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Cops puzzled by 2 surviving Idaho roommates waiting 8 hours before calling 911

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Dylan Mortensen & Bethany Funke
Pictured, Dylan Mortensen & Bethany Funke, the two surviving members of Moscow, Idaho off campus residence where their four roommates were stabbed to death.
Dylan Mortensen & Bethany Funke
Pictured, Dylan Mortensen & Bethany Funke, the two surviving members of Moscow, Idaho off campus residence where their four roommates were stabbed to death.

Cops puzzled over why Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke waited 8 hours before calling 911 after coming across intruder and being scared on night of slaughter of four fellow University of Idaho roommates at their off Moscow campus residence. 

From the outset, Moscow, Idaho police have said they do not believe the two surviving roommates at an off campus residence which saw four roommates slayed are complicit in their fellow roommates murders. Nevertheless, they continue to be puzzled why it wasn’t until 8 hours later after one of them coming across a masked intruder at the residence before calling 911.

Dylan Mortensen, 21, according to a released probable cause affidavit, recalled opening her bedroom door to see an unknown ‘figure clad in black clothing and a mask’ walking past her, towards the home’s back exit, just after 4 a.m. on Nov. 13. 

Yet neither she nor the other spared roommate, Bethany Funke, 21, called police until noon investigators say. 

The 8-hour gap ‘has been something that we have puzzled over — we don’t know if it was an issue of intoxication, or of fear,’ according to a police source cited by the nypost.

In the moments before Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death on the two upper floors of the Moscow house, Mortensen thought she heard Goncalves saying, ‘There’s someone here,’ followed by the sound of crying from Kernodle’s room and a male voice ringing out, ‘It’s ok, I’m going to help you.’

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Why did two remaining survivors wait 8 hours before calling 911? 

Early police reports said that Funke and Mortensen, who lived on the bottom floor of the house, recruited friends to the scene before one of them finally called 911 at 11:58 a.m. The pair were quickly ruled out as suspects and have cooperated with the investigation, cops have said.

Despite the baffling delay, cops on the case ‘are really, really confident about it not being an issue of [Mortensen] being involved,’ the source said. 

‘We look at these things through the lens of rational adults — and when we do that, sometimes things don’t make sense to us — but she’s a 20-year-old girl and we don’t know what she was doing, or if she was scared,’ the source added.

Social media reasoned that the two surviving female roommates may have waited as long as they did for a myriad of reasons, for possibly being drunk, on drugs, or simply used to seeing comings and goings at the ‘frat party’ house which the residence had in recent months become known for.

Others suggested the two were simply vapid and self absorbed and unaware that there was any mortal danger or that the unimaginable had just happened, that their four roommates had been slaughtered moments ago and may have chosen to shrug matters off. Or they may have been legitimately scared, and fearing for their lives, but if so, why wait up to eight hours before reaching out to authorities or third parties?

Law enforcement has also yet to come up with how the alleged suspect came to target the household and the dynamics between the six students and the accused killer, 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger, who lived a 15 minute-drive away in Pullman, Washington, where he was a PhD student studying criminology.

‘There’s no rhyme or reason to it — there are no ties between them,’ the source said. ‘Nobody has said ‘we’ve found the link’ — and that would include Dylan.’

Dylan Mortensen & Bethany Funke
Pictured, Dylan Mortensen & Bethany Funke, the two surviving members of Moscow, Idaho off campus residence where their four roommates were stabbed to death.

No known motive or how the household and killer were connected

To date no motive has been established for the slayings along with no murder weapon being recovered, despite the existence of DNA belonging to Kohberger being found on a knife sheath near the body of one the victims.

Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30 in his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania. He and his dad had driven cross country in Kohberger’s white Hyundai Elantra vehicle, which had been spotted near the killing scene on the night of the murders.

One expert said the 8-hour delay likely made no difference in lives lost.

‘The four were dead when the guy left, and they weren’t crying for help, they weren’t moving or trying to get out,’ said Dr. Michael Baden, former chief medical examiner of New York City, adding, ‘They weren’t in a condition where an ambulance could save their life, on the basis of what we know now.’

‘People are concerned about [the delay in calling for help], but it isn’t a concern from a forensic point of view. Nothing was interfered with by that delay,’ Baden stated according to the nypost.  

While others surmised, perhaps all four victims were dead, but with every pressing minute lapsing, the assailant had more time to make their getaway and cover their tracks.

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