Four university students: Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, and Xana Kernodle, were found murdered on what seemed like an average Sunday morning on November 13th, 2022. All of these students went to the University of Idaho and lived in the college town of Moscow, Idaho.
Moscow has a population of around 25,000 people and before these four tragic murders, a murder had not been recorded in the town in over seven years.
A lot of students that go to the university have said that they had always felt safe on campus and around the town. However, when these murders happened, it completely shook up the school and the surrounding Moscow area. These feelings of safety and comfort students and residents once had, have since been stripped away from them.
Ethan Chapin was 20 years old at the time of his death and he was originally from Conway, Washington. Ethan was one of a set of triplets, a brother and sister, that were also students at the University of Idaho that he was very close with. Ethan was a freshman at the university and he was majoring in sports management and was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity on campus.
His family and friends described him as the life of the party, funny, and extremely kind. Ethan had been in a relationship with Xana Kernodle, another one of the victims, for about a year before their murders.
Madison Mogen was 21 years old at the time of her death and she went by her nickname “Maddie”. Maddie was originally from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Maddie was majoring in marketing, and was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority on campus. She was a senior at the university planning to graduate in May of 2023.
Maddie has been described by her family, friends, and boyfriend as a positive and caring person, gentle, kind, and full of love. She was so excited to graduate in just six short months and was ready to have the freedom to explore the world the way she had always hoped to one day.
Kaylee Goncalves was also only 21 years old at the time of her death and she was from Rathdrum, Idaho. Kaylee was supposed to graduate a semester early in December of 2022 from the university. She also majored in marketing throughout college and was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority on campus.
Her family has said after graduating Kaylee planned to move to Austin, Texas with her close friend Jordan and begin a new job at a marketing firm. Kaylee’s friends and family have described her as kind, adventurous, and silly. She loved spending time with her family and friends and she absolutely loved her dog Murphy.
Maddie and Kaylee were very close friends even before attending the University of Idaho together. They grew up together and had been best friends since they were in the sixth grade. Their families described them more like “sisters” claiming they were inseparable most of the time.
Xana kernodle was 20 years old at the time of her death and she originally grew up in Idaho but spent time in Avondale, Arizona where her father lived. Xana was also majoring in marketing and along with Maddie, was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority on campus.
Xana’s family and friends described her as tough, responsible, kind, and had a personality that could light up a room. Her father remembers being so proud of her and where she was at that point in her life. She loved her boyfriend Ethan, and she was even helping him with his studies while balancing her own schoolwork as well.
All three women Maddie, Kaylee, and Xana lived in an off campus apartment with two other female roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke. This apartment was in the town of Moscow and was located at 1122 King Road.
Ethan would often stay the night with Xana at this apartment and this is what was happening in the early hours of the morning on November 13th, 2022. All five roommates and Ethan were all very close with each other according to social media and their family and friends.
On Saturday November 12th, 2022 all four victims attended a university football game together. Later that night, Ethan and Xana attended a formal party on campus for Ethan’s fraternity between 8-9 p.m.. Maddie and Kaylee went to a bar together in Moscow called the “Corner Club” at around 11 p.m. that night.
In the early hours of the morning on Sunday November 13th, 2022, Ethan and Xana returned back to the apartment from their night out at around 1:45 a.m.. Maddie and Kaylee returned home shortly after around 1:56 a.m..
Xana and Ethan were sleeping on the second floor of the apartment, which was also considered the main floor, while Maddie and Kaylee were both asleep on the third floor that night. Around 4 a.m. that same day when police believe all of the victims were asleep, a masked intruder entered the home through an unlocked sliding glass door on the second floor of the apartment.
This intruder brutally stabbed all four college students to death, and police say that the crime scene was extremely upsetting and horrific. The two other roommates in the home were on the very bottom floor and were left unharmed possibly because the intruder didn’t know they were there or chose not to harm them for whatever reason.
One of the surviving roommates did claim to have seen the intruder in the house that night. She described being woken up around 4 a.m. on November 13th to what she thought was the sound of Kaylee playing with her dog and saying something along the lines of “someone is here”. However, when this roommate got out of bed to look out of her window to see if someone was at the apartment she didn’t see anything.
