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One of the surviving roommates of the University of Idaho killings has transferred to a different school and is enduring feelings of guilt for living through the attacks, the New York Post reports.
In an exclusive interview with the news outlet, Patricia Munroe said her stepdaughter, Dylan Mortensen, is doing “okay” but is grappling with how to make sense of the tragedy.
“There’s a lot of guilt because, you know, if someone says, ‘Oh, well, Dylan was so lucky,’ you know, you don’t want to take on that luck — because all of the children deserved luck. They all deserved to be spared from that,” Munroe told the news outlet.
Munroe’s comments come a year after four students – Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – were found stabbed to death inside an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.
Mortensen and another roommate, Bethany Funke, survived the horrific ordeal and are believed to have not been targeted in the slayings.
Court records indicate that Mortensen may have seen the killer. She told investigators that she saw an unknown “figure clad in black clothing and a mask” walk past her on the second floor of the home and exit at a rear sliding door.
It is not clear whether the intruder saw Mortensen, who described the man as “5’10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” according to a probable cause affidavit reviewed by CrimeOnline. The document says Mortensen stood in a “frozen shock phase” and then “locked herself in her room after seeing the male.”
Investigators believe the stabbings occurred in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, but police were not called until around noon. It is still not clear publicly why authorities were not called earlier.
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Munroe said that Mortensen has transferred to a different university but declined to identify the school. The stepmom blasted online trolls for second-guessing what they would do if forced into a similar situation.
“I challenge anyone to be in a position where they wake up to four of their roommates gone and, you know, not even realizing it,” Munroe told the Post. “People have to understand that these children are very young . . . You know, they’re just young kids, and it’s just a really traumatizing thing. I just think that people need to have compassion.
She added: “There needs to be space and time for all the details to come out in trial.”
Prosecutors allege that 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger committed the murders. At the time of the slayings, he was a criminology Ph.D. student at the nearby Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. DNA links Kohberger to a knife sheath found at the crime scene, but his lawyers contend he was not at the house and was instead driving around alone on the night of the killings.
A judge in late May entered a plea of not guilty on Kohberger’s behalf for four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. His trial was expected to start last month but has been delayed indefinitely after he waived his right to a speedy trial.
Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson in late June said his office planned to seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted.
[Feature Photo: Left, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves and right, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle;/Instagram]
