Idaho murders: Two flatmates who survived stabbing frenzy break their silence

Two University of Idaho students who were asleep when their flatmates were stabbed to death have made public statements for the first time about the quadruple homicide.

Dylan Mortenson and Bethany Funke were asleep on the first floor of their Moscow, Idaho, student rental house when their three roommates Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, and Xana Kernodle, along with Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, were stabbed to death on 13 November.

At a memorial held in Post Falls, Idaho, on Friday, a youth pastor from Real Life Ministries shared a letter written by Ms Mortenson, according to the Idaho Statesman.

She described Kernodle, 20, as the “life of the party”, adding she was “strong, intelligent, hardworking” and beautiful.

Ms Mortenson said she looked up to Chapin, 20, like an older brother, and described in glowing terms the love that the two had for each other.

“To Xana and Ethan – the two best friends but perfect pair together,” Ms Mortenson wrote.

“They had this unstoppable, loving relationship. They’d both look at each other with so much love. Everyone knew they were the perfect duo,” she wrote.

“I know, somewhere, Xana and Ethan are together, keeping each other company, watching us, and telling us it’s okay and that we have each other.”

Best friends Mogen and Goncalves, both 21, were an “inseparable duo”, Ms Mortenson added.

“They changed the way I look at life and how to enjoy life to the fullest,” she wrote.

In a letter read out to the memorial, Ms Funke described Mogen as her “big” in the Pi Beta Phi sorority both belonged to.

“You always told me that everything happens for a reason, but I’m having a really hard time trying to understand the reason for this,” she wrote of Mogen.

Breaking more to come