Almost eight hours went by before police were contacted after four University of Idaho students were fatally stabbed.
In the hours after the attack, surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen had already encountered a masked man in the hallway of the off-campus Moscow residence she shared with the victims. Mortensen and another surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, later called authorities.
Now, the family of one of the victims says an earlier 911 call would not have changed the outcome.
Kaylee Goncalves’ parents, Kristi Goncalves and Steve Goncalves, said in the Netflix documentary The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare that they questioned the delay during a phone conversation with the coroner after their daughter was killed alongside Maddie Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle.
“At a particular moment that night,” Steve recalled asking, “Could Ethan have lived? Could Xana have lived?”
Kristi added, “Could somebody have been saved? And the answer was no.”
What Happened to Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin?
Authorities have said Bryan Kohberger, who had no known relationship with the victims, entered the Moscow home shortly after 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022, armed with a 7-inch KaBar knife and attacked the four students.
Kaylee and Maddie were later found dead in a third-floor bedroom, lying in the same bed.
Maddie had a gash from her eye to her nose, while Kaylee was “unrecognizable as her facial structure was completely damaged” in the knife attack, according to police records previously obtained by Oxygen.
Xana—who authorities believe likely encountered the killer before she was chased into her bedroom—was stabbed more than 50 times, according to the records. Ethan had a laceration to his neck and was killed as he slept in Xana’s bed.
What Did Dylan Mortensen See the Night of the Murders?
Dylan—who lived on the same floor as Xana—told police later that day in body cam footage obtained by the docuseries that she was going to sleep when she heard a scream and followed by “someone’s here.”
Then she heard someone sobbing in the bathroom. Though she believed it was Kaylee, investigators think she likely heard Xana crying.
“I just remember hearing this guy’s voice that I didn’t recognize saying, ‘You’re gonna be ok. I’m gonna help you’,” she told police in the body cam footage. “But i don’t know how to explain it. Like it wasn’t in a nice way. It was like a weird way, like a weird tone.”
After she was unable to reach her roommates by phone, she opened her door and saw a masked man “clad in black clothing” with “bushy eyebrows” pass by, per an affidavit in the case obtained by Oxygen.
“He looked at me, but he didn’t come towards me or say anything. Which was really confusing to me. I don’t understand that,” she told police in the body cam footage. “I’m pretty sure he went out the side door. I didn’t know what to do.”
Terrified, she reached out to Bethany, who told her to run to her downstairs bedroom. They remained there for hours until they called a friend and her boyfriend to come investigate. The group called 911 just before noon that day.
“We asked the question, why did the roommates wait eight hours to call the police?” Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger remarked in the Netflix doc. “There are so many reasons why you may not. People are in shock. It’s traumatic. I mean, I can’t imagine being of that age and being able to comprehend that this horrific thing just occurred.”
Xana’s college friend Kacy Johnston added that she had no ill will toward the roommates for not calling for help right away.
“I don’t blame them for making the phone call a little bit late,” she said in the doc. “I can only imagine what was going through their minds. If it were me in either one of their shoes, I would have never believed what occurred in that house that night.”
Bryan Kohberger Pleads Guilty to Murders
Investigators were able to trace the murders to Kohberger—a criminology doctoral student at the nearby Washington State University—through DNA on a knife sheath left at the crime scene. Authorities also used surveillance camera footage and cell phone records to build their case against him.
Kohberger pled guilty to the murders in July 2025 and was sentenced to life in prison. However, he recently spoke out to proclaim his innocence and hopes to withdraw the guilty plea.
He claimed in an affidavit filed in court and obtained by Oxygen that he was “convinced to falsely confess to capital murder, and felony burglary, by coercion, disinformation [and] false promises.”
