A friend who found the Idaho murder victims has shared their experience for the first time, stating it was ‘our last day living as kids’.
On November 13, 2022, four students—Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, and Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle, both 20—were discovered dead at their residence near Idaho’s campus.
Bryan Kohberger was charged with the murders and initially pleaded not guilty.
Recently, it was disclosed that Kohberger has been presented with a plea agreement, which would result in life imprisonment without the death penalty.
If Kohberger accepts the plea (reports suggest he has), he would face four consecutive life terms and a maximum of 10 years for burglary.
After the tragic events, court documents have provided details of that fateful night.
Evidence shows that Mogen, Mortensen, Goncalves, and another roommate, Bethany Funke, gathered in Goncalves’ room to talk about their night out. They ‘talked for a while before going to bed’ around 2:00 a.m.
“The roommates debated going out to a food truck for a late snack, prompting D.M. to send a text at 2:10 a.m. to an Uber driver she knew to see if he was driving,” the document states.
“Ultimately, however, the girls decided to just go to bed.”
At that time, Kernodle and her boyfriend Chapin were still out socializing.
The murders are believed to have occurred between 4:00 a.m. and 4:25 a.m., with the masked assailant fleeing soon after. Dylan Mortensen, another roommate, was the only one to see the intruder.
In an interview with PEOPLE, a friend of the victims shared their account of discovering the bodies the next day.
Hunter Johnson, along with his girlfriend Emily Alandt, was invited by Mortensen to the residence—located just down the street from their home—after Mortensen reported unusual behavior from the previous night.
At the time, Mortensen was unaware that her housemates had been murdered.
Johnson found the bodies of Kernodle and Chapin on the second floor.
“I was like, ‘What is going on?’” he recounted.
“‘Is this real?’ Then you realize the gravity of what you just walked into. At that moment, you don’t really realize what you walked into until you really look at it and process it.”
“That was our last day living as kids,” he added.
“Our innocence was gone,” Alandt commented.
Johnson and Alandt’s experiences are featured in a new Prime Video documentary series, One Night in Idaho: The College Murders, which will be available on July 11.