Idaho students who discovered bloodbath break silence ahead of critical Bryan Kohberger hearing
Emily Alandt and Hunter Johnson had been called over to the house on the morning of November 13, 2022, by the two surviving roommates who were unable to reach their friends and were scared something bad had taken place.
Once inside, they found Xana Kernodle's body.
A chilling 911 call was placed, with officers arriving on the scene to find all four victims dead.
Alandt and Johnson are now speaking out for the very first time about the day that their friends were brutally murdered in Prime Video's upcoming four-part docuseries 'One Night in Idaho: The College Murders.'
In the newly-released trailer, the students speak about the moment they made the heartbreaking discovery - and the chilling realization that their group of friends could have been 'stalked' for months.
'We were a big group of friends, why would you target those four,' Alandt is heard saying.
'There's a big realization that we had been stalked for so many months - and had no clue.'
In the early hours of November 13, 2022, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death inside 1122 King Road in the college town.
The three young women lived in the home with two roommates Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen, while Chapin was Kernodle's boyfriend.
At around 4am that morning, Mortensen came face-to-face with the masked killer inside the home.
She told investigators she had heard disturbing noises inside the home and, after opening her bedroom door, saw a man dressed in all black and a balaclava-type mask walking past her doorway toward the back sliding door.
After the terrifying encounter, Mortensen desperately tried to call and text her roommates and friends.
Only Funke responded.
The two survivors repeatedly texted and called each other and their four friends.
'No one is answering,' Mortensen texted Funke, according to court records.
'What's going on?' she then sent to Goncalves.
In another message, Mortensen texted Funke, 'I'm freaking out rn' and described the intruder wearing 'like ski mask almost.'
Mortensen ended up running from her room on the second floor down to Funke's room on the first floor where they stayed until daylight.
Cell phone records, released in court documents, show that the two women called and texted their roommates and other people, and accessed social media platforms over the next eight hours.
With still no response from any of the four victims, at around 11.50am, Mortensen called Alandt and asked her to 'come over and check the house because she was scared,' court documents state.
Alandt and her boyfriend Johnson came to the home and met Mortensen and Funke at the bottom floor of the three-story house.
Johnson, Funke and Mortensen made their way to the second floor, with Johnson going to the kitchen to grab a kitchen knife, the documents say.
At that moment, the students saw Kernodle lying on the floor.
The students recall that horrifying moment in the trailer.
'I stepped foot in the house and immediately Hunter was like "get out," somebody call 911,' a female voice says.
The panicked 911 call was then placed from Funke's cell phone.
In the call, Alandt is heard speaking to the dispatcher, saying that they 'saw some man in their house last night.'
The Prime Video series, which premieres on July 11, marks the first time that Alandt and Johnson have ever spoken out publicly about that horrific day.
After going through the trauma of finding their friends dead, they reveal that they were then subjected to online rumors and threats.
'People were thinking we were murderers,' Hunter Johnson says in the trailer.
'We were getting death threats,' Alandt says.
Another friend reveals that photos of his home were posted online, as he was accused of having 'something to do with it.'
The series delves into the online 'rumors and speculation' that filled the void - with the surviving roommates and some of the victims' friends facing shocking accusations, online attacks and death threats - as no arrests were made and no suspects named for weeks after the murders.
Chapin's triplet siblings Hunter and Maizie - who also attended University of Idaho - also speak out for the first time, with Hunter speaking about the terrifying aftermath of the murders where their brother's killer was still at large.
'There's this person out there who had just murdered our brother and he's still out there somewhere,' he recalls.
The show also features new interviews with other friends and family members of the victims including Chapin's parents Stacey and Jim Chapin and Mogen's parents Karen and Scott Laramie.
On December 30, 2022, an arrest was finally made in the case.
Kohberger - a 30-year-old criminology PhD student over the border at Washington State University - was taken into custody at his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, where he had returned for the holidays.
He was connected to the murders after his DNA was found on a Ka-Bar leather knife sheath found next to Mogen's body at the scene.
Prosecutors also found cellphone records placing him outside the student home multiple times prior to the murders, as well as surveillance footage showing a vehicle matching his car speeding away.
Now, more than two years on from his arrest, Kohberger's trial is scheduled to begin this August in Ada County.
However, a critical hearing is set to take to take place Wednesday which could turn the trial timeline on its head.
In an 11th-hour move, Kohberger's defense is asking the judge to delay the trial - citing a recent Dateline episode that revealed bombshell new details and pointed to a potential evidence leak in the case.
In the show, released in early May, the suspected killer's phone records, porn choices and online searches for Ted Bundy were revealed for the first time.
It also aired never-before-seen surveillance footage of a suspect vehicle fleeing the horrific crime scene on November 13, 2022.
The defense asked for the trial to be postponed citing the Dateline episode and other media coverage about the case.
The home at 1122 King Road where the four students were murdered in a horror knife attack
The defense also argued that they need more time to effectively prepare for trial and investigate Kohberger's 'life story' ahead of the potential penalty phase.
Prosecutors fired back at the request in a court filing this week, furiously responding: 'It is time to try this case. Defendant was arrested in late December of 2022 and was indicted in May of 2023.'
In its response, the state also rubbished claims a delay would make it easier to seat an impartial jury and blasted the defense for going down 'every rabbit hole.'
'Defendant's Motion amounts to a request for a perpetual continuance so that his counsel can go down every rabbit-hole until Defendant - rather than the Court - deems himself ready for trial,' the filing, from prosecutor Bill Thompson, reads.
The state argues that Kohberger's team has had plenty of time to prepare for the trial - coming more than two years after his arrest.
