TRUE CRIMEIdaho College Murder Victims' Best Friend Recalls Chilling Moment He Found Their Mutilated Bodies
Four college students were murdered near the University of Idaho in November 2022.
Four college students were infamously murdered in 2022 at their off-campus home near the University of Idaho — and one of their best friends found the victims' slain bodies.
Hunter Johnson is speaking out alongside his girlfriend, Emily Alandt, for the first time publicly since he discovered the bodies of Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin.
Johnson and Alandt sat down for a cover story interview ahead of their appearance in the upcoming Prime Video docuseries One Night in Idaho: The College Murders, which hits the streaming service on July 11. They also have words in James Patterson and Vicky Ward's upcoming book The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy, which debuts on July 14.
Idaho Murder Victims' Best Friend Breaks Their Silence
Hunter Johnson was first to discover two of the murder victims bodies.
Recalling the traumatic events that unfolded during the early hours of the morning on Sunday, November 13, 2022, Johnson said something subconsciously told him to lock the door to his girlfriend's off-campus apartment in Moscow at around 3 a.m.
"That’s something I've never done in my life there," Johnson, now 24, admitted. "There was no noise. I don't know why, but something in my soul told me that I should go lock my door."
Maddie Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were all stabbed to death.
Johnson said Alandt and her roommate, Josie Lauteren, both woke up as he locked the door.
"We hung out in the living room for about 30 minutes before we all went back to bed," Alandt, 23, remembered.
Four of their closest friends, Maddie Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Kernodle, 20, and Chapin, 20, were brutally murdered less than one hour later at their home on King Road — right down the street from Alandt's apartment.
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Hunter Johnson Discovered Idaho Four Victims' Bodies
Two of the roommates survived after going unnoticed during the attack.
Dylan Mortensen, who lived at the home of the murder scene, asked the next morning for Johnson and Alandt to come investigate after hearing strange sounds the night before.
Upon arrival, Johnson was first to look around and horrifically discovered the mutilated bodies of Chapin and Kernodle in the latter's bedroom on the second floor.
"I was like, 'What is going on?'" Johnson confessed during his interview. "'Is this real?' Then you realize the gravity of what you just walked into. At that moment, you don't really realize what you walked into until you really look at it and process it."
Bryan Kohberger's Murder Trial Looms
Bryan Kohberger was charged with murdering the four college students.
"That was our last day living as kids," he expressed, as Alandt added: "Our innocence was gone."
Bryan Kohberger was later charged with four counts of murder for the fatal stabbings of Chapin, Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen.
The alleged killer's trial is scheduled to begin in August after a judge denied the defense's request to delay. Jury selection could begin as soon as the end of July.
