One Night in Idaho: The College Murders takes us back to the fateful day when a horrific incident shocked the United States. Four students were found murdered in an apartment, with no one having any idea who the perpetrator might be. It's worth mentioning that, aside from the parents' testimonies, the docuseries added nothing of value to the information already available online. It didn't make sense to create a four-part docuseries when they could have easily summarized everything, and quite effectively, in much less time. That said, let's find out what happened that fateful day and what developments have emerged.
On November 13, 2022, the lives of four families were turned upside down when they received the news that their children, who were staying near the University of Idaho campus, had been murdered by an anonymous killer. Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen (aka Maddie), and Kaylee Goncalves were all in the same house that fateful night. In addition to them, two other girls were staying with them: Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen. The night before, the University of Idaho students had gone out partying and returned home around 2:00 a.m.
Stars: Josie Lauteren, Hunter Johnson, Karen Laramie
Later that night, a man wearing a black mask, driving a Hyundai Elantra, pulled up in front of their house, and after a few minutes, Bethany began hearing strange noises upstairs. She was horrified to see a shadowy figure lurking around the house. Once the man left, Bethany called Dylan and went to her room, as they both felt their lives were in danger. In the morning, they contacted their friends and were told their roommates weren't answering their calls.
It was a student named Hunter Johnson, a member of the group of friends, who entered the room and discovered that four of his friends had been brutally stabbed. So, about 7 or 8 hours after the murders, the police were called, arrived at the scene, and collected all available evidence. Ethan was a triplet, and his two other siblings were also attending the same university. It was Ethan's brother, Hunter, who called his parents to tell them what had happened. Stacey Chapin, Ethan's mother, was at the grocery store at the time and couldn't believe what she was hearing. Similarly, Karen and Scott, Maddie's parents, were in shock when they learned their daughter had been murdered by a psychopath.
All the parents' future plans for their children were shattered at that very moment. What happened in Moscow, Idaho, became national news, and soon everyone from journalists to conspiracy theorists began arriving in the city en masse. The children who survived didn't feel safe staying in that same house knowing a predator was lurking. Furthermore, the police had been without leads for a long time, unable to determine the motive for the murders.
At first, the surviving residents of the house became suspects. The reason they were considered suspects was that they didn't call 911 for seven or eight hours. Furthermore, conspiracy theorists didn't help anyone and launched unfounded speculation that became the talk of the town and made the lives of those involved a living hell. According to one theory, Hunter Johnson, a very close friend of the victims, had murdered the students.
People started talking about him on social media, and he just couldn't understand how people could be so naive and foolish. I mean, true-crime podcasters connected dots that didn't even exist, and once people smelled it, it spread like wildfire. I think the first piece of information authorities got was a DNA sample taken from the sheath of the knife used to kill the students.
That's when Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Washington State University, rose to fame. After police obtained his phone records from the night of the murder, along with the results of DNA tests, they were certain they had their man. That night, Kohberger was driving through the same area in his white Hyundai. Kohberger had no apparent motive to kill those students: he didn't know them, bore them no ill will, and had probably never even heard of them before that day.
He had refused to plead guilty to the crimes, so his case was scheduled to go to trial in July 2025. Kohberger's attorney attempted various tactics to change the venue of the trial to Idaho. The real reason was that they didn't want their client to be sentenced to death. Idaho is one of those US states that has yet to abolish the death penalty. However, his request was denied by the court. At this point, the Amazon Prime series ended, but a significant event took place on July 2, 2025 (almost a week before the series premiere) that completely changed the dynamics of the case.
The final development in the case occurred just a week before the Amazon Prime series premiered. Kohberger, who was being held in the Ada County Jail, pleaded guilty to his crimes. He obviously did so to avoid the death penalty, as he knew there would be no way out. While I'm glad the parents didn't have to go through the ordeal of attending the trial, it also means we'll never know the motive for the murder of those students. If the case had gone to trial, the prosecutor, through cross-examination, would have extracted information from him. But I'm guessing that's not happening now. That said, Kohberger struggled with mental health issues.
As a child, he had suicidal thoughts, experienced a lack of emotion, and minimal remorse. That's probably why he sat calmly during the initial hearings and didn't show any remorse or panic when the judges questioned him. Kohberger also suffered from dissociative disorder, which I believe could be a major reason why he committed that terrible act. He also had a history of bullying and had been diagnosed with autism. My belief is that he didn't personally know the victims, although he likely crossed paths with some of them at some point. Perhaps he tracked their movements and then entered the home with the intention of killing them. I don't think he planned to kill the four, but since they were all there, he couldn't control his predatory instincts. The man ruined the lives of four families who will take a lifetime to recover from the trauma. Furthermore, the pain of losing their child, their brother, their sister, or their friend will stay with them forever.
Bryan Kohberger will be formally sentenced on the 23rd of this month, and I believe he will most likely receive a life sentence.
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