- It was the weekend and four young students headed out for some fun
- Back at their shared house in the early hours, they settled in for the night
- What they didn’t know was that an intruder was lying in wait
It was a typical Saturday night on November 12, 2022, for a group of uni friends. After a week of studying, childhood besties Kaylee Gonclaves and Madison Mogen, both 21, had gone out to a bar.
Couple Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20, hit a house party. By 2am, all four were back at the house where Kaylee, Madison and Xana lived.
Two other roommates, Bethany Funke, 20, and Dylan Mortensen, 19, were also back in their three-storey share house, located in Idaho, US, after a night out drinking.
Around 4am, Dylan woke to what sounded like Kaylee playing with her dog, Murphy. But it was what Dylan heard next that scared her senseless.
‘There’s someone here,’ she heard Kaylee murmur before hearing footsteps running down the stairs.
Petrified there was an intruder, Dylan jumped out of bed and locked her door.
She called out to Kaylee but there was no answer. Next, she tried phoning Xana and Madison, but they didn’t pick up.
When Dylan worked up the courage to open her door, she was sure she could hear crying coming from Xana’s room, followed by a male voice.
‘It’s okay, I’m going to help you,’ he said. But it wasn’t Ethan’s voice.
Had someone broken in? Dylan panicked, closing her door.
Surely Murphy would have reacted to a stranger in the home.
When Dylan opened her door again, she was met with a horrifying scene.
A tall man wearing black clothes and with a ski mask covering his face was walking towards her.
Dylan froze with fear as the pair made eye contact, before the man slipped out the sliding glass door in the kitchen. Still inebriated from the night before, Dylan struggled to process what she’d witnessed.
Had it been a bad dream? Or could one of Ethan’s mates been playing a prank on them?
She tried to contact her housemates again, but the only one to reply was Bethany, whose room was on the first floor.
A terrified Dylan ran to Bethany’s room, where the pair tried to unravel what had happened.
A tall man wearing black clothes and with a ski mask covering his face was walking towards her
Convincing herself her housemates were fast asleep, Dylan eventually nodded off herself.
The next morning Dylan, who was still rattled, grew increasingly anxious.
When her housemates still hadn’t returned her calls or texts, she asked her friends Hunter Johnson and his girlfriend Emily Alandt to come over and check out the house.
But nothing could have prepared Hunter for the grisly scene on the second floor, where he discovered the bodies of Xana and Ethan.
The couple had been savagely slaughtered, with more than 50 stab wounds to Xana’s body.
Kaylee and Madison’s bodies were found on the third floor, with a leather knife sheath on the bed next to them.
While Madison had a large gash running from her right eye to her nose, Kaylee’s face had been so badly injured she was unrecognisable.
‘That was our last day living as kids,’ Hunter later said in the documentary series, One Night In Idaho: The College Murders.
As the horrifying news broke, police got to work to uncover who was behind the massacre.
The following month, cops arrested former criminology student Bryan Kohberger at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, after his DNA was found on the knife sheath left at the crime scene.
CCTV footage of a white Hyundai Elantra car near the students’ home also matched Kohberger’s vehicle. And Kohberger’s mobile phone records placed him near the house at the time of the murders.
Kohberger was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
After he chose to ‘stand silent’ and not enter a plea, the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
But in July 2025, just weeks before the trial was set to begin, Kohberger changed his plea to guilty to avoid the death penalty.
Relatives of Xana and Ethan said in a statement, ‘We now embark on a path of hope and healing.’
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In July this year, serial killer Bryan Kohberger, 30, appeared at Ada County Courthouse where he received four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murder charges, and the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count.
Judge Steven Hippler said, ‘I’m unable to find anything redeemable about Mr Kohberger. His actions have made him the worst of the worst.’
Scott, stepfather of Madison, said, ‘[Madison’s mum] Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddy.’
His motive remains unknown and when the judge asked if he’d like to speak, he replied, ‘I respectfully decline.’
Detectives said they were unable to find a connection between Kohberger and his victims.
Judge Hippler added, ‘By continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr Kohberger relevance. It’s time to end Mr Kohberger’s 15 minutes of fame.’
Loved ones read out moving statements.
Scott, stepfather of Madison, said, ‘[Madison’s mum] Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddy.’
Survivor Dylan tearfully described Kohberger as ‘a hollow vessel, something less than a human’.
A statement written by Bethany said, I know they would want me to keep living my life to the fullest. I refuse to take that for granted when they do not get a chance.
The house of horrors where the students were murdered has been demolished.
