Surviving Idaho roommate says she was brutally harassed after murders

(NewsNation) —Bethany Funke, one of the survivors of the University of Idaho murders committed by Bryan Kohberger, said she was viciously harassed and inundated with death threats in the aftermath of the killings. 

Funke presented a victim impact statement which was read aloud by a friend during Kohberger’s sentencing hearing Wednesday. 

“I was grieving, numb and unsure if what had happened was even real, and at the same time, I was getting flooded with death threats and painful messages from people who did not know me at all or know the dynamic of our friendship,” Funke wrote in her statement. 

“The media harassed not just me, but also my family. People showed up at our house, they called my phone. My parents phoned other family members' phones and we were chased while I was still trying to survive emotionally and grieve.” 

Funke said that social media made it “worse” because “strangers made up stories to entertain themselves.” 

The roommate was one of two who survived the night of November 13, 2022, when Koehberger brutally murdered Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. 

Koehberger took a plea deal, agreeing to serve four life sentences for the slayings. He confessed to killing them in court, avoiding a trial where prosecutors intended to seek the death penalty.

A source close to the families of the Idaho victims told NewsNation that Funke was not among those who discovered the bodies. She was the only one living in the basement at the house and apparently never went upstairs after the killings.