A California woman is speaking out in defense of the University of Idaho roommate who waited hours to call 911 after the brutal stabbings of four students, sharing her own chilling story of trauma and delayed action from three decades ago.
Alanna Zabel, now 50 and living in Santa Monica, says she knows exactly what it feels like to freeze in the face of horror. Back in 1992, she was a college student living in a three-story home with five Chi Omega sorority sisters at the University of Buffalo.
One night, one of her roommates was brutally attacked and raped. Zabel says she came home to an odd smell but dismissed it, thinking she was just drunk. She crashed in her room, and later heard someone enter briefly, assuming it was a roommate.
It was the attacker.
The next morning, she found her roommate lying in a pool of liquid. She didn’t see blood at first. She thought her friend had choked on vomit.
It wasn’t until paramedics arrived and said the word blood that the room turned red in her mind.
Zabel says her mind blocked out the trauma as a defense mechanism. She still finds it humbling that the brain can protect itself from what it cannot handle.
She says this experience gives her deep insight into what Dylan Mortensen, the 21-year-old roommate who saw a black-clad figure on the night of the November 13 massacre, must have gone through. Mortensen waited eight hours to call police.
You feel a tsunami of chaos and horror, Zabel says. You second-check yourself. If there is even a one percent chance something traumatic isnt true, you lean into believing it isnt.
Zabel says she still carries guilt, wondering if calling earlier could have reduced her roommates brain damage. She feels a responsibility to defend Mortensen, saying the 19-year-old will live with this for the rest of her life and one comment can crush someones spirit.
Kaylee Goncalves sister, Alivea, has also defended Mortensen, saying everyone should stop passing judgment until they have more information.
The 1992 attacker was convicted of rape and attempted murder. Bryan Kohberger, 28, a former PhD student in criminology, faces four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. He is being held on a $500,000 bond.
What would you have done if you were in that room?
