A survivor of the University of Idaho killings allegedly believed the sounds of four of her housemates being brutally murdered were sounds from college partyers in her house.
Dylan Mortensen, 21, allegedly called out to her friends and roommates during the early morning hours of November 13 to quiet down.
‘Calm down, you’re being loud!’ she reportedly yelled around 4am, in addition to ‘I’m trying to sleep!’
The college student then closed and locked her door, according to one report in the New York Post.
After hearing some more loud noises that night, Mortensen opened her door again and saw accused murdered Brian Kohberger, 28, but believed him to be a partygoer.
Dylan Mortensen, 21, allegedly called out to her friends and roommates during the early morning hours of November 13 to quiet down
![(L-R) Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee's shoulders), Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/01/05/21/66231107-11603545-_L_R_Dylan_Mortensen_Kaylee_Goncalves_Madison_Mogen_on_Kaylee_s_-a-1_1672954762805.jpg)
(L-R) Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee’s shoulders), Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke
Mortensen told law enforcement authorities she had seen a strange figure dressed in black walking past her toward the back exit of the house just after 4am on the night of the murders.
Authorities determined the four students were killed sometime between 4 and 4.25am.
Police would not be called to the off-campus residence for another eight hours.
In December, Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania at his parents’ house and charged with the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
Both Mortensen and 21-year-old Bethany Funke were home at the time of the killings, but were left unharmed by the murderer.
Speculators of the shocking case wondered why the surviving roommates went eight hours between the time of the murders and when they called police.
Initial details from an affidavit released in January said that one of the surviving roommates opened her door to find a man ‘clad in black clothing and a mask’ with bushy eyebrows.
The witness is described as standing in a ‘frozen shock phase’ as the man walked toward the house’s back door before she locked herself in her room.
New details pertaining to the grisly killings were recently revealed that confirmed Kaycee Goncalves and Madison Mogen were killed first, and after Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were killed on the second floor of the house.
Chapin was murdered in the doorway of Kernodle’s room and Kernodle apparently attempted to fight the killer by repeatedly grabbing the knife from suspect Kohberger.
She had deep cuts on her fingers. Chapin apparently was slashed in the neck.
![Kohberger allegedly committed the heinous crimes sometime between 4am and 4.25am on November the 13](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/02/12/20/67604567-11742681-image-a-11_1676233171880.jpg)
Kohberger allegedly committed the heinous crimes sometime between 4am and 4.25am on November the 13
![Bryan Kohberger, 28, was let go from his teaching assistant job due to 'behavioral problems' and for having a 'sexist attitude toward women' days prior to the alleged murders](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/02/12/20/67477679-11737355-Bryan_Kohberger_28_was_let_go_from_his_teaching_assistant_job_du-a-61_1676232998213.jpg)
Bryan Kohberger, 28, was let go from his teaching assistant job due to ‘behavioral problems’ and for having a ‘sexist attitude toward women’ days prior to the alleged murders
![Investigators removing one of the mattresses from the crime scene](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/02/12/20/66308351-11737355-Investigators_removing_one_of_the_mattresses_from_the_crime_scen-a-62_1676232998273.jpg)
Investigators removing one of the mattresses from the crime scene
It was recently revealed that there is a distinct possibility the judge in Kohberger’s forthcoming trial may lift the gag order currently in place on the families of the victims, who could be asked to testify as witnesses.
The case garnered widespread publicity, and in January Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall issued the sweeping gag order, barring attorneys, law enforcement agencies and others associated with the case from talking or writing about it.
In the gag order, Marshall said the speech restriction was needed to protect Kohberger’s right to a fair trial.
Goncalves’ family’s attorney Shanon Gray filed an appeal to the gag order earlier this week, calling it “facially overbroad and vague” and unconstitutional, claiming it violated their right to free speech.
‘As attorney for one of the Victim’s families, I am allowed to relay to the media any of the opinions, views, or statements of those family members regarding any part of the case,’ Gray said.
Kohberger’s lawyer, public defender Anne Taylor, filed an objection to the appeal, saying it doesn’t violate First Amendment rights and is not ‘facially vague.’
‘If Mr. Gray truly intends only to voice his clients’ thoughts and opinions, then the Court’s previous exemption has already cured the supposed First Amendment infirmity – Mr. Gray’s clients may voice these thoughts and opinions themselves – as they have clearly been doing,’ wrote Jay Weston Logsdon, an attorney with Taylor’s office.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson noted that the victims’ families, particularly the Goncalveses, could take the stand.
‘The members of the Goncalves family, who are represented by Gray, are potential witnesses in this case, including at trial and/or sentencing,’ he wrote in an affidavit Wednesday.
Thirty news organizations have also asked the Idaho Supreme Court to overturn the gag order.
The coalition of news organizations contends that it violates the right to free speech by prohibiting it from happening in the first place.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk