Ethan Chapin was a 20-year-old University of Idaho freshman from Conway, Washington, who was stabbed to death on November 13, 2022, in an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, along with his girlfriend, Xana Kernodle, and her housemates Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen. Bryan Kohberger, a criminology doctoral student at nearby Washington State University, was arrested weeks later and pleaded guilty in July 2025 to all four murders. He is serving four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Who Ethan Chapin Was
Ethan grew up in Conway, a small community in Washington’s Skagit Valley, as one of triplets with his siblings Maizie and Hunter. The three were close throughout childhood. He attended Mount Vernon High School, where he played basketball and tennis, and was remembered by coaches and classmates as a natural athlete with an infectious smile. His basketball coach, Tyler Amaya, had worked with him from fourth grade through graduation.1Cascadia Daily. Community Remembers Ethan Chapin With Basketball Showcase
In August 2022, Ethan enrolled at the University of Idaho as a recreation, sport, and tourism management major. All three Chapin triplets attended the university together. Ethan joined the Sigma Chi fraternity, played intramural sports, and was dating Xana Kernodle, a 20-year-old junior. His mother, Stacy Chapin, later said she could tell Ethan was “serious about Xana” during parents’ weekend, which the family spent together just days before the murders.2ABC News. Idaho Stabbing Victim Ethan Chapin Lived Best Life
The Night He Was Killed
Ethan was staying with Xana at 1122 King Road, the off-campus rental she shared with Goncalves, Mogen, and two other roommates. He was asleep in Xana’s bed when the attacker entered the house through a sliding glass door on the kitchen level sometime in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022. A 911 call was not placed until 11:58 a.m., hours after the attacks occurred.3NBC News. Idaho College Student Killings Summary and Timeline
Autopsies confirmed all four victims died from multiple stab wounds inflicted by a large, single-edged knife consistent with a Ka-Bar U.S. Marine Corps fighting knife. Investigators determined that Goncalves and Mogen, who were together in a third-floor bed, were attacked first. Kernodle had been eating in the kitchen on the second floor and apparently heard the commotion; she was pursued and stabbed in the doorway of her bedroom, where she fought back. Her autopsy documented defensive knife wounds on her hands and more than 50 total stab wounds.4ABC News. Idaho Murder Victim Interrupted Bryan Kohberger5ABC News. First Set of Police Records Released in Idaho College Murders
Ethan was found in Kernodle’s bed. He suffered 17 stab and incised wounds to the scalp, face, neck, upper chest, and upper and lower extremities. The wounds perforated his jugular vein, subclavian vein, and subclavian artery. A forensic analysis later noted that the attacker appeared to spend less time on Ethan than on the other victims and that he did not appear to have moved from the position he was in. According to evidence reviewed at the plea stage, Ethan was attacked while sleeping and “never stood up or had the chance to fight back.”6People. Bryan Kohberger Details Murders Final Moments7Court TV. Autopsy Reports Reveal Brutality of Murders of Four University of Idaho Students
Two other roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were in the house at the time but were not harmed. Mortensen later reported seeing a male intruder wearing all black and a balaclava.5ABC News. First Set of Police Records Released in Idaho College Murders
How His Siblings Found Out
Hunter was asleep at his fraternity house when a friend woke him to say police were at the King Road house where Ethan often stayed. He assumed it was nothing serious. “I was like, ‘Oh, he’ll be fine,'” Hunter recalled. “Maybe someone drank too much.”8ABC News. Idaho College Victims Siblings Remember Arriving at Crime Scene
When Hunter got to the house and didn’t see his brother outside, he spoke to the friend who had discovered the scene. “I was like, ‘Where’s Ethan and Xana?'” Hunter said. “And he’s like, ‘They’re not here anymore.’ … He’s like, ‘I think they were murdered last night.'” Hunter then called Maizie and their mother. When Stacy answered, Hunter told her, “No, Mom. You don’t understand. Ethan and Xana … are not on this earth anymore.”9ABC 7 New York. Ethan Chapin’s Siblings Recall Arriving at Crime Scene
Maizie arrived to find her brother and friends huddled outside. Ambulances had already left the scene without taking patients. She said she went into shock. Both siblings shared their account publicly for the first time in an Amazon Prime Video documentary, “One Night in Idaho: The College Murders,” which premiered in July 2025.8ABC News. Idaho College Victims Siblings Remember Arriving at Crime Scene
How the Killer Was Caught
Police described the killings as a targeted attack within days, though no motive has ever been established and no clear link between Kohberger and the victims has been identified.10ABC News. Idaho College Murders Timeline of Events A Ka-Bar knife sheath left on a bed next to one of the victims yielded the break in the case: a single source of male touch DNA recovered from its button snap. The sample did not match anyone in the national criminal DNA database, so investigators sent it to a private lab that ran it through a public ancestry database. Within days, genealogists built a family tree leading to the Kohberger family.11WPBF. Idaho Murder Bryan Kohberger DNA
