Four of your roommates and supposed “friends” were just killed and the first thing you want to know when talking to police is if you can go back to Nevada for Thanksgiving with the family. Not exactly the thing many people would ask someone in law enforcement.
That said, that is what in fact University of Idaho student Bethany Funke asked members of the Moscow Police Department on Nov. 13, 2022. Police had been called to the student rental home at 1122 King Road around noonish or early afternoon. Inside, four students lay dead.
Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were killed sometime earlier that morning. Police reports suggest the latter two were found in Kernodle’s bedroom, with Goncalves and Mogen discovered in Mogen’s third-floor bedroom.
While the murders are by far the most disturbing thing here, another disturbing thing is what the two surviving roommates have had to say over the last two and a half years.
Funke from Nevada and Dylan Mortensen from Boise, Idaho, have been the center of much attention from the true crime world on the Internet.
I have been consistent from early on in this case that I did not think Mortensen and Funke had a hand in the killings. While I still believe that, they are certainly not going to win any Roommate of the Year awards anytime soon.
Recently released body cam footage from the Moscow Police Department shows both survivors outside on a chilly and overcast Moscow day talking to authorities.
Among some of the things that stood out to me in the body cam footage:
- Dylan claims Kaylee ran down the stairs (to the second floor) and yelled someone is here. That is presumably someone who should not be in the home. Goncalves supposedly was never seen again. Meantime, Mortensen went back in her bedroom and reportedly locked the door. Despite hearing Goncalves reportedly scream and a male voice say that they were there to “help” someone, Mortensen never called 911. If Goncalves ran downstairs to the second floor screaming, how did she supposedly end up dead in bed with Mogen on the third floor? Did the perp/s drag her back upstairs? I don’t care if she’s young, drunk, or just plain stupid, the irresponsibility of Mortensen when at least one of her roommates was in trouble is inexcusable.
- When Bethany is first interviewed by MPD, she asks if she’ll be able to go home (Nevada) for Thanksgiving. Really?? I don’t have the words to describe that. Four of your “friends” were just slaughtered and you are concerned about Thanksgiving with the family.
- My late uncle was a cop. I have worked with cops over 36 years in journalism. The majority of them are good men and women. That said, the department here made its share of mistakes. Most notably, they let a number of students congregate outside unsupervised while they were inspecting the home. Minutes later, the cops do come out and ultimately begin talking to the students. You never let potential suspects and/or witnesses alone like that.
- If Kernodle was in fact stabbed some 50 times, how would Mortensen assume she was just passed out from drinking or drugs? Are you telling me there was NO noticeable blood around some 50 stab wounds? Sorry, I’m not buying that.
- Mortensen notes the stranger she saw looked at her as he passed through the second floor. Rule 101 of such acts like that taking place in the home is never to leave a witness behind. So, the perp just let Mortensen live and decided to take their chances she wouldn’t be able to make a sketch of them to the police department etc.?
More to come as I get through the second half of the body cam interviews and investigation.
DavidAlanThomas 