One of two Idaho students who survived the November 2022 massacre at their shared house has now switched universities, her stepmother said, and is wracked with 'survivor's guilt'.
Dylan Mortensen, 21, told detectives that she saw a man leaving the house in Moscow, Idaho, in the early hours.
She did not realize until hours later that four of her roommates had been murdered.
Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology student, has been charged with four counts of murder, and pleaded not guilty. He remains in jail, with no trial date set.
Mortensen left Moscow earlier this year, said Patricia Munroe, Mortensen's stepmother.
Dylan Mortensen is one of two to survive the November 13, 2022 murders at the Idaho student house
Mortensen, far left, is seen with her roommates:Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee's shoulders) Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke
Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, is pictured on September 13 at Latah County District Court
Munroe was married to Mortensen's father Brent, and helped raise Dylan from the age of seven until almost her graduation for high school.
She told The New York Post she remained close to the family, and Mortensen was 'okay'.
Munroe, 53, said: 'There's a lot of guilt because, you know, if someone says, 'Oh, well, Dylan was so lucky,' you know, you don't want to take on that luck — because all of the children deserved luck.
'They all deserved to be spared from that.'
Mortensen told police she stood in a 'frozen shock phase' as 'a figure clad in black clothing and a mask walked towards her,' then 'towards the back sliding glass door' and left the house.
She then locked herself in her room, and did not emerge until the next morning.
Mortensen and Bethany Funke, the other roommate who survived the attacks, did not call police until noon the next day, which has given rise to online trolls attacking Mortensen and Funke and claiming they were involved in the murders.
Mortensen is keeping herself to herself, her father said, and has switched universities
'You never really think about online backlash and trolls until you deal with it, and it's just a really hurtful thing,' Munroe said.
'I challenge anyone to be in a position where they wake up to four of their roommates gone and, you know, not even realizing it.
'People have to understand that these children are very young . . . You know, they're just young kids, and it's just a really traumatizing thing. I just think that people need to have compassion.
'There needs to be space and time for all the details to come out in trial.'
Mortensen's father Brent told author and private investigator J. Reuben Appelman that she was isolating herself, and playing video games to deal with the stress.
Appelman told NewsNation: 'In the beginning weeks after those homicides, she was basically dogpiled on, on social media.
'This was part of the trauma that she experienced.
'Dylan herself has retreated from the public eye, very few people see her.'
Mortensen's fathertold Appelman that his daughter is in the process of healing, despite being hounded by bullies.
'She is in trauma therapy of sorts, she's getting help from the spiritual community,' he said.
'Isolating herself but she is stepping out a little at a time, she is gaming online with peers in group gaming session.
'She's doing what she can without going into public.'
