitness
STATUS: Survived the November 13, 2022 homicides; not accused of a crime
RESIDENCE AT THE TIME: 1122 King Road, Moscow, Idaho
Who Is Dylan Mortensen?
Dylan Mortensen was one of the two surviving roommates who lived at 1122 King Road when Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were killed during the early morning hours of November 13, 2022.
For most of us following this case, Dylan first became known simply as D.M. in the court records.
Then the probable-cause affidavit was released, and suddenly everyone was talking about the surviving roommate who had opened her bedroom door and seen a masked man dressed in black walking through the house.
That one moment became a huge part of Dylan’s story.
But as I started going deeper into the court documents, I realized there was much more to what Dylan said, heard and remembered than what we were originally given in that affidavit.
There were multiple interviews. There were phone calls and text messages between Dylan and Bethany Funke during those early morning hours. There were things Dylan remembered clearly and other things she openly questioned herself. And as more records became public, additional details emerged that gave much more context to those few minutes inside the house.
That is the part I want to look at here.
Not what social media says Dylan did.
Not what someone thinks she should have done.
I want to go back to Dylan’s own statements, the phone records, the text messages and the court filings and look at what the records actually show.
Background
Dylan was 19 years old and a University of Idaho student living at 1122 King Road with Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke.
Her bedroom was on the second floor of the house—the same floor as Xana’s bedroom and the kitchen. Bethany’s bedroom was downstairs on the first floor, while Kaylee and Maddie’s bedrooms were on the third floor. Ethan Chapin did not live at the house; he was Xana’s boyfriend and was staying with her that night.
That layout is something I think is important to understand before getting into Dylan’s story.
When Dylan talks about hearing things upstairs, hearing things coming from Xana’s direction, opening her bedroom door or seeing someone walking toward the sliding glass door, where her bedroom actually was matters.
It also matters because the public wasn’t originally given a completely accurate picture of where the surviving roommates were located. Early information placed both surviving roommates downstairs. We later learned Dylan was actually sleeping on the second floor—right in the middle of the area investigators believe the person responsible moved through.
That changes the way I read what comes next.
The Early Morning Hours of November 13, 2022
On the evening of November 12, Dylan had been at a Sigma Chi party. According to the investigative records, she believed she returned to 1122 King Road sometime between about 12:30 and 1:00 a.m. on November 13.
She had been drinking that night, something Dylan herself would later bring up when talking with investigators about what she remembered. She questioned how clearly she could recall some parts of those early morning hours and, in later interviews, was open about the fact that there were things she wasn’t certain about.
At some point after 4:00 a.m., Dylan woke up and began hearing activity inside the house.
This is where the version of Dylan’s story most of us first learned from the probable-cause affidavit begins. But the interviews and records released later add much more to what she said happened during those minutes.
Dylan described hearing movement upstairs. She initially believed she heard Kaylee say that someone was there, and she remembered hearing activity involving Kaylee and her dog, Murphy, on the third floor.
She also described hearing crying and, later, a man’s voice
What Did Dylan Hear the Man Say?
This is one of the details that caught my attention as I went deeper into Dylan’s interviews. The words she remembered hearing from the man were not described exactly the same way every time she was interviewed.
In one account, Dylan remembered the man saying words to the effect of, “It’s okay, Kaylee, I’m here for you.” In another account, Kaylee’s name was no longer part of what she remembered hearing, and she described the words more like, “It’s okay, I’m going to help you.”
That difference matters to me, but I don’t think it is fair to automatically call it a lie. Dylan had been drinking, had been awakened from sleep, and later expressed uncertainty about portions of her memory. At the same time, if I’m going to look closely at this case, I can’t ignore when details in a witness’s recollection change either.
What I find more useful is comparing each interview side by side—what Dylan remembered consistently, what changed, and what she herself said she was uncertain about. That gives us a much clearer picture than simply choosing one version and ignoring the others.
Dylan Questioned Her Own Memory
One of the things that stands out to me in Dylan’s interviews is how openly she questioned portions of her own memory. She told investigators she had been drinking that night and discussed whether she may still have been intoxicated when she woke up.
She also described trying to separate what she actually remembered from what might have been a dream or something her mind filled in later. In a later interview, Dylan discussed the effects of trauma and her uncertainty about what was real during portions of that morning.
I think that context matters. It doesn’t mean everything Dylan remembered was unreliable, but it does mean I want to be careful about treating every detail from every interview as if she remembered it with the same level of certainty.
At the same time, there were parts of Dylan’s account that the State argued remained consistent across her interviews—particularly the general description of the man she said she saw. That distinction becomes important when we get to the later fight between the prosecution and defense over the reliability of her observations.
The Man in the Hallway
Dylan told investigators that when she opened her bedroom door, she saw a man dressed in black with something covering portions of his face. She described him as taller than her, with a slim or athletic build.
She also remembered what she described as “bushy eyebrows.” That detail would later become an important part of the State’s case, but Dylan did not identify the man she saw that morning as Bryan Kohberger. What she gave investigators was a general physical description.
