UPDATE: 8/16/25 6:35 p.m. ET — Idaho police have clarified surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen’s initial claim that Byran Kohberger identified Kaylee Goncalves by name.
“The investigators do not believe the suspect uttered any names,” Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger told The Statesman on Monday, August 18. “What was confirmed was that Dylan reported hearing a male’s voice stating something to the effect of, ‘It’s OK, I’m going to (or I’m here to) help you.’”
Idaho State Police Detective Jeff Talbott wrote in his report that the information from Mortensen’s initial interview was relayed to him by Moscow Police Sgt. Dustin Blaker, a fellow officer who was among the first to respond to the crime scene in November 2022. However, throughout the course of the investigation, detectives discovered no corroboration that Kohberger said a victim’s name.
Original story below:
Bryan Kohberger, the man who admitted to killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, was accused of saying one of the victims’ names while committing the heinous crime, per newly unsealed police documents.
Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen told Idaho police that Kohberger, 30, identified Kaylee Goncalves by name during the quadruple slaying, according to docs obtained by People and NewsNation.
“Sometime in the early morning hours, [Mortensen] was awoken and opened her room door [redacted] and heard a male say, ‘It’s okay, Kaylee, I’m here for you,’ and crying,” Idaho State Police Tpr. Jeffory Talbot wrote in a summary based on a discussion with Sgt. Dustin Blaker of the Moscow Police Department.
“She then shut the door. A short while later, she opened her door again and saw someone approximately 5’10” tall, dressed in black with a ski mask, standing in the kitchen,” the documents continued.
In response, Kaylee’s father, Steve Goncalves, told TMZ on Sunday, August 17, that this was the first he had heard of the chilling detail.
“The only thing more disturbing than the murder of your child is hearing that the killer called out her name while committing this heinous act — and then discovering the prosecutor deliberately hid this fact from the families,” Steve said.
According to Steve, “Kaylee knew she was being hunted — yet no one in that town lifted a finger to stop it.”
A subsequent interview with investigators, however, revealed that Mortensen later recanted that version, omitting Goncalves’ name from the quote, per documents obtained by ABC News.
Mortensen claimed she was “trying to determine what was real,” per the docs. She alleged that she was “being truthful, but some of what she has been discussing, she is not certain is factual,” and that “she has been working through it to try to remember what happened.
Per ABC News, the docs state that Mortensen said in the police interview that she heard who she thought was Goncalves walking upstairs toward her third floor room and “heard Kaylee say ‘someone’s here,’ and she sounded frantic,” and that Mortensen “described Kaylee’s tone as somewhere between talking and yelling it.”
She “believed it was Kaylee who was walking up the stairs with [her dog] Murphy,” then “heard who she believed to be Kaylee running down the stairs,” the interview claimed, per the outlet.
Mortensen added that “she does not know if she actually heard this, or whether she was drunk,” according the documents. “She then heard a male voice, which she stated she had never heard before, say ‘It’s OK, I’m going to help you.’”
In early July, Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders of Kaylee, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
The killer was handed four consecutive life sentences during a sentencing hearing on July 23.
Mortensen delivered a victim impact statement at the hearing, describing Kohberger as a “hollow vessel, something less than human, a body without empathy, without remorse.”
“He chose destruction. He chose evil. He feels nothing. He tried to take everything from me: my friends, my safety, my identity, my future,” she said.
“He will stay here, empty, forgotten and powerless,” she added.
The gag order on the Idaho University case has been lifted following Bryan Kohberger’s sentencing — and more details about the murders are being revealed. On November 13, 2022, Kohberger entered the residence of 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho and stabbed college students Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin to death. […]
Following Kohberger’s sentencing, Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson theorized why Kohberger had spared Mortensen, who said she saw her roommates’ assailant on the night.
“From what Dylan described, I have a hard time imagining that the killer did not see Dylan,” he said.
Thompson continued, “At that point, he’d been in the house probably longer than he planned, and he had killed more people than he planned. … It wouldn’t surprise us that the killer was scared at that point and decided they had to leave, not knowing if law enforcement already had been called.”
