The University of Idaho student who survived the massacre and came face-to-face with a masked man believed to be Bryan Kohberger is asking a Latah County judge to temporarily halt an order authorizing the release of videos and photographs that could reveal her identity. In a firsthand affidavit, she described how the trauma has upended her life.
“I worry that even appearing in the background of someone’s photo could lead to more people recognizing me or identifying where I am,” Dylan Mortensen wrote in the affidavit to Judge Megan Marshall, urging her to reconsider the release order.
Mortensen said she now uses an alias for delivery orders, at work and even when meeting people for the first time.
Dylan Mortensen gets a hug after speaking at the sentencing hearing of Bryan Kohberger at the Ada County Courthouse, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho. (Kyle Green/AP via Pool)
“Since November 2022, my family and I have had to move nine times in an effort to protect our privacy and safety,” she wrote. “Reporters and strangers investigating the case on their own have shown up outside our homes, followed family members, and invaded our privacy in ways that have made it difficult to feel safe.”
Mortensen was among the first people to speak with police after officers arrived at 1122 King Road in Moscow on Nov. 13, 2022.
After the murders, which occurred around 4 a.m., she saw a masked man inside the home and texted another surviving roommate about what she had witnessed. She did not call 911.
Police were not contacted until around noon, after Mortensen and the other survivor, Bethany Funke, reached out to friends who came to the house. One of those friends discovered the bodies of roommate Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, also 20.
“Along with losing four of my friends and experiencing something incredibly traumatic, I have spent nearly four years dealing with public attention, harassment, threats, and constant speculation about my involvement in what happened. People who have never met me have formed opinions about my character, questioned my actions, and accused me of things I had absolutely nothing to do with.”
Responding officers also found 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves dead on the home’s top floor.
Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen, center with her face blurred, and other University of Idaho students wait to speak with police outside the 1122 King Road crime scene on Nov. 13, 2022. (Moscow Police Department)
“Along with losing four of my friends and experiencing something incredibly traumatic, I have spent nearly four years dealing with public attention, harassment, threats, and constant speculation about my involvement in what happened,” Mortensen wrote. “People who have never met me have formed opinions about my character, questioned my actions, and accused me of things I had absolutely nothing to do with.”
She later added, “It is difficult to feel completely comfortable in public when I am constantly considering whether someone knows who I am and what they might believe about me.”
According to her attorney, the remaining protection for Mortensen is the blur covering her face in redacted police videos and photographs. Releasing unblurred versions, the lawyer argued, would be an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
Mortensen’s attorney, Robyn McPherson, filed a motion to intervene last week after Marshall approved the release of records previously held by an independent media company, EWU Media LLC. McPherson is also asking the judge to reconsider the Oct. 20 order and stay its enforcement while the petition and any appeals are resolved.
The reconsideration motion asks Marshall to require Moscow authorities to identify the withheld records, submit them for a private “in-camera” judicial review and prepare a detailed index. McPherson argues that Mortensen cannot fully assert her privacy rights without knowing what the records contain.
McPherson said Moscow’s city attorney told her the documents were expected to include interviews, photographs and videos of Mortensen.
EWU submitted a public records request on Aug. 28, 2025, but the request was at least partially denied. The entity then asked the court to compel the city to release the records, and Marshall agreed to do so last month.
In a separate court filing, McPherson wrote that she submitted the motion several days after learning that Moscow’s city attorney did not intend to challenge the decision.
“D.M. seeks reconsideration of the October 20 order only on the issue of whether disclosure of the records withheld by the City [of Moscow] would constitute ‘an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,’” McPherson wrote.
Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
She also argued that city lawyers failed to provide the files in question to the judge before her decision came down.
McPherson is asking for her client to join the case to pursue a stay on the release of additional images and reconsideration of Marshall’s order. She argued neither Moscow officials nor other intervenors — the families of Chapin and Madison Mogen — have been aligned with her specific privacy interest.
Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 and then tried to take back his plea earlier this year. The case is still playing out in front of a different judge.
Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse for his sentencing hearing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool)
Marshall, who was the original magistrate judge overseeing Kohberger’s case before his arraignment in May 2023, granted the additional release of public records on Oct. 20.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Nov. 12.
Kohberger is due to return to court for a hearing on his petition for post-conviction relief on Dec. 10.