“He’s a hollow vessel. Something less than human. “A body that lacks empathy or remorse.”
That is how Dylan Mortensen characterized Bryan Kohberger, speaking through tears at the sentencing of the man who murdered four of her best friends while she lay in her bedroom just a few feet away.
Despite his strong views, Mortensen would have been called to testify by Kohberger and his defense team if the case had gone to trial in Idaho, according to a recently unsealed court document obtained by PEOPLE.
The document does not name any of the persons as prospective witnesses, but rather states: “Bryan C. Kohberger, by and through his attorneys of record, will call the following witness(es) at trial…”
Bethany Funke, the only other person who survived the night on Nov. 13, 2022, when Kohberger stormed into her off-campus home in Moscow and murdered her roommates: Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20.
The residual horror from that night haunts Funke, which is why she was unable to attend Kohberger’s sentencing hearing and instead had a friend read a statement on her behalf.
“I was scared that the person who did this would come for me next,” Funke said in her statement, which Emily Alandt read in court.
Funke and Mortensen were not the only Idaho students Kohberger intended to call in an attempt to show his innocence of the crime to which he confessed barely two months after sharing this list with the court.
He also wanted Alandt and her boyfriend Hunter Johnson to testify, as they were the first to arrive on the scene the morning the bodies were discovered.
Johnson spotted the dead, and he hastily directed Funke and Mortensen to leave the house before checking to ensure that no one was hiding out inside.
The defense witness list also included Goncalves’ ex-boyfriend, Jack DuCoeur.
Kohberger did not, however, identify two more people who appeared on the site that morning and had intimate ties to one of the victims: Hunter and Maizie Chapin.
Those two went to the University of Idaho with their triplet, Ethan.
Despite the fact that her own children were not summoned to testify, the triplets’ mother, Stacy Chapin, stated that the fact that these students would not have to appear in court during a trial was the best outcome of Kohberger’s plea agreement with prosecutors on July 2, 2025.
“And there were so many children, including our own, who had been subpoenaed and no longer had this hanging over their heads. “I mean, we all get to go live our lives,” Stacy explained at the time.
According to the witness list, Kohberger planned to call 138 people in total, not only students.
Kohberger also nominated 53 people as mitigation witnesses, whom he could summon to testify during the penalty phase of his trial if he was found guilty of murder by a jury.
The list featured members of the murderer’s family, including his sisters Amanda and Melissa Kohberger, his parents Michael and Maryann Kohberger, and Washington State University professor John Snyder.
Kohberger worked as Snyder’s teaching assistant at Washington State University.
It’s unclear why Snyder was asked to testify, considering that he complained about Kohberger after the two had a verbal fight, which resulted in the criminology department issuing Kohberger a warning about his behavior.
In the end, only Alandt and Mortensen faced Kohberger in court.
“He chose destruction; he chose evil. He feels nothing. “He tried to take everything from me,” Mortensen stated during his sentence on July 23, 2025.
She then spoke about the victims shortly before Kohberger realized he would spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole.
“Because of him, four beautiful, genuine, compassionate people were taken from this world for no reason,” Mortensen continued, while Kohberger sat expressionless.
“He didn’t just take their lives, he took their light that carried into every room.”
