Bryan Kohberger Was Too ‘Scared’ to Kill Other Roommates During Idaho Murders, Prosecutor Suggests

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<span class="wp-caption-text">Mega | Washington State Univ Police / M</span>

Bryan Kohberger violently murdered the Idaho Four in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, but he left two of their other roommates in the house alive.

One week after Kohberger, 30, was given four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, prosecutor Bill Thompson speculated that the killer was too nervous to continue the slayings – even though one roommate saw him well enough to describe him to police.

Dylan Mortensen told investigators that she “peeked out of her bedroom” and saw a man around “6-feet tall, slim build, with a black ski mask” on the night of the deaths of Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, according to a report by Officer Mitch Nunes.

Thompson said he had a “hard time imagining that the killer did not see Dylan” as well in an interview with the Idaho Statesman.

“At that point, he’d been in the house probably longer than he planned, and he had killed more people than he planned,” the prosecutor continued. “It wouldn’t surprise us that the killer was scared at that point and decided they had to leave, not knowing if law enforcement already had been called.”

 <span class="wp-caption-text">Kaylee Goncalves/Instagram</span>
Kaylee Goncalves/Instagram

The fateful night left Mortensen shaken and traumatized to a point that is “far beyond anxiety.”

In her victim impact statement, she said the feeling was so intense, it was like her body was “reliving everything over and over” to the point where she needed to sleep in her mom’s bed out of sheer terror.

“People call me strong, they say I’m a survivor, but they don’t see what my new reality looks like,” Mortensen said at the time. “They don’t see the panic attacks, the hypervigilance, the exhaustion.”

Their other surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, was left with survivor’s guilt after the horrific attacks.

“I hated and still hate that they’re gone, but for some reason, I am still here and I got to live,” her own victim impact statement read. “Why me? Why did I get to live, and not them?”

Kohberger declined to comment on the murders at the hearing.

As the convicted murderer spends the rest of his life in prison, former wanted fugitive Seth Ferranti suggested he won’t be popular among the inmates.

“Child molesters, rapists and woman beaters get smashed, and he’ll be stereotyped like that,” he said, according to Fox News Digital. “Some dudes will talk to the new guy, some dudes won’t. Some will press him or extort him or offer him some type of friendship or protection.”

“I’ve seen dudes strung out, turned out, court chaos, catch new cases, get killed, get shipped out,” he added. “Anything can happen in prison, it will make you or break you.

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