Judge Steven Hippler will weigh the arguments to delay the trial during a hearing on June 18.
A closed-door hearing will also be held that day around whether or not the defense can present an alternate suspect to jurors at the trial.
If the trial goes ahead as planned, jury selection will begin in late July or early August, with the trial getting underway August 11.
If convicted, Kohberger faces the death penalty.
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An Idaho prosecutor was slammed for offering quadruple-murderer Bryan Kohberger a plea deal, but legal experts have now revealed a key detail in the bargain they say guarantees justice. Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the November 2022 murders of Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle in Moscow, Idaho. The controversial plea bargain spared him the death penalty and will instead see him serve four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. The deal left unanswered lingering questions that a trial might have explored, such as Kohberger's motives, and divided the victims' families, with some left outraged that the quadruple killer now cannot be sentenced to execution or death by firing squad. But a criminal defense attorney highlighted how the deal included a clause that Kohberger cannot ever appeal. He says that is 'huge benefit' for the families and the prosecution that will spare the monster from challenging his sentence at a later date. 'The idea that for decades we're not going to be suffering through him appealing everything that may have taken place in that trial and it is a sealed deal,' attorney Joshua Ritter told Fox & Friends on Thursday. 'That is huge.' Ritter acknowledged the families' 'frustrations', but insisted the plea was a 'good deal' because a jury conviction and capital sentence - which are not guaranteed - could be appealed for years. 'No trial is guaranteed. Things can go sideways. You never know how things are going to end up,' he said, adding: 'You don't know even if it was a guilty verdict, there's no guarantee they would've even come back with a death verdict.' Bryan Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the murders of Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin , Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle in November 2022. The controversial plea bargain spared him the death penalty and will instead see him serve four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole Ritter admitted the plea was a 'shock' to everyone involved in the case, including the judge. 'If there is going to be a death penalty, you would think this is the case it's reserved for and you would have expected this to go to trial,' he told the broadcaster. 'But end of the day, when you really consider what a trial means and what the prosecution ended up with here, I do think it was a good deal.' Former Idaho Attorney General David Leroy echoed Ritter's sentiment, claiming the plea is 'defensible' and 'explicable in the community's best interest'. 'On balance, this is the best result, even for those families, though they may not currently know it,' Leroy told NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas Reports on Wednesday. While the prosecution had a 'very strong scientific, circumstantial case' that Leroy says 'kept getting stronger' and would have likely resulted in a conviction, the case would have left everyone suffering for years. He noted that not only is life imprisonment 'agreeable to half of the victim families', but it also ensures immediate justice. 'Two of the families voted right now for closure and applauded and encouraged the prosecutor with very supportive and sensitive messages,' he explained. 'The other two, I can certainly understand, have a biblical, moral approach to an eye-for-an-eye and that's explicable and understandable too.' But Leroy insists the plea is the 'best result' because the families would have the 'suffered' through countless trials and '15 years of appeals'. Kohberger's formal sentencing has been tentatively set for July 23, the week when jury selection would have begun in the case. Victims' families will be able to speak. Kohberger will also be offered the chance to explain himself and apologize. But he can choose to remain silent if he wants to, meaning his motive may forever remain a mystery. Relatives of at least two of the victims attended Wednesday's hour-long hearing in Idaho's Fourth Judicial District Court in Boise. The families were divided about the plea deal. Asked by Judge Steven Hippler how he pleaded to each of the charges, Kohberger, wearing a shirt and tie and seated beside his lawyers, answered, 'guilty' in a steady voice, exhibiting no visible emotion. Kohberger also said under questioning that he was entering his plea freely, he believed it to be in his best interests, was satisfied with his legal counsel and understood the consequences. At the time of the murders, Kohberger was pursuing a doctorate degree in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, a short distance from Moscow in northwestern Idaho. Authorities have not suggested a motive for the murders, which occurred during the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, in an off-campus house shared by five women. Three of the roommates - Kernodle, 20; Mogen, 21; and Goncalves, 21 - were found slain inside the house along with Kernodle's boyfriend Chapin, 20. All suffered multiple stab wounds from a hunting knife, according to authorities. Outlining the prosecution's case, Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson told the court Kohberger planned the violence and purchased the knife online about eight months before the killings. The knife's sheath was recovered, but the murder weapon was never found. Thompson said there was no evidence of sexual assault among the victims or a 'sexual component' to the killings. As evidence Kohberger sought to cover up his crimes, Thompson said investigators found he had meticulously cleaned the inside of his car, which he used as the getaway vehicle. 'The defendant had studied crime,' Thompson said. 'He had done a detailed paper on crime-scene processing... He had that knowledge and skill.' Kernodle and Chapin had attended a party the night before, while best friends Mogen and Goncalves had visited a local bar and food truck. All four returned to the house before 2am. Their bodies were found hours later that morning. Two other roommates, Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen, survived unharmed. According to prosecutors, Mortensen told investigators she heard someone crying in one of the victims' bedrooms and opened her door to see a man, clad in black, walk past her and out of the house. Authorities said they linked Kohberger to the murders using DNA evidence, cell phone data and video footage. He was arrested weeks after the killings in Pennsylvania, where he was visiting family, and was returned to Idaho to face charges. The family of Goncalves criticized the plea agreement as a 'secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims' families,' according to a statement. Her father, Steve Goncalves, said outside the courthouse on Wednesday the four life sentences did not represent justice. But Mogen's mother and some other family members said in a statement they 'support the plea agreement 100 per cent' as 'the best possible outcome for the victims, their families and the state of Idaho'.
