Netflix’s ‘The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare’ Reveals Why Dylan Mortensen Didn’t Call 911 During the Idaho Murders

The question of why Dylan Mortensen waited so long to call for help has become one of the most discussed elements surrounding the University of Idaho case, especially now that Netflix’s true crime documentary has brought the timeline back into the spotlight. ‘The Idaho Murders’ has reignited public fascination with the exact sequence of events inside the King Road house on the night Bryan Kohberger attacked four students.

For anyone catching up on the case through the Netflix documentary, the eight hour gap between the attack and the eventual 911 call has remained one of the most haunting and debated details of the entire tragedy.

What Happened Inside the House That Night

According to court documents, the murders are believed to have taken place between 4 a.m. and 4.20 a.m. on November 13, 2022. Dylan Mortensen was awoken around this time and heard a male voice say, “It’s OK, Kaylee, I’m here for you,” before hearing crying and seeing a masked man in the property.

At 4.19 a.m., Mortensen tried calling Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen, but none of the calls were answered. She then turned to texting instead, reaching out to her other surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, rather than immediately dialing emergency services.

Dylan told authorities she had been awakened at 4am, and records show she had then tried to call her housemates, but got no reply, so she texted Bethany, who replied. The pair spoke of a man in a ski mask being in their home, with Dylan saying she was “freaked out” and Bethany replying “So am I, come to my room, run.”

Why Dylan Mortensen Didn’t Call Police Sooner

The two students then stayed locked in Bethany’s room for hours rather than contacting police, and the reasoning behind that decision has become central to public discussion of the case. It is believed Dylan didn’t call 911 earlier because she was in a state of shock and had no idea what had actually happened in the house, having jumped up and locked her door because she was so scared.

Court filings have since added more specific detail to that explanation. Per unsealed court documents, Dylan told police that she didn’t call 911 because she was intoxicated and didn’t want to believe what was going on. Bethany, for her part, said she believed the man she’d seen may have been part of a prank being played by Ethan Chapin’s fraternity brothers.

That explanation has drawn mixed reactions from viewers of the documentary, some of whom find it understandable given the trauma involved, and others who remain troubled by the delay. Speaking in the documentary, Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger addressed the question directly, saying investigators asked why the roommates waited eight hours to call police.

The Friends Who Eventually Discovered the Scene

Mortensen eventually called her friend Emily Alandt asking her to come to the house, and Alandt arrived along with her boyfriend Hunter Johnson. Alandt described Mortensen telling her, “Something weird happened last night, I don’t really know if I was dreaming or not, but I’m really scared, can you come check out the house.” Not grasping the severity of the situation, Alandt initially joked about bringing pepper spray, not thinking anything of it at the time.

Once at the property, Johnson entered first and discovered the bodies of Chapin and Kernodle upstairs. Friend Josie Lauteren recalled that as soon as she stepped into the house she could feel that something was deeply wrong, and Johnson quickly told the others to call 911 after seeing what was upstairs. According to Lauteren, Johnson worded the emergency carefully, telling them to say there was an unconscious person rather than revealing what he had actually seen, sparing them from immediate trauma.

What the 911 Call and Coroner Revealed

The frantic 911 call was ultimately placed by Mortensen and Funke at around 11:55 a.m. on November 13, with one of the women sobbing to the dispatcher that something had happened in their house and they didn’t know what. By the time help arrived, though, it was already far too late for the four victims.

In the documentary, one investigator recalled asking the coroner directly whether anybody could have been saved had 911 been called immediately, and the answer given was no. Friends like Alandt have since pushed back against the idea that the delay changed anything, arguing that the “what if” question doesn’t matter because by the time anyone understood what was happening, it would have already been too late regardless.

Between the unsealed court documents, the surviving roommates’ own accounts, and the reflections from friends who finally uncovered the horror that morning, the picture painted is one of pure shock rather than negligence, but that hasn’t stopped viewers from debating the timeline every time a new documentary revisits the case. Do you think the eight hour wait changed anything about the outcome, or does the coroner’s answer settle that question for good?