Dylan later described her vision as blurry when she saw him. She characterized his build as skinny and toned—more like a basketball player than someone heavily muscular.
One detail that surprised me when I got beyond the probable-cause affidavit was Dylan’s description of what the man appeared to be carrying. During a later interview, she said she initially thought it looked like a vacuum, even though she knew that didn’t make sense.
Dylan also told investigators that when she looked toward Xana’s room, she could see Xana lying there. At the time, Dylan said she thought Xana had simply passed out. She did not describe realizing in that moment that she was looking at the scene of a homicide.
That context matters to me because it changes how I understand Dylan’s actions in those first few minutes. According to her later account, she did not immediately understand that four people inside the house had been attacked.
The Calls and Texts Between Dylan and Bethany
One of the things I think is especially important about this part of the timeline is that we don’t have to rely entirely on memories given in later interviews. Dylan and Bethany were communicating with each other while these events were unfolding.
At 4:19:07 a.m., Bethany called Dylan. That call lasted 23 seconds. At 4:20:28 a.m., Dylan called Bethany back, and that call lasted 41 seconds.
The communications continued. At 4:22:08 a.m., Dylan texted, “No one is answering.” At 4:23:28 a.m., Bethany responded, “Xana was wearing all black.”
During this same exchange, Dylan described the person she had seen, including what appeared to be a ski mask or something covering portions of his face. She repeatedly made it clear to Bethany that she wasn’t joking and that she was frightened.
At 4:24:07 a.m., after Bethany expressed that she was frightened, Dylan responded, “So am I.”
Those timestamps matter to me because these aren’t memories reconstructed months or years later. They are communications between Dylan and Bethany from within minutes of what was happening inside the house.
I go into the complete sequence of these calls and texts in Bethany Funke’s Face File, because her side of the communications is an important part of understanding what was happening between the two surviving roommates during those minutes.
So Why Wasn’t 911 Called Then?
This is probably the question Dylan has been judged over more than anything else. She was awake during those early morning hours, she had seen a masked man inside the house, and we now know she and Bethany were frightened enough to be calling and texting each other within minutes. But the 911 call wasn’t made until 11:58 a.m.
For years, that gap was filled with speculation about what Dylan did, what she knew and why she didn’t call for help sooner. But the records released later give us more context than we had when the probable-cause affidavit first came out.
According to Dylan’s later account, she did not understand at that moment that she was looking at a murder scene. She said she thought Xana had passed out, and seeing an unfamiliar person inside the house did not immediately tell her that four people had just been attacked.
That still doesn’t make the delay disappear, and I don’t think we should pretend it does. Nearly eight hours passed between those early-morning communications and the 911 call. For me, that remains an important part of the timeline and a fair question to examine.
At the same time, I think there is a difference between asking why the call took so long and deciding, with hindsight, what Dylan must have understood at 4:20 that morning. The records show fear and confusion between the surviving roommates, but they don’t give us a simple answer for every decision made during the hours before 911 was called.
Later That Morning
By later that morning, Dylan was again trying to reach the other roommates. At 10:23 a.m., she sent messages asking Kaylee and Maddie if they were awake.
Eventually, friends were called to the house, and at 11:58 a.m., the 911 call was made. The call itself was chaotic, with the phone passing between multiple people as they tried to explain what was happening.
What happened during that call is important because it wasn’t a calm report from someone who already knew four people had been murdered. The people at the house were trying to understand what they were seeing while the dispatcher worked to determine what kind of emergency had occurred.
The surviving roommates initially reported that Xana was unconscious. During the call, the phone was passed among people at the house, and the information being given to the dispatcher developed as they tried to figure out what had happened.
For me, the 911 call adds another layer to the question of what Dylan and Bethany understood that morning. It doesn’t erase the hours between the 4:00 a.m. communications and the call for help, but it does give us more context about the confusion that was still unfolding when other people arrived at the house.
The “Bushy Eyebrows”
The description of “bushy eyebrows” became one of the most repeated details from Dylan’s account. But I think it is important to be precise about what she actually did—and did not—say. Dylan did not identify the man she saw that morning as Bryan Kohberger. She gave investigators a general physical description of the person she remembered seeing.
The State argued that parts of Dylan’s description remained consistent across her interviews: a white male, taller than Dylan, with a slim or athletic build and bushy eyebrows. The defense, however, challenged the reliability of her observations and pointed to her drinking, blurry vision, uncertainty about portions of her memory and differences among her accounts.
The State also planned to show the jury a photograph of Kohberger taken from his phone later that morning and let jurors decide for themselves whether his eyebrows matched Dylan’s description. But that comparison was never actually made by a jury because the case did not go to trial.
That distinction matters to me. There is a big difference between saying Dylan described a man with bushy eyebrows and saying Dylan identified Bryan Kohberger. The first is supported by the record. The second goes further than what Dylan actually did.
