A surviving roommate of the Idaho murders victims, Dylan Mortensen, is reportedly ‘isolating herself’ after experiencing brutal ‘dogpiling’ on social media since the quadruple homicide in November.
New details have emerged about the wellbeing of the 21-year-old roommate who was in the house on the night of the brutal massacre and told police she witnessed a man walk past her bedroom after he had killed her friends.
Author and private investigator, J. Reuben Appelman is the only reporter to speak with the father of Mortensen, one of only two survivors from the University murder house.
‘In the beginning weeks after those homicides, she was basically dogpiled on on social media,’ he said in an interview with Ashleigh Banfield to discuss his new book, While Idaho Slept.
Vile web sleuths had accused Mortensen of being involved with the crimes, while others called her a drug dealer, among other names, he added.
A surviving roommate of the Idaho murders victims, Dylan Mortensen, is reportedly ‘isolating herself’ after experiencing brutal ‘dogpiling’ on social media since the quadruple homicide in November
Pictured: Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, at Latah County District Court on Sept. 13, in Moscow, Idaho. Mortensen saw Khoberger the night of the murders and described him as ‘clad in black clothing and a mask’ with bushy eyebrows
‘This was part of the trauma that she experienced,’ he said. ‘Dylan herself has retreated from the public eye, very few people see her.’
Mortensen’s father expressed heartache over his daughter suffering from brutal cyberbullies after the trauma she experienced from surviving the November massacre.
But Mortensen’s father told Appelman that his daughter is in the process of healing, despite being hounded by bullies.
‘She is in trauma therapy of sorts, she’s getting help from the spiritual community,’ he said to Banfield. ‘Isolating herself but she is stepping out a little at a time, she is gaming online with peers in group gaming session.’
‘She’s doing what she can without going into public,’ he added.
Mortensen and Bethany Funke, also 19, both survived the November 13 bloodbath but lost three of their roommates – Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, in the vicious attack. Xana’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 21, was also murdered.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, a PhD student at Washington State University, was charged with the four murders and a charge of burglary. Idaho is a death penalty state.
Author and private investigator, J. Reuben Appelman appeared in an interview with Ashleigh Banfield to discuss his new book, While Idaho Slept
Appelman said a childhood friend of Kohberger said he was mercilessly and relentlessly bullied and listened to screamo music through earbuds to block out the taunting
Initial details from an affidavit released in January said that Mortensen opened her door to find a man ‘clad in black clothing and a mask’ with bushy eyebrows.
In the affidavit, police described how Mortensen froze in fear early on November 13 after spotting the killer, having opened her bedroom door after hearing noises in the six-bedroom rental home.
The witness is described as standing in a ‘frozen shock phase’ as the man walked toward the house’s back door before she locked herself in her room.
She had opened the door twice before – once after hearing Kaylee say someone was in the house and again after the sound of crying came from Xana’s bedroom.
The teen told police she had locked herself in her second-floor bedroom after the encounter with the killer who was wearing a ski mask at the time but didn’t dial 911.
Police weren’t called to the scene until 11:58am – seven and a half hours after the students died.
Funke is believed to have slept through the attack in her ground floor bedroom.
According to the affidavit, Mortensen said she was awoken at around 4am by what sounded like Goncalves playing with her dog in a third-floor bedroom.
A short time later she heard Goncalves say ‘there’s someone here’, the haunting affidavit reveals. Mortensen looked out of her bedroom door but didn’t see anything.
The second time she opened her door she heard a male voice say something like, ‘It’s ok, I’m going to help you.’
At 4:17am, a neighbor’s security camera picked up audio of ‘what sounded like voices or a whimper followed by a loud thud. A dog can also be heard barking numerous times.’
Mortensen ‘stated she opened her door for the third time after she heard the crying and saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her’.
The family of victim Kaylee Goncalves have defended Mortensen’s actions.
Attorney Shanon Gray, who is representing the Goncalves family, said Mortensen was likely ‘scared to death’ when she encountered the man, and insisted that she was ‘still a victim in this case.’
Appelman is the only reporter who Mortensen’s father agreed to speak to. He said Mortensen’s father told him that his daughter is in the process of healing, despite being hounded by the press and online cyberbullies
Police described how Mortensen froze in fear early on November 13 after spotting the killer, having opened her bedroom door after hearing noises in the six-bedroom rental home. She has been accused of being involved with the crimes and cyberbullied online
Mortensen and Bethany Funke, also 19, both survived the November 13 bloodbath but lost three of their roommates – Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, in the vicious attack. Xana’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 21, was also murdered
In his interview, Appelman also described meeting with a childhood friend of Kohberger, who said the alleged murder was mercilessly and relentlessly bullied in high school, to the point that he had to listen to screamo music through earbuds to block out the taunting.
The friend reportedly rode the bus with him to school every day.
‘This young woman had told me that she wished not to be named but she told me quite a bit about him,’ he said to Banfield. ‘She said that he was bullied almost constantly as a junior high student, as was she. They were both nerds who didn’t fit in she said. They were very close. They sat together on the bus almost every day.’
‘Kohberger, she said, listened to music in his earbuds to block out the bullying, to block out the sort of chaos and darkness of the time period that he was living through,’ he added.
‘She said that the administrators of their schools did nothing about bullying at the time. Kohberger would walk around the halls listening to screamo music and at times hip hop and rap.’
Appelman, who is a 25-year Idaho resident was the first reporter Mortensen’s father agreed to speak with.
He lives just a couple miles from the Mortensen residence which he said may have given him an in.
‘When I went to speak to her father, you know, I was able to just walk up to his house. Many national news correspondents had tried the same thing,’ Appelman told Banfield.
‘They hadn’t gotten very far. He’s a rather large, intimidating man. I don’t know if that’s part of the reason why, why national correspondents couldn’t sort of break that wall and talk to him.’
On why Appelman was the first reporter Mortensen’s father agreed to speak with, he said: ‘I don’t know if I caught him on the right day or what but he hadn’t spoken to anybody else. He had turned down the New York Times.’
‘I had Idaho plates on my car, maybe that had something to do with it. I’ve lived here for 25 years, almost…I live just a couple of miles from Dylan Mortensen, actually, and a couple of miles in the other direction from her father,’ he added.
‘I was able to pull up to his house. He answered the door. I told him as an Idaho guy researching this book. And I don’t know if I caught him on the right day or what but he hadn’t spoken to anybody else.’
‘He had a very large dog that was watching me very carefully. And I think Brent Mortensen was watching me very carefully too. He has a lot of reason to distrust reporters.’