The Idaho Murders: Best Friends Speak Out THE DAY WE SAW EVIL

NEW DETAILS EMERGE IN THE SHOCKING DEATHS OF FOUR IDAHO COLLEGE STUDENTS—AS MURDER-SUSPECT BRYAN KOHBERGER PLEADS GUILTY

- By K. C. BAKER and CHRISTINE PELISEK

For University of Idaho seniors Hunter Johnson and Emily Alandt and their close circle of friends, Nov. 12, 2022, a cold but sunny Saturday, started out as a classic college day. With the school's Vandals football team set to play a home game in Moscow, Idaho, that afternoon, Hunter started the morning off with a champagne breakfast and pregaming at the off-campus house of pals Xana Kernodle, Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, while Emily, who worked with the Vandals football recruiting department, headed to the stadium.

After the game—and much tailgating—Hunter joined Emily, his girlfriend of just over a year, at a rowdy apartment party. Worn out from a full day of festivities, they returned home around 9 p.m. and soon fell asleep, only to be woken hours later by text messages from Hunter's friend Ethan Chapin. “He wanted us to come hang out,” recalls Hunter, 25. “I was like, ‘Well, Emily’s sleeping. I'd feel bad if I left her, so I'll see you tomorrow.’”

But Hunter and Emily would never see Ethan and their three other friends alive again. In the frigid night a masked intruder, dressed in black, slipped into the house at 1122 King Road with a hunting knife, stabbing Ethan, 20, Xana, 20, Maddie, 21, and Kaylee, 21, to death in a brazen and savage crime that would soon grip the attention of the entire nation. Six weeks later, aided by DNA found on a knife sheath left in a bedroom, police arrested Bryan Kohberger, 30, a criminology graduate student at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. On June 30, in a surprise move just five weeks before his murder trial was scheduled to begin, Kohberger agreed to plead guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in a deal with prosecutors that will allow him to avoid the death penalty. He is expected to be sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison.