MICHAEL RUIZ: Idaho college massacre survivor says family moved 9 times as strangers followed them
The University of Idaho student massacre survivor who came face-to-face with a masked man believed to be Bryan Kohberger is asking a Latah County judge to press pause on an order granting the release of video and images that could show her face in a firsthand letter describing 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 an affidavit to Judge Megan Marshall, asking her to reconsider the order.
Mortensen added that she now uses an alias for delivery orders, at her job and even when introducing herself to new people.
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"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 one of the first to speak with police after they responded to 1122 King Road in Moscow on Nov. 13, 2022.
Read Dylan Mortensen's affidavit:
She also saw a masked man in her home after the 4 a.m. murders and texted another surviving roommate about it — but didn't call 911.
Police weren't called until around noon, after Mortensen and the other survivor, Bethany Funke, contacted friends who came to the house. One of them saw the remains of their roommate, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, also 20.
Responding officers also found 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves dead on the top floor.
"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."
Read her mother's affidavit:
Later, she wrote, "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."
What protection she has left, according to her lawyer, is the blur over her face in redacted police video and photographs, and releasing an unblurred version would be an "unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."
Mortensen's attorney, Robyn McPherson, filed a motion to intervene last week after Marshall agreed to the release of previously held records from an independent media company, EWU Media LLC. She is also asking the judge to reconsider the Oct. 20 order and issue a stay until the petition and appeals are resolved.
The motion to reconsider 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, arguing that her client can't fully argue for her right to privacy without knowing what the records contain.
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She said Moscow's city attorney told her that the documents were expected to include interviews, photographs and videos of Mortensen.
EWU filed a public records request on Aug. 28, 2025, which was at least partially denied. The entity then asked the court to compel the city to disclose them, and Marshall agreed to do so last month.
Read the motion to reconsider:
In another court filing, McPherson wrote that she filed the motion days after learning that Moscow's city attorney did not plan to challenge the decision.
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"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.
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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.
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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.