One of surviving roommates of the four students of the Idaho University murdered by Bryan Kohberger In 2022, spoke during her condemnation hearing on Wednesday.
It was the first time that Dylan Mortensen spoke publicly since the murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in Moscow, Idaho, November 13, 2022. Kohberger guilty To murders earlier this month as a plea, to save him from the death penalty. He should be sentenced to perpetuity without the possibility of parole.
“What happened that night has changed everything,” started Mortensen, reading his declaration of impact on the victim through tears after taking a few moments to come together. “Because of him, four beautiful, authentic and compassionate have been taken from this world without reason.”
Mortensen, who had been 19 years old shortly before the murders, said that Kohberger had also removed his ability to trust the world around him.
“What he did broke me in places I didn’t know could break,” she said. “I should have understood who I was. I should have had the university experience and start to establish my future. Instead, I was forced to learn to survive the unimaginable.”
She described being terrified to be alone or to close her eyes and have panic attacks that occur “like a tsunami from nowhere”.
Kyle Green / AP 
“I can’t breathe, I can’t think, I can’t stop trembling,” she said. “It is far beyond anxiety, it is my body reviving everything again and again. My nervous system has never received the message that it is finished, and that will not let me forget what he did to them.”
Without saying his name, Mortensen described Kohberger as “a welcome ship, 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 security, my identity, my future,” she said.
But Mortensen said he couldn’t take his voice.
“Living is the way I honor them,” she said. “To speak today is to help me find a kind of justice for them and I will never let it take this.
“He will never take the memories I had with them. He will never erase the love we have shared, the laughter we had or the way they made me feel and whole. These things are mine, they are sacred and he will never touch them.
“I feel sadness, I feel rabies, I feel joy even when it is difficult, I feel love even when it hurts, I will live, and even if I will always live with this pain, at least I will live my life. He will stay here, empty, forgotten and helpless.”
After completing his declaration, judge Steven Hippler thanked him for his courage.
Kyle Green / AP 
Just before Mortensen speaks, a statement from the other surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, was read by a friend.
In her statement, Funke said that when she woke up that day, she didn’t know what had happened.
“I always carry so much regret and guilt not to know what happened and not to call on (911) immediately, even if I understand that it would have changed anything, even if the paramedical paramedics had been just outside the door,” she said.
Funke faced death threats and online attacks after the murders, she said.
“Social media have aggravated things and foreigners invented stories to have fun,” she said. “The media harassed not only me but also my family. People presented themselves with us, they called my phone, my parents’ phones, the telephones of other family members, and we were continued while I was still trying to survive emotionally and cry the loss of my friends.”
Funke also expressed the feeling of guilt of the survivor.
“I always think about it every day: why could I have lived and not them? For a long time, I couldn’t even look at their families without feeling guilty,” she said.
Funke also described feeling the fear that “never really leaves”, but said she remembered living for her friends.
“Everything I do, I do it with them in mind,” she said. “I know they would like me to continue to live my life as much as possible.”
