Dylan Mortensen: Idaho Murder Survivor Who Was Spared by Bryan Kohberger Sobs after Facing Him in Court as Killer Gives Cold Stare to Her

The University of Idaho student who survived Bryan Kohberger’s brutal attack came face-to-face with him for the first time since seeing him and his “bushy eyebrows” on the night of the horrific murders. She described Kohberger as an “evil” and empty coward, during her emotional victim impact statement.

“He is a hollow vessel, something less than human. A body without empathy, without remorse,” survivor Dylan Mortensen sobbed as she told the Boise courtroom during Kohberger’s sentencing Wednesday. Kohberger locked eyes as Mortensen spoke, maintaining his signature cold, emotionless stare. Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and in shackles, he displayed the same lifeless expression he had shown throughout the hearings.

Face-to-Face with the Killer

The second survivor, Bethany Funke, seemingly couldn’t bring herself to face Kohberger in person and had a friend read her statement aloud in court.

In her message, she recalled the traumatic experience of finding the bodies of her friends and roommates and spoke about receiving death threats from people fixated on the case who wrongly blamed her for surviving.

Mortensen was inside the Moscow home on November 13, 2022, when Kohberger moved from room to room with a Ka-Bar knife, murdering Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Ethan Chapin, 20, while they slept.

She even briefly saw the killer as he walked by her — and her account of a masked figure with “bushy eyebrows” played a key role in identifying and connecting him to the murders.

However, for reasons still unknown, Kohberger spared the lives of Mortensen and Funke — and both have since struggled deeply with crushing survivor’s guilt.

“Why me? Why did I get to live and not them?” Funke said in a statement read by a friend after she was unable to face Kohberger.

Funke remembered how she and Mortensen had planned to spend the morning of the attack laughing with their friends until they couldn’t catch their breath.

Instead, she was met with the horrific sight of her friends brutally murdered by Kohberger — a trauma that has haunted her ever since. “I have not slept through a single night since this happened,” she added, explaining that she constantly wakes up in a panic.

“The fear never really leaves,” Funke added.

Survivors Still Traumatized

Mortensen shared that she has suffered from frequent panic attacks since the night of the murders, and now, every time she enters a room, she instinctively searches for exits and mentally maps out how to escape.

After takinga long moment to breathe and collect herself, Mortensen tearfully delivered her statement, visibly affecting many in the courtroom — all except Kohberger, who coldly stared at her with hardly a blink as she detailed the lives he had stolen.

“Because of him, four beautiful, genuine, compassionate people were taken from this world for no reason,” she said. “He didn’t just take their lives, he took the light they carried into every room.”

“He took away the ability to tell them that I love them and that I’m so proud of them,” she added. “All of it is gone.”

Kohberger showed no emotion even as Mortensen spoke about his punishment — facing four consecutive life sentences behind bars.

“He chose destruction. He chose evil. He feels nothing,” Mortenson said.