The Defense Challenged Dylan’s Reliability
By the time the case was approaching trial, Dylan’s memory and observations had become an important evidentiary issue. The defense challenged how much weight should be given to what she remembered seeing and hearing that morning.
The defense pointed to several things Dylan herself had discussed in her interviews: that she had been drinking, that her vision was blurry, that she questioned portions of her memory, and that some details were not recalled exactly the same way across multiple interviews.
The State pushed back on that argument. Prosecutors maintained that despite Dylan’s uncertainty about some details, the core parts of her description remained consistent. They argued that questions about her memory went to the weight a jury might give her testimony, rather than making her observations unusable altogether.
Judge Steven Hippler ultimately rejected the defense argument that investigators had improperly left Dylan’s qualifications about her memory out of the warrant materials. In his ruling, he also pointed to other evidence that he found corroborated portions of her account, including the timing of nearby camera audio and the movements of the suspect vehicle.
But there is another distinction I think is important: Judge Hippler’s ruling did not mean a jury had decided Dylan was reliable or that every part of her recollection was accurate. There was never a trial, so her account was never tested through testimony and cross-examination in front of a jury.
The Story We Never Got to Hear at Trial
Dylan was expected to be an important witness if this case went to trial. What I find especially interesting is that she wasn’t only important to the prosecution. Kohberger’s defense also included both surviving roommates among its potential witnesses.
Had the case gone to trial, Dylan could have been questioned about all of it—what she heard, what she saw, what she remembered clearly, what she wasn’t sure about, the differences among her interviews, the calls and texts with Bethany, and the hours that passed before 911 was called
But that never happened. On July 2, 2025, Kohberger entered guilty pleas, and the trial was canceled. Dylan was never questioned and cross-examined before a jury about what she experienced inside 1122 King Road.
That leaves us with something unusual: one of the most important witnesses in this case gave multiple interviews to investigators, but the public never got to hear those accounts tested in a courtroom. We can read the records and compare the interviews, but we never got to hear Dylan explain the differences herself under oath at trial.
Dylan Speaks for Herself
At Kohberger’s sentencing on July 23, 2025, Dylan finally had the opportunity to speak publicly for herself. By then, she had spent more than two and a half years being discussed as D.M., the surviving roommate whose actions and memories had been picked apart by people around the world.
Dylan described being barely 19 when the murders happened and talked about what surviving that night had done to her life. She spoke about losing her sense of safety, being afraid to be alone, struggling to close her eyes and experiencing panic attacks.
She also made it clear that she did not want the person responsible for taking her friends’ lives to take the rest of hers too. Living her life, she explained, was part of how she would continue to honor Kaylee, Maddie, Xana and Ethan.
Whatever questions I have about this case—and I have plenty—I don’t think Dylan should be reduced to “the roommate who waited nearly eight hours to call 911.” The records show a much more complicated story than that..
That doesn’t mean I think her statements should be above scrutiny. They shouldn’t be. Some details changed, some were qualified, and other parts remained consistent. For me, the important thing is showing those differences rather than pretending they aren’t there—or using them to decide what Dylan must have been thinking.
I want to know what Dylan said the first time, what she said later, what changed, what stayed the same, and what other evidence supports—or conflicts with—those memories. That is the only way I know to look at her role in this case fairly.
Dylan Mortensen isn’t just the person behind the initials D.M. She is one of the few people who was inside 1122 King Road during those early morning hours and survived to tell investigators what she remembered.
What Remains Unanswered
Even with all of the records that have been released, there are still parts of Dylan’s experience that I don’t think we can fully answer. We know much more today than we did when the probable-cause affidavit was first released, but having more information doesn’t necessarily mean every question has been resolved.
I still have questions about exactly what Dylan understood during those first few minutes, why the surviving roommates stopped trying to contact the others, and what happened inside the house during the hours between the 4:19–4:24 a.m. communications and the 11:58 a.m. 911 call.
I also think the differences among Dylan’s interviews deserve to be preserved rather than blended into one version of her story. Without her testimony at trial, we never got the opportunity to hear her explain those differences herself or watch the prosecution and defense question her about them.
Those unanswered questions are part of why I keep coming back to the original records. I don’t want to fill the gaps with assumptions. If the documents don’t answer something, I would rather say we don’t know than turn a theory into a fact.
Sources & Documents
Probable Cause Affidavit — December 29, 2022
Judge Steven Hippler’s February 19, 2025 Order on Defendant’s Motion for a Franks Hearing
State’s March 17, 2025 Response Regarding Witness Identification / “Bushy Eyebrows”
Moscow Police Supplemental Report — Dylan Mortensen Interview
December 30, 2022 Interview of Dylan Mortensen — Court-Filed Transcript
Judge Steven Hippler’s April 24, 2025 Order Regarding Text Messages and the 911 Call
Dylan Mortensen’s Victim Impact Statement — July 23, 2025 Sentencing
Released 911 Call and Surviving-Roommate Communications — November 13, 2022
Faces in the Footnotes 