Two roommates who were inside the house of the quadruple homicide near the University of Idaho broke their silence and said that they are struggling to accept why the lives of “four beautiful people” were taken so brutally.
For the first time, the roommates of the victims wrote letters that were read aloud at a church vigil Friday night.
Roommate Bethany Funke stated in her letter that Mogen would tell her that “‘everything happens for a reason’ — but I’m having a really hard time trying to understand the reason for this.”
The other roommate, Dylan Mortensen, said in her letter that the victims “lit up any room they walked into and were gifts to this world.”
She continued to say, “My life was greatly impacted to have known these four beautiful people. My people who changed my life in so many ways and made me so happy.”
The victims were Maddie Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20.
Police reported that Funke and Mortensen were on the first floor of the home when a killer or killers attacked the other roommates.
Police stated that the four victims were likely sleeping and that all of the victims were stabbed multiple times with defensive wounds on some of them.
The investigation is now in its fourth week, and frustration is growing among the victims’ families and the nation as a whole over why a suspect or motive has not been identified. Also, the weapon which is believed to be a large fixed-blade knife has not been found either.
The anger towards the Moscow police and other agencies has also risen in the wake that the police have had to walk back conflicting statements several times.
Continuing in her letter, Mortensen stated, “I know it will be hard to not have the four of them in our lives, but I know Xana, Ethan, Maddie, and Kaylee would want us to live life and be happy, and they would want us to celebrate their lives.”
