By Safia Samee Ali -
NBC News
One of the surviving roommates who lived in the house where four University of Idaho students were killed told investigators she came almost face-to-face with a masked man that night and went into a "frozen shock phase," a reaction that medical experts consider not uncommon in potentially threatening situations.
Police initially said the survivors, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were believed to have been sleeping during the stabbings, but court records unsealed Thursday revealed that Mortensen, identified as DM in an affidavit, encountered the suspect as he fled. from the house in Moscow, Idaho.
[28-Year-Old Man Arrested in Link to University of Idaho Student Murders]
Brian Kohberger, a criminology doctoral student at nearby Washington State University at the time, has been charged with four counts of murder in the November deaths of 21-year-old Madison Mogen;
Kaylee Goncalves, 21;
Xana Kernodle, 20;
and Ethan Chapin, 20.
According to the affidavit, Dylan Mortensen “described the figure as 5'10” or taller, masculine, not heavily muscled, but athletically built and with bushy eyebrows.
The man walked past DM while she was standing in a "frozen shock phase."
The man walked to the rear sliding glass door.
DM locked himself in her room after seeing the man,” the document states.
Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the murders of the Idaho students, was arrested in Monroe County, northeastern Pennsylvania.
Matt Rourke/AP
Nearly eight hours later, around noon, authorities were called from a cell phone belonging to one of the roommates, according to court documents.
But it is not clear who made the call.
What has been described as a "frozen shock phase" could slip into a series of acute traumatic responses, such as dissociation and tonic immobility, commonly triggered by stressful settings, experts said Friday.
[DNA Found in Knife Sheath Leads to Arrest of Man Accused of Murdering Idaho Students]
It all comes down to the basic human fight, flight or freeze response when people believe they might be under threat, said Dr. Judith F. Joseph, an assistant professor of psychiatry at New York University Grossman School of Medicine in NYU Langone Health.
“When your body is in shock and you think you are going to die or you think you are in a threatening situation, adrenaline increases your sympathetic nervous system and it kicks in, and you can experience a frozen state where you consciously know what is happening. happening, but one coping mechanism is for you to disassociate," Joseph said.
From top left, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle.
People who have experienced it said they felt as if they were not part of their bodies, a state brought on by traumatic shock, he said.
“People can disengage for hours, especially if they've been through severe trauma,” Joseph said, adding that their minds wander elsewhere to get away from the trauma or fear.
Mortensen and Funke described in their statements the pain they felt after the loss of their friends and housemates.
“My life was greatly impacted by meeting these four beautiful people,” Mortensen wrote, “my people who changed my life in so many ways and made me so happy.”
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Mortensen said she heard Goncalves playing with her dog around 4 a.m. and a short time later, she heard her housemate say, "There's someone here," according to court documents.
Then, she said, she heard crying in Kernodle's room and a male voice saying “something to the effect of 'okay, I'll help you,'” according to the affidavit.
The young man accused of murdering four students will be extradited from Pennsylvania to Idaho
Jan 4, 202302:02
Based on forensic evidence and interviews, investigators believe all four victims were killed sometime between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m.
At 11:58 a.m., a 911 call was made from the cell phone of one of the surviving housemates requesting assistance for an "unconscious person," according to court documents.
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"It's possible that what happened to her was that she went into a dissociative state and was a little confused and shocked and not really understanding what was going on," said Dr. Akeem Marsh, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Grossman University of New York, referring to Mortensen.
"In those states, the mind is really shutting down to protect itself."
Marsh said a person might "have no concept of time, it could be so many hours, and you really don't even know what happened until you finally come back to reality and realize something happened."
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Two weeks before they had asked him for a divorce
Jan 6, 202300:21
These are all responses to traumatic shock, he said, that could affect cognitive ability, including decision-making.
She said survivors may continue to experience symptoms of shock, which could linger for weeks after the trauma, especially as their understanding of what happened grows.
Emily Dworkin, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said another common response triggered by Mortensen's "frozen shock phase" could be tonic immobility, a state similar to paralysis. .
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"In a way, you're completely turned off while you're still able to encode what's going on, so you're still actively processing what's going on in the environment, but your ability to respond is turned off," he said.
Tonic immobility can last for hours in some people, he said.
"While you can still remember what happened, you can't act in response to that environment, so you can't fight, you can't run, you can do some small things, but a lot of those larger responses to a threat are turned off." said.
People attending a vigil for the four University of Idaho students who were killed on Nov. 13, 2022, cry as they listen to family members speak about the victims, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022, in Moscow, IdahoAP.
Dworkin stressed that any speculation about the mental state is "interpreting it through the lens of what we know now" versus what Mortensen knew at the time.
“There are many possible interpretations from his perspective of what was happening at the time,” he said.
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“As someone living in a house with college-age roommates, with guests coming and going, it's probably not uncommon to hear noises and see people you don't recognize early in the morning,” he said.
“Hearing a strange noise or seeing a man you don't recognize can be startling, but not necessarily out of the ordinary, and many people will tell themselves they are overreacting and discourage themselves from getting out of it if they feel fear.
There are different things that could be operating with his frozen state, and I think all of them would be reasonable," Dworkin said.
