Holly MatkinMoscow, ID – Newly-released court documents show that one of two surviving roommates who shared a residence with the four University of Idaho students who were stabbed to death in November told investigators she saw a masked man inside their off-campus home on the morning of the murders.
The bombshell revelation was part of a 19-page arrest affidavit released on Thursday in the case against 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger, who was denied bail during his brief court hearing at Latah County Court in Moscow the same day, the Daily Mail reported.
Kohberger has been charged with one count of felony burglary and four counts of first-degree murder.
The document also contained details about DNA left at the scene that investigators have allegedly linked to Kohberger.
Dylan Mortensen lived with 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, 21-year-old Madison Mogen, and 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves at the home on King Road.
Kernodle’s 20-year-old boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, was also staying at the residence the night of the murders.
According to the affidavit, Mortensen told investigators she was awakened at about 4 a.m. on Nov. 13 by what she believed was the sound of Goncalves playing with her dog up on the third floor, FOX News reported.
Mortensen said she thought she heard Goncalves saying “there’s someone here,” a short while later, but Mortensen said she didn’t see anyone when she peeked out the window of her second-floor room.
According to the affidavit, Mortensen said she heard crying coming from Kernodle’s room and that she heard a male voice saying, “it’s OK, I’m going to help you,” FOX News reported.
A surveillance camera positioned 50 feet from Kernodle’s room on a nearby property captured “distorted” sounds of what seemed to be “voices or a whimper followed by a loud thud” at about 4:17 a.m., according to police.
A dog began barking at the same time.
Court documents noted Kernodle had defensive wounds and was likely awake when the killer struck, FOX News reported.
She had been on her phone on TikTok at about 4:12 a.m., police said.
The filing revealed Mortensen told investigators that she opened the door to her room and suddenly “saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” FOX News reported.
Mortensen said she “stood in a ‘frozen shock phase’” as the masked figure passed by her and left out the sliding glass doors on the second floor, according to investigators.
She then locked herself inside her room, but apparently did not realize what had happened to her roommates, the Daily Mail reported.
A call wasn’t placed to police until nearly eight hours later, when someone at the residence called about an unconscious individual.
Mortensen later described the suspect to police as being “5’10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” according to the affidavit.
Investigators have not recovered the murder weapon, but they did find a leather knife sheath that had been left on a bed next to Goncalves and Mogen’s bodies, the Daily Mail reported.
Police described the sheath in the affidavit as having “USMC” and “KA-Bar” insignia.
“The Idaho state lab later located a single source of male DNA (suspect Profile) left on the button snap of the knife sheath,” according to court documents.
After obtaining further detailed information on the sample from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) genetic genealogy branch, investigators dug through public DNA databases and allegedly matched the sample to Kohberger, the Daily Mail reported.
Undercover officers seized trash from the Kohberger family home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 27.
The DNA recovered from the trash indicated with high probability that it came from the biological father of the individual who left the DNA on the sheath found at the murder scene, NBC News reported.
Investigators also found a Vans shoe print outside the sliding glass door Mortensen told police the killer exited through, but the affidavit did not indicate the print had been matched to Kohberger, the Daily Mail reported.
Police located security footage from Kohberger’s apartment in Pullman, Washington, on Dec. 29 and matched the plate of his vehicle to other surveillance footage from the Moscow area, according to the Daily Mail.
Information gleaned from the footage and from Kohberger’s phone records allegedly showed he had visited the area around the crime scene at least a dozen times prior to the murders, according to the filing.
Investigators said they believe Kohberger turned his phone off or put it in airplane mode prior to arriving in Moscow the day of the murders.
Kohberger, a PhD student studying criminology at the University of Washington, lived just eight miles from the murder scene.
The phone pinged as the suspect traveled through Pullman on afternoon of Nov. 13, then stopped until 4:48 a.m., when it pinged again south of Moscow on Idaho State Highway 95, the Daily Mail reported.
His phone showed him traveling south to Genessee, Idaho, then turning west towards Uniontown, Idaho, before he headed back north to Pullman, according to court documents.
He allegedly pulled up at his Pullman residence at 5:30 a.m., the Daily Mail reported.
Cell phone records indicate Kohberger went back to the area of the murder scene at about 9:15 a.m., before he returned to his home at 9:32 a.m.
After allegedly killing the four students, Kohberger went back to the University of Washington campus and went on teaching classes in the department of criminal justice and criminology until the end of the fall semester, FOX News reported.
He then drove his car cross-country to his family’s home in Pennsylvania.
It is still unclear whether the victims knew the suspect.
A motive for the quadruple homicide has not been released.
Due to Kohberger’s phone records and the statements made by Mortensen, investigators believe the four students were murdered between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m., the Daily Mail reported.
Kohberger was arrested at his family’s home in northeast Pennsylvania on Dec. 30.
He faces a potential death penalty if he is convicted, the Daily Mail reported.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 12.