The roommate then thought she heard crying coming from Xana’s bedroom and a man’s voice saying “It’s okay, I’m going to help you”. The roommate then decided to open her bedroom door and look into the hallway where she saw a figure dressed in black clothing walking towards her. She described this man as being athletically built with bushy eyebrows.
She recalled this man walking by her towards another sliding door as she stood frozen in fear. She then locked herself in her bedroom and went back to sleep not fully knowing if what she had just saw was actually real. However, when she woke up the next morning she realized it was all very real, and police are unsure if the intruder didn’t see her, or if he just chose not to harm her or the other roommate that night.
When the two unharmed roommates woke up on Sunday the 13th at around 11 a.m., they saw the horrific and bloody scene of their other roommates murders and ran outside to call friends for help. Police say that the roommates decided to call friends in that moment and not emergency services because they were in shock, scared, and didn’t know exactly what to do.
However, by the time the other friends arrived one of the roommates decided to call police at approximately 11:58 a.m.. The roommates and other friends present were extremely panicked and hard to understand in this call, so the dispatcher labeled this as an “unconscious person” because they weren’t getting the full story from those speaking to them on the phone.
The police headed over to the King Road apartment after this 911 call was placed. However, they had no idea what a horrifying scene they were actually walking into that morning.
After police were called to the scene and entered the apartment, the violent crime scene was discovered and it sent shock waves through the community and university. For the next six weeks after the tragic murders, the police didn’t release a lot of information regarding their ongoing investigation.
On December 30th, 2022, Moscow police did arrest a suspect who they believed committed this henious crime. This was a 28 year old man that lived in Pullman, Washington named Bryan Christopher Kohberger.
Bryan was arrested at his parent’s home in Effort, Pennsylvania. He was currently a doctoral student studying to obtain his ph.D. in criminal science at Washington State University. His university was only about ten miles from the University of Idaho.
Before the murders, Bryan had just previously posted a research study in the hopes of getting into the minds of people who have committed crimes. Police can’t confirm if the reasoning for this study had something to do with the murders he committed shortly after, or if it was just work for his doctoral program. Either way, it was clear to the police and the public that Bryan was very educated in criminal justice and psychology which makes this crime especially chilling for many.
Police made the connection to Bryan through his car make and model being seen around the area the night of the murders, the surviving roommates description, and by tracking his cell phone location in the days leading up to the murders, the night they occurred, and the day after.
Police also found a knife sheath left behind at the scene with DNA on it that matched Bryan Kohberger. There has been speculation online that Bryan had tried messaging one of the female victims on Instagram numerous times before the murders occurred. However, the families of all four victims have said that Bryan didn’t know any of them and they didn’t know him and police have not confirmed or denied this speculation.
After Bryan’s arrest on December 30th, 2022, he had his first hearing on January 12th, 2023. During this hearing he was charged with four charges of first-degree murder and one charge of felony burglary. He was also denied bond at this hearing because he had fled the state after the crimes were committed, and because of the severity of the crime.
At this hearing Bryan Kohberger stated that he understood the charges against him, and he waived his right to a speedy trial. Bryan’s next trial hearing is scheduled for the end of June, 2023. The courts have since issued a gag order on this case due to its heavy social media presence. This essentially means we won’t really know much regarding this case until his next hearing.
One thing the police has not released to the public yet, and we are unsure if they even know, is a motive behind these killings. That’s the main question still going through everyone’s minds right now, especially the friends and families of these victims.
They just want to know why Bryan committed these murders, however; sometimes we don’t always get an explanation and closure from criminals. The public is hopeful that the more amount of time police spend interviewing Bryan, the more they will understand about his motive(s) behind these murders.
Knowing the “why”, will not ever be enough reasoning for taking the lives of four young college students, but it can bring some peace to their families.
The family and friends of all four victims have continued to try to keep their memories alive and want them to be remembered for who they were, and not what happened to them.
This case became national news very quickly, and many people including myself, are waiting on updates in this case and hoping that Ethan, Maddie, Kaylee, and Xana all get the justice they so desperately deserve.
Sources:
Shapiro, E. (2023, January 18). Idaho college murders: The complete timeline of events. ABC News.