BOISE, Idaho — For the first time Wednesday, the surviving roommates in the Idaho student murders, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, have spoken out about the impact of that fateful night in November 2022.
Bethany Funke’s statement
A spokesperson read aloud Funke’s statement on her behalf during confessed killer Bryan Kohberger’s sentencing.
“I not only lost some of my best friends, I also lost a sister. Never in a million years would I have thought that something like this would’ve happened to my closest friends,” her statement said.
In it, she went on to describe the morning she learned that her four friends – Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin- had been murdered.
“If I had known, I would’ve called 911 right away,” her statement said.
Funke said she awoke that morning with a toothache and called her father, a dentist, for advice. After taking some medication, she went back to bed.
“I was getting flooded with death threats,” she said, referring to comments made online once it became public knowledge that she’d called someone else before dialing 911.
Her statement said that people began to call her phone, harass her family members – all while she was trying to grieve.
“I still think about this every day. Why me? Why did I get to live and not them?”
Dylan Mortensen’s statement
Second to address the court Wednesday was Dylan Mortensen. She chose to read her statement herself, mustering up the courage after breaking down several times at the microphone.
“What happened that night changed everything,” she began. “Because of him, four beautiful, genuine, compassionate people were taken from this world for no reason.”
Mortensen went on to describe the pain and grief she endured after that day – saying she had to sleep in her mother’s bed because she was afraid to be alone.
She referred to the anxiety that overcomes her as “the kind that slams into me like a tsunami out of nowhere.”
She said he stole parts of her that she feared she may never get back.
“He didn’t just take them from the world. He took them from me – my friends. My people who felt like my home. The people I looked up to and adored more than anyone. He took away my ability to trust the world around me,” she said.
Mortensen went on to describe a dream she said she had about a year ago, where she said goodbye to her four friends.
“When I woke up, I felt shattered and heartbroken, but strangely grateful because maybe that dream gave me the goodbye we never got.”
Mortensen did not choose to directly address Kohberger.
Instead, she spoke to those in the courtroom, calling him a “hollow vessel” and “a body without empathy or remorse.”
She said that she chose to speak Wednesday to find some sort of justice for her friends.
“He will never get to take my voice.”
Kohberger’s sentence
Once all victim impact statements were read during Wednesday’s sentencing, Judge Steven Hippler asked Kohberger if he would like to say anything. He “respectfully declined.”
Judge Hippler sentenced him to four consecutive life sentences for each murder count and 10 years in prison for the burglary charge.
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