Relatives of Dylan Mortensen, one of the surviving roommates in the University of Idaho murders, gave an update on how she’s doing after Bryan Kohberger’s sentencing.
Just a week after Kohberger, 30, was sentenced to life behind bars for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, Mortensen’s aunts Kate and Ellie set up a GoFundMe page to help their niece adjust to her “new reality.”
Mortensen, 21, and fellow roommate Bethany Funke survived the November 2022 murders at an off-campus student house in Moscow, Idaho.
“It’s been two and a half years of Dylan silently and bravely putting one foot in front of the other, cooperating with law enforcement, processing, and healing from the unimaginable,” Mortensen’s aunts explained. “Dylan has had to learn how to live in her new reality — forever lacking peace, security, safety and her closest friends.”
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Mortensen’s family are hoping to raise funds “to support Dylan in building back her life and her future.” They said that going forward, Mortensen “will require relocation, intensive long term trauma therapy, and extra security and privacy measures.”
“Thank you for helping us to fill Dylan’s world with support, love and light after such a dark time. We deeply appreciate it,” Kate and Ellie concluded.
In an update, they later added: “Dylan is overwhelmed with gratitude for all of the messages, donations and support. She reads every message and is so grateful for your kindness. Thank you for making a difference in her life.”
The GoFundMe page has raised nearly $100,000 as of early Monday, August 4.
Mortensen and Funke, 21, both delivered emotional victim impact statements during Kohberger’s July 23 sentencing in Boise, Idaho. Mortensen bravely addressed the courtroom, while a friend delivered Funke’s statement on her behalf.
“What happened that night changed everything,” Mortensen said while holding back tears. “Because of him, four beautiful, genuine, compassionate people were taken from this world for no reason.”
“What he did shattered me in places I didn’t know could break. I should have been figuring out who I was,” she continued. “I should have been having the college experience and starting to establish my future. Instead, I was forced to learn how to survive the unimaginable.”
Mortensen said that since the killings, she has suffered regular panic attacks and is terrified of being alone.
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“I can’t breathe, I can’t think, I can’t stop shaking. It’s far beyond anxiety. It’s my body reliving everything over and over again. My nervous system never got the message that it is over, and it won’t let me forget what he did to them,” she said.
Addressing Kohberger, Mortensen called him a “hollow vessel” and “something less than human.”
“He chose destruction. He chose evil. He feels nothing. He tried to take everything from me: my friends, my safety, my identity, my future,” she said.
Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders of Mortensen’s roommates Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Chapin, who was sleeping over, after agreeing a plea deal in early July to avoid the death penalty.
Kohberger was moved into solitary confinement in an Idaho prison on Tuesday, July 29, a week after his sentencing.
A spokesperson for the Idaho Department of Correction told Us Weekly last week that Kohberger was transferred to “long-term restrictive housing on J Block at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.”
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