Bryan Kohberger Said Victim's Name on Night of Idaho Murders, Surviving Roommate Told Police in Newly Unsealed Interview

NEED TO KNOW

• Bryan Kohberger said the name of Kaylee Goncalves on the night of the Idaho murders, according to members of the Moscow Police Department and Idaho State Police

• That information was given to them by surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen, who said that she was confused about what she saw and heard on the night of the murders — but not this

• "She advised she knows what she heard, especially about hearing who she believed was Kaylee crying and the male voice telling her he was there for her," Det. Victoria M. Gooch wrote in newly unsealed documents
  

Bryan Kohberger had no known ties to any of his victims, prosecutors have said. But according to one of the surviving roommates, he identified at least one of his victims by name before stabbing them to death.

Two newly unsealed documents in the murder state that Dylan Mortensen told authorities she heard the killer say Kaylee Goncalves' name during his fatal stabbing spree.

Idaho State Police (ISP) Tpr. Jeffory Talbot wrote in his report that upon arriving at the Moscow home of the four University of Idaho victims, Sgt. Dustin Blaker of the Moscow Police Department (MPD) provided him with an overview of the information that police had gathered that morning.

"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," Tpr. Talbot wrote in his summary of the briefing he received from Sgt. Blaker, a copy of which was among the unsealed documents obtained by PEOPLE.

At the time of this first interview, Mortensen believed that she heard Goncalves run down the stairs at the time of the murders while trying to flee her killer.

Mortensen said that after hearing Goncalves run downstairs she heard the killer speak

"She then heard a male voice, which she stated she had never heard before, say 'It's okay, I'm going to help you.' [Mortensen] believed the unidentified male was in the bathroom and with the person who was crying. She believes it was Kaylee who was the one crying," read the report summarizing Mortensen's first interview after the killings.

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Mortensen then changed her story later that same day after learning more details about the murders, saying she believed it was "probably Xana who was crying," even though "at the moment of hearing the crying, she stated she believed it was Kaylee who was crying."

She also said Kernodle was likely the person she heard running down the stairs after discovering her friends being stabbed or seeing Kohberger.

Mortensen did state in both interviews that she was still in shock and trying to process the situation. However, even after saying that, she told police she was certain about the killer using Goncalves' name.

"She advised she knows what she heard, especially about hearing who she believed was Kaylee crying and the male voice telling her he was there for her," Det. Victoria M. Gooch wrote in a report filed after she conducted that first interview with Mortensen alongside Sgt. Blaker of the MPD.

Mortensen, who is the lone eyewitness to have seen the killer on the night of the murders, also struggled to identify Kohberger as the man she saw that night.

This is according to a newly unsealed interview that suggests her testimony — had she been forced to take the stand — might not have been a home run for prosecutors.

On the day of Kohberger's arrest, authorities discovered that Mortensen said she could not confirm that Kohberger was the man she saw that night.

"From people releasing Bryan Kohberger's name, I know it's him, but I don't know," Mortensen said after the arrest.

Then, in an interview with Det. Joe Lake of the ISP that day, Mortensen said after seeing a picture of Kohberger: "Nothing came back to me at all, so that like, and... I feel like if I saw that my mind would be like, 'Oh yeah, that's him, but ... I just don't remember at all.' "

Mortensen was in court on the day a judge sentenced Kohberger to four lifetimes in prison.

She spoke to the man who murdered her four friends through tears, describing the fear she still feels every day since losing her four friends. Mortensen then bravely vilified the man who took their lives as he sat just a few feet away.

"He is a hollow vessel. Something less than human. A body without empathy or remorse," Mortensen told the court.

She later said of Kohberger, "He chose destruction, he chose evil. He feels nothing. He tried to take everything from me."

Kohberger, who had confessed to the murders three weeks prior, showed no emotion at any point during Mortensen's remarks.

Read the original article on People