The Idaho students who discovered the bloodbath inside the off-campus home in Moscow have broken their silence, two months before their friends’ accused killer Bryan Kohberger goes on trial.
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 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.