Idaho murders bombshell: New cell phone data reveals 'what surviving roommates did before calling 911'

Bryan Kohberger’s defense attorneys have released never-before-seen data from the cell phones of the surviving roommates at the time of the brutal University of Idaho murders.

Kohberger is going on trial in August for the murders of Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Ethan Chapin back on November 13, 2022.

It has previously been revealed that, at around 4am that morning, one of the victims’ roommates Dylan Mortensen came face-to-face with a masked intruder as he left the off-campus student home on 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho.

Panicked text messages between Mortensen and the only other survivor Bethany Funke shone a light on the students' fears about what was happening inside the home.

Cell phone records, released last week, show that the two students made a string of desperate calls and text to their roommates - but got no response.

Mortensen ended up leaving her bedroom on the second floor and going down to Funke's room on the first floor. 

Around eight hours later, just before midday, a harrowing 911 call was placed from Funke’s phone.

Police arrived on the scene to find a bloodbath with Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle and Chapin all brutally stabbed to death.

Now, in a new court filing released Wednesday, the accused killer’s defense has unveiled a more detailed record of the survivors’ cell phone activity in the timeframe between the moment Mortensen saw the masked man in the home and the moment the 911 call was placed.

The records suggest that the survivors were on social media at some points during the timeframe.

In the aftermath of the intruder sighting, Funke made the first phone call to Mortensen at 4.19am, the records show.

For the next 18 minutes, the records show constant activity on both of their phones as they call and text each other and the other roommates. 

At 4.34am, Funke's cellphone accessed Snapchat followed by Instagram at 4.37am.

In the court document, the next cell phone activity shown is at 7.30am when Funke calls her dad. She makes several more calls and texts including to her dad and mom.

Between 8.41 and 8.42am, Funke took photos. 

According to the defense document, Mortensen's cellphone was on Instagram between 8.05 and 10am. 

Between 8.05 and 11.57, Mortensen's cell phone accessed Instagram, Indeed, Snapchat, Yik Yak and TikTok, the filing alleges. 

According to the filing, her cell phone accessed Instagram a final time from 11.54am to 11.57am.

The 911 call was made from Funke's phone at 11.56am.

The defense does not reveal what the surviving roommates were doing on any of the platforms or sites - and so it is unclear if they are using them to try to contact their roommates and friends. 

The content of the messages and phone calls has also not been revealed.

And it is also unclear from the records whether the cell phone user was actively using the platforms or if the platforms were simply open on the phone. 

In the document, the defense points to the lapse in time between the panicked texts and the 911 call - and argues that the two survivors could have fled the home, but didn't. 

'DM first claims confusion, then after communicating with BF, claims fear to leave her room. Despite her stated fear of leaving her room she does so and joins BF downstairs. To get to BF’s bedroom DM passed the front door of the residence. BF was steps from the front door. Neither of them left the house. Neither of them called friends, family or law enforcement for help,' the defense writes. 

'Instead, both have a substantial amount of activity beginning in earnest less than 4 hours after DM made her way to BF’s room. BF and DM communicate with friends and parents and DM is on social media.'

The defense filing continues: 'The second grouping of message the State claim fit within the exception to the hearsay rule are those from DM to her roommates beginning at 10:23 a.m., 6 hours later. The State claims DM woke up and realized her roommates had not responded to her earlier texts. The State is wrong. DM was awake. 

'She was messaging on Snapchat, she was on Instagram and she text with her dad: and this is not an exhaustive list of activity on her phone. She was with BF who was also communicating with her parents and then later friends.'

In the court document, the defense accuses the state of having 'selected text messaging as excited utterances and present sense impression' rather than giving the full picture of the cell phone activity during the critical timeframe.

However, the defense also makes it clear that this is still only 'a more complete, but not exhaustive view of DM and BF’s communications and interactions with social media during the hours established by the state.'

The defense is asking the judge to block the text messages as evidence at trial and 'urges the court to look at everything that occurred during the timeline.'

The defense filing comes days after the 911 call was released for the first time, capturing the panicked voices of the Mortensen, Funke and two of their friends who had come to the home.

‘Hi, something is happening, something happened in our house. We don't know what. We have…’ the call begins.

The students are heard passing the phone between them, as they tell the dispatcher one of their friends is 'passed out' and 'not waking up.'

'Oh and they saw some man in their house last night,' one of the callers says.

The surviving roommates are expected to be key witnesses at Kohberger's trial this summer.

Several defense filings appear to point to a strategy to try to discredit their accounts. 

In a recent court filing, Kohberger's defense is asking the judge to block any evidence referencing 'bushy eyebrows' and to block Mortensen from using those words to identify Kohberger when she testifies at trial.

'Although she has never identified Mr. Kohberger, testimony by D.M. from the witness stand, describing bushy eyebrows while Mr. Kohberger sits as the accused at trial, will be as damning as her pointing to him and saying, "he is the man that did this,"' the defense argues.

The defense claims there are some inconsistencies in Mortensen's description of the masked intruder.

The legal team also points to artwork seen on the student's bedroom walls - many of which she had drawn - including 'many pictures of eyes with prominent eyebrows.' 

'Some of the eyebrows are heavy, voluminous, puffy, or perhaps subjectively bushy,' the defense states. 

Mortensen also told investigators that she 'had a lot of lucid dreams of being kidnapped or chased' and that, on the morning of November 13 2022, 'she did not fully understand what was a dream or not,' the defense writes.

Top defense attorney Duncan Levin said the defense appears to be preparing to make her testimony a 'key area of attack.'

‘It’s clear that the defense is positioning her testimony as a key area of attack, likely because they recognize how crucial her account is in the prosecution’s case,’ he said in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.    

Kohberger, who was a PhD student just over the border at Washington State University at the time, was arrested around six weeks on from the murders at his parent’s home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania.

The accused killer is due to go on trial in Ada County in August after it was moved out of Latah County where the killings took place.

If convicted, Kohberger faces the death penalty - an outcome that has been welcomed by Goncalves' grieving family who are calling for him to face the firing squad. 

Last year, firing squad became an alternative method of execution in Idaho, amid a shortage of lethal injection drugs.

But it is not the primary execution method and so no inmate has been put to death since it was introduced. 

Republican state lawmaker Bruce Skaug has since put forward a bill to change that and Goncalves' father Steve Goncalves is throwing his support behind it.

Kohberger's team has already lost one attempt to get the death penalty off the table.

Last month, the defense filed a new motion claiming Kohberger has autism - and that this means he should not face capital punishment.

According to Kohberger’s lead defense attorney Anne Taylor, his ‘autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reduces his culpability, negates the retributive and deterrent purposes of capital punishment, and exposes him to the unacceptable risk that he will be wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death.’

Due to his autism, Kohberger has 'little insight into his own behaviors and emotions,' often rocks his body back and forth when listening, has 'limited' facial expressions and 'his expressions are sometimes incongruent with what is happening around him,' the defense motion argues.

‘A juror seeing the defendant engage in any one of these behaviors, while sitting at counsel table during a murder trial, would perceive the defendant as strange, out-of-control, and even disrespectful of such a solemn proceeding,' the defense writes.

The defense is also asking the judge to block the words 'murder,' 'psychopath' and 'sociopath' from being used at his trial.

According to the defense, using the terms ‘murder,’ ‘murderer,’ ‘murdered,’ ‘murder weapon,’ and similar words would be ‘unfairly prejudicial’ to the accused killer.

The judge is yet to rule on these motions.

Kohberger is next due in court in April.