One of the two surviving victims of last year’s murders at the University of Idaho is fighting a legal request that would force her to testify in the alleged murderer’s trial.
Bethany Funke is one of two students who survived last November’s killings, which took place at an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho. Four students – Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21 – were stabbed to death with a fixed-blade knife.
Bryan Kohberger, a graduate student and teaching assistant enrolled in Washington State University’s criminal justice program, was arrested in December and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary.
Investigators say they’ve tied the 28-year-old former Ph.D student to the crime scene through DNA and cell phone pings. Police also seized a white Hyundai Elantra — the same vehicle authorities were searching for throughout their seven-week manhunt — from Kohberger’s family home in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested.
Funke and roommate Dylan Mortenson, both 21, survived the Nov. 13 attack. Mortenson reportedly came face-to-face with the killer, who she described as “a figure clad in black clothing and a mask” and witnessed walking through the house.
Mortenson, who locked herself in her bedroom after seeing the intruder, gave police the most detailed eye-witness account from the night of the murders.
But earlier this month, court records in Nevada, Funke’s home state, show that Kohberger’s attorney requested that Funke appear in court to testify in the case – a request the Idaho student is now fighting, NBC News reports.
Richard Bitonti, a criminal investigator working with Kohberger’s defense team, wrote in a request earlier this month that “portions of information Ms. Funke has is exculpatory to the defendant,” according to NBC.
“Ms. Funke’s information is unique to her experiences and cannot be provided by another witness,” Bitonti wrote.
However, Funke filed a request in a Washoe County, Nev., district court on Friday to quash the subpoena from Kohberger’s legal team.
A preliminary hearing for the case against Kohberger, who has not yet entered a plea, will begin on June 26.
Authorities have not detailed an alleged motive in the attack since Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall issued a gag order to restrict details about the case from becoming public.
