College students who found Idaho murder victims' bodies describe house of horrors that awaited them
The college students who found the bodies of the four Idaho murder victims have described the day that 'changed it all' and took away their innocence.
University of Idaho graduates Hunter Johnson, Emily Alandt and Josie Lauteren found the bodies of their friends after they were brutally stabbed on November 13, 2022, in one of the most horrific events ever to unfold on a college campus.
They were Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21. Two more roommates also lived in the home but were not attacked.
Bryan Kohberger has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in connection with the horrifying incident. He has pleaded not guilty and faces the death penalty if convicted.
Johnson and Alandt, who are a couple, spoke with Good Morning America about the day they discovered their friends dead in their home, while Josie Lauteren, who was with them, spoke about the scene in a preview of an upcoming documentary.
The trio approached the off-campus home in the rural town of Moscow, Idaho, to call in on their friends during what they thought was a normal Sunday morning.
'As soon as I stepped in the house, I was like, something is not right. You could feel it, almost,' Laurenten told Amazon Prime's One Night in Idaho: The College Murders.
'Hunter was ahead of me and Emily and immediately was like: "Get out. Call 911".'
Johnson, who saw the bodies first and made the call, told Good Morning America: 'As soon as you get there, you knew something was wrong.'
'We watched the ambulance come and we watched them immediately leave. That was a hard part, for sure,' Alandt added.
'You see the world in pure innocence and that all gets ripped away from you in one phone call. That was the day that changed it all.'
Paying tribute to her friend Xana while fighting back tears, Alandt said: 'We were attached at the hip, probably the first day that we met. We just clicked immediately.'
Police took seven weeks to arrest Kohberger, on December 30 2022 in Pennsylvania, and during this time, speculation about who was responsible swirled online.
Johnson said people on social media started blaming him for the deaths of his friends, and he received 'lots of threats'.
'People were saying I should confess to murdering them,' he told GMA. I felt like I was less than a person in that point in my life.'
Two of the victims - Mogen and Kernodle - lived in the house where their bodies were discovered, and worked at the same local restaurant.
The third female victim, Gonclaves, had recently moved out of the house, but had returned to show Mogen her new car.
Chapin, the male victim, was Kernodle's boyfriend who was sleeping over on the night of the tragedy.
Two more female roommates also lived in the home but were not attacked.
Mogen and Gonclaves were at a sports bar during their final night, while Chapin and Kernodle are believed to have been at an on-campus party hosted by the Sigma Chi fraternity.
The surviving roommates said everyone was home by 2am. Sometime after this, Mogen, Kernodle, Chapin and Gonclaves were stabbed to death.
Police said the walls of their bedrooms on the second and third floors of the home were spattered with blood.
Kohberger is due to face trial on August 11 in Boise, Idaho.
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