Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke: 2 surviving students ID’d as autopsy confirms 4 Idaho victims were murdered
MOSCOW, CALIFORNIA: Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke are the two University of Idaho students who survived the knife attack that killed four of their friends in their shared off-campus rental apartment. Young couple Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20, and close friends Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, were brutally murdered Nov 13.
Police said this week that Dylan and Bethany were in the modest Moscow home when it was attacked but luckily escaped the bloodshed. Autopsies of the four University of Idaho students who died in a residence near campus were performed by the Spokane County coroner. The Latah County coroner confirmed that all four students were killed with apparent stab wounds to the body. Aaron Snell, a spokesman for Idaho State Authorities, told Daily Mail that Dylan and Bethany were assisting police with their investigation, but would not elaborate on how they survived, or whether either of them called 911 later Sunday morning. He also told Daily Mail that the two are not suspects, but that the investigative team, which includes investigators from the Moscow Police Department, FBI, and Idaho State Police, is looking at all possibilities.
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Bethany, a member of Phi Beta Phi sorority, and Dylan, a 19-year-old from Boise, Idaho, both locked their social media accounts. However, both girls are regularly featured on Madison and Kaylee's accounts. One such touching Instagram picture of Madison, posted Aug 16, shows all five girls posing together, smiling, on the porch of the home where three of them died Sunday. According to a neighbor who lives in the house next door and wishes to remain anonymous, the house was known for its comings and goings, often late at night. "There's always parties at that house, and people going in and out, and there's usually some noise from there. But I didn't hear anything on Sunday morning - no screaming, no gunshots, nothing."
Initially, Moscow police claimed that the four students were killed by a "sharp-edged object," but later the autopsy report confirmed that it was a knife. No trace of the weapon has yet been found. Evidence collected during the autopsies was turned over to Moscow police, according to Spokane County. The bodies of the four fatalities were handed over to their families after the autopsies were completed. “On behalf of the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office, I would like to extend condolences to the loved ones of these young people and to everyone impacted by this terrible event,” Spokane County Chief Medical Examiner Dr Veena Singh said in a written statement as per Krem.