Dylan Mortensen is one of the two roommates who survived the knife attack that claimed the lives of four University of Idaho college students in their off-campus rental house on November 13, 2022. The murders were allegedly committed by Bryan Kohberger, who has been arrested and charged with four counts of murder and one count of felony burglary.
Prior to the attack that led to the death of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen, all Dylan friends and neighbors, Dylan was just like every other normal college student. However, the incident changed her life, as it forcefully threw her into the spotlight, making it impossible for her to live her life as freely as she used to.
Summary of Dylan Mortensen’s Biography
- Full name: Dylan Mortensen
- Gender: Female
- Place of Birth: The United States
- Residence: Boise, Idaho, United States
- Ethnicity: White
- Nationality: American
- Religion: Christianity
- Marital Status: Unmarried
- Education: Boise Senior High School, The University of Idaho
- Famous for: Surviving the Idaho Murders
- Dylan Mortensen’s Instagram: dylan_mortensen
How old is Dylan Mortensen?
Dylan Mortensen was born in 2001 and is currently 23 years old, but further details about her birth, including the exact date and place, are unknown. While it is known that she is an American citizen, details of her ethnicity, family background, and parents, among other things, have remained a mystery.
It might have been a bit easy to glean these details from her social media accounts, especially Instagram, but following the ugly event which took place on November 13, 2022, she set her Instagram page to private, making it difficult for just anyone to access it.
What is Dylan Mortensen Gender?
Considering the police affidavit which revealed Dylan’s account of the various sounds she heard the morning of the Idaho murders, it might be safe to say she is a female. This is because all through the affidavit, she was described by the pronouns “her” and “she.”
Additionally, when you look at her pictures on the internet, you’ll see a beautiful young woman with long blonde hair looking right back at you. However, for some reason, some people believe she is transgender and among them is a certain Justin, a trans man, who made a video speaking about the murder incident and claiming that he knows for a fact that Dylan was trans.
Reacting to the video on Reddit in February 2023, several people strongly opined that she was transgender. Observantiana wrote, “Even a blind hen can see she is a transgender. And it’s nothing wrong with that!” DaggsTheDistraught also said, “All I know, is before anyone mentioned this at all, Dylan’s neck looked pretty beefy to me. My brain said “trans” immediately…”
But, there were other people who believed that she was a female, and some others who felt it was irrelevant whether or not she’s trans or female.
Dylan Caught Media Attention as a Survivor of the Idaho Murders
In the early morning hours of Sunday, 13th of November 2022, four students of the University of Idaho, who were all close friends, were stabbed to death on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the off-campus rental home where they all lived. Their names were Madison Mogen (21), Kaylee Goncalves (21), Xana Kernodle (20), and Ethan Chapin (20).
However, there were two other students – Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke – who were unhurt during the rampage despite being inside the building at the time of the attack — and according to the police, they have been cleared as suspects.
It was initially reported that the two survivors slept through the ugly incident on the first floor of the house. However, an affidavit released in January 2023 had it that Funke’s room was on the first floor of the King Road residence, while Dylan’s bedroom was on the southeast side of the second floor (which happens to be the same floor where two of the victims, Chapin and Kernodle, were also sleeping) and that she saw the suspected killer.
Speaking during an interview by the police, Dylan described different sounds she heard the morning of the murders. According to the affidavit, she woke up at 4 a.m. to what sounded like Kaylee Goncalves playing with her dog in one of the bedrooms upstairs.
She then heard one of her roommates say there was someone in the house, so she opened her bedroom door and looked outside, but didn’t see anything or anyone. She opened her door again when she heard what sounded like crying coming from Xana Kernodle’s room. Then she heard the voice of a male saying something like “it’s ok, I’m going to help you.”
As recorded in the affidavit, Dylan Mortensen 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.”
Describing the figure, she said it was a not-very-muscular, athletically built male who stood at 5 feet 10 inches or more and had bushy eyebrows, according to the affidavit. He walked past her and left the crime scene as she stood in a “frozen shock phase.” She then locked the door of her bedroom as soon as she could lift her legs.
Probably due to extreme shock, the police website on the case says that 911 was not called until 11:58 a.m. when someone called from the residence, reporting an unconscious person. This was after other friends of the survivors arrived at the house that morning.
A source from Idaho law enforcement who preferred to be unnamed told The New York Post that the eight-hour gap in reporting the incident was something they’ve puzzled over. He also added that they do not know whether is was a case of fear or intoxication. Nevertheless, Dylan’s observations partly helped authorities to determine that the murders took place between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m., according to the affidavit.
A Suspect was Arrested Weeks After the Murder
After almost seven weeks of investigating the homicide, law enforcement authorities arrested a 28-year-old man named Bryan Kohberger in connection with the killing of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. The authorities announced his arrest on December 30, 2002.
The police affidavit alleges that Kohberger had stalked the dead students’ home 12 times and left behind a knife sheath with DNA on it on one of the occasions. However, the affidavit did not provide a motive.
Bryan was taken into custody at his parents’ house in Albrightsville, in the Poconos, Pennsylvania, and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. He waived his extradition on January 3, 2023, after his arrest, and was transported to Idaho the following day.
He is being held without bail and could face the death penalty if found guilty. His trial is slated to start at the beginning of October 2023.
Meanwhile, at the time he was arrested, Bryan Kohberger was doing his Ph.D in criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. The institution is about eight miles away from the home of the four murdered students, which was in Moscow, Idaho.
Where is She Now?
After the killing of four of her roommates, Dylan Mortensen decided to stay in her family house in Boise, Idaho, as she needed all the love and support her family could offer to recover from the shocking incident.
Dylan disappeared from public view for a while after it was disclosed that she saw the killer at the scene and was spotted for the first time on January 9, 2023, after a Sunday morning coffee run. She wore shorts and a navy blue fleece top as she made a brief outing to a Starbucks close to her home.
