Idaho murders: Shocking way mum discovered daughter was victim in quadruple homicide

A mum who heard her daughter’s friend had been killed was driving on her way to console her when she was hit with the worst possible news.

The mother of a college student who was brutally murdered in her sharehouse alongside three friends drove to town to pick her up and console her about the death of her friend — not knowing her daughter had also been killed.

Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were killed inside their home in Moscow, Idaho on November 13, 2022. Two other housemates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were left unharmed. The horror quadruple homicide case captivated the world.

Bryan Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at a different university, was arrested for the unexplained murders in December 2022. The 30-year-old pleaded guilty to breaking into the home and stabbing them to death this month.

Friends and family of the victims have recalled the horrific way they discovered the students had died in a new docuseries on Amazon Prime Video now allowed to be released, titled One Night in Idaho: The College Murders.

University of Idaho murder victims Kaylee Goncalves (with Madison Mogen on shoulders), Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernolde. Dylan Mortensen (left) and Bethany Funke (right) survived. Picture: Instagram

At first, the friends knew only that Xana and Ethan had been killed.

As news spread, Madison Mogen’s mother Karen Laramie got a call from her daughter’s boyfriend about a homicide at the sharehouse. He said they believed Xana was dead.

“My heart just sank,” Ms Laramie said. “I called Maddie and Kaylee, and there was no answer, so I called the Moscow Police Department and they were like ‘well we can’t really tell you anything.’”

Ms Laramie and Scott Laramie, Madison’s stepfather, decided to drive the about 1.5 hour trip from their home to Moscow to have lunch with Madison and find out what was going on, convincing themselves things had been “blown out of proportion”.

In the car, Ms Laramie called the police department again and they confirmed only that there was an active homicide investigation at 1122 King Road, where her daughter lived.

That was when they knew the homicide was “real”, but they still didn’t think their daughter had been killed.

“The whole time my mindset was that we were going to go pick up Maddie and Kaylee and bring them home and console them and hug them and figure out just what happened,” she said.

Madison Mogen's mother Karen Laramie recalled the devastating ordeal for a new documentary. Picture: Amazon Prime Video

The parents went to the police station to demand answers.

“I remember running up the stairs and just trying to find anyone to talk, like anyone to … just anyone,” an emotional Ms Laramie recalled.

The couple were then taken into a room.

“The officer kind of explained there has been a homicide in your daughter’s house and there are four victims, and instantly we were like ‘what?’. It just made no sense. And he said Maddie was a victim,” Ms Laramie said through tears.

“And then I said ‘what about Kaylee?’. He said Kaylee was also a victim.”

The two had been best friends since early childhood and shared a room together in the sharehouse.

Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen. Picture: Instagram

Tragic way victims’ friends found out they were dead

The house at 1122 King Road had three floors.

The top floor was where Madison and Kaylee lived. Dylan and Xana lived on the second floor, and Bethany lived on the first floor in the “basement”.

The night of the murders Xana and Ethan slept in Xana’s room and Dylan ended up staying in the basement with Bethany after seeing someone in the house.

Late in the morning, Dylan called friends who lived across the road.

“She was like, ‘something weird happened last night, I don’t really know if I was dreaming or not but I’m really scared, can you come check out the house?’” Emily Alandt said.

“She was like, ‘I’m in the basement with Bethany’. She said, ‘I called for Xana a few times and she hasn’t responded but will you just come over.’”

Housemates Emily Alandt and Josie Lauteren went over to the house with another friend, Hunter Johnson, who had stayed over that night. None of them were overly concerned, explaining that they thought nothing much of the call.

They met a “frightened” Dylan and Bethany outside, then Hunter Johnson went into the house and found Xana and Ethan dead.

Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were found inside the house by a friend. Picture: Instagram

“Hunter was ahead of me and Emily. I stepped foot in the house and was immediately pushed out and Hunter was like ‘get out, someone call 911,’” Josie recalled.

“Hunter saved all of us extreme trauma by not letting us know anything,” Emily added.

She said he had not initially told them anyone was dead and instead “worded it very nicely” by telling the friends to tell 911 that there was an unconscious person. He later added there was no pulse.

The 911 call was made public for the first time in March.

Police and paramedics arrived at the house, but the friends were still confused as to what was going on when the house became a crime scene and caution tape was put up.

They came to understand their friends Xana and Ethan were dead.

Ethan Chapin’s triplet brother went to the same university and lived nearby. He headed to the house to find out what the commotion was.

“I saw a group of people sitting on the ground and it’s all the people I’ve been hanging out with and they all just had this look in their face when I walked up like the world had ended,” Hunter Chapin said.

“I’m like ‘what the hell is going on, where’s Ethan?’ and they’re like ‘Ethan is not here anymore.’

“’What do you mean Ethan is not here anymore?’ I was like, ‘where did he go?’ They’re like, ‘your brother’s dead.’”

Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty this month to stabbing the four students to death. Picture: AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool

The friends that had gathered were not aware Maddie and Kaylee were inside the house or dead.

At 1.04pm, a “vandal alert” was sent, which is a warning system for University of Idaho students.

It said police were investigating a homicide on King Road near the university campus, that the suspect was not known, and had instructed students to stay away from the area.

A second vandal alert said police were investigating the death of four people.

“That was before the cops even told us Maddie and Kaylee had passed and were in there,” Emily said.

Some of the friends demanded answers from police at the scene.

“I showed my phone and I said ‘what the f*** is this?’” Josie said. “And he just looked at me and he goes … he grabs my phone and goes, ‘I didn’t even know they were sending this, I’m so sorry.’

“We were like, ‘well, what does this mean?’ He was like, ‘all four of them.’”

Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary after accepting a plea deal in order to avoid the death penalty.

He will be sentenced on July 23.