Surveillance cameras had captured a white Hyundai Elantra near the crime scene, and cellphone location data showed the phone associated with Kohberger had been in the vicinity of the victims’ home at least 12 times in the months before the murders. After Kohberger drove with his father from Washington to Pennsylvania for the holidays, FBI agents retrieved trash from the family’s home. DNA analysis determined Kohberger’s father was “likely to be the father of whoever left the DNA on the knife sheath.” On December 30, 2022, Bryan Kohberger, then 28, was arrested in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, and extradited to Idaho in early January 2023.12NBC News. University of Idaho Murder Suspect Cellphone Data13CBS News. Idaho Student Murders Bryan Kohberger Arrest Timeline
The Guilty Plea and Life Sentence
A grand jury indicted Kohberger in May 2023 on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary, and prosecutors announced the following month that they would seek the death penalty. The case was eventually moved from Latah County to Ada County in Boise, with trial set for August 2025.3NBC News. Idaho College Student Killings Summary and Timeline
On June 30, 2025, Kohberger signed a plea agreement. He agreed to plead guilty to all five counts in exchange for four consecutive fixed life sentences and a 10-year fixed sentence for burglary, waiving all rights to appeal and all rights to seek a sentence reduction. Prosecutors dropped the death penalty.14Idaho Courts. Plea Agreement, Case No. CR01-24-31665
At the change-of-plea hearing on July 2, 2025, Judge Steven Hippler asked, “Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” Kohberger answered, “Yes.” He confirmed he had entered the King Road residence “with the intent to commit the felony crime of murder” and offered no further statement, no explanation, and no expression of remorse.15CNN. Allocution Meaning Bryan Kohberger Court Moscow Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson said the agreement was intended to secure a life conviction while avoiding “decades of post-conviction appeals.”16CNN. Bryan Kohberger Update Plea Deal
Kohberger was sentenced on July 23, 2025, at the Ada County Courthouse. Judge Hippler imposed four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, plus the maximum 10-year term for burglary, and noted that Kohberger’s motive “may never be known.” When given the opportunity to address the court, Kohberger said only three words: “I respectfully decline.”17CNN. Family Impact Statements Idaho Murders He is now held in J Block, a long-term restrictive housing unit at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise, confined to his cell 23 hours a day.18CBS News. Bryan Kohberger Taunted by Inmates in Prison Idaho
What Ethan’s Parents Said About the Plea
Jim and Stacy Chapin chose not to attend the sentencing hearing. In an interview with NBC’s “Today” show that aired July 14, 2025, Jim said, “If I could physically do a handstand, I’d probably do one, because I am so ready for it to be done.” Stacy noted the deal spared their surviving children and other young people from testifying: “There were so many kids, including our own, that had been subpoenaed that no longer have this hanging over their heads.”19NBC News. Parents of Slain Idaho Student Ethan Chapin Say Found Big Time Closure
The Chapins said they initially reacted with an “eye for an eye” mindset but came to view the agreement as a “better deal” because it ensured Kohberger would spend life in prison with no avenue for appeal. Other victims’ families publicly opposed the plea for sparing Kohberger the death penalty; Steve Goncalves, Kaylee’s father, called it “anything but justice.”20NewsNation. Bryan Kohberger Plea Deal Justice Father Asked about those families, Stacy told NBC, “Everybody’s entitled to grieve and feel how they want. That’s just not how we feel.” Jim added, “He’s going to get what’s coming to him. I really don’t care what happens to the guy. He’s off the streets. He can’t hurt any more kids.”21People. Dad of Murder Victim Wanted to Do Handstand After Kohberger Plea Deal
Stacy described watching Kohberger enter his guilty plea as deeply unsettling: “It was cold and calculated and almost like an automated phone message. You expected some remorse, emotion, something. And there was just zero.” Asked whether she needed to know Kohberger’s motive, she said, “I don’t believe that we will ever learn that, and I don’t need to know. It doesn’t change the outcome.”19NBC News. Parents of Slain Idaho Student Ethan Chapin Say Found Big Time Closure
How His Family Has Honored Him
A memorial service for Ethan was held on November 21, 2022, at McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon, Washington.22Hawthorne Funeral Home. Ethan Chapin Obituary In the years since, his family and community have built several lasting tributes.
Jim and Stacy Chapin established Ethan’s Smile Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that awards scholarships to high school seniors, with preference given to students from Conway School, the broader Skagit Valley area, and the University of Idaho. As of 2025, the foundation has awarded 83 scholarships totaling $105,750. Applicants must hold a minimum 3.0 GPA, and scholarships are open to students pursuing college, trade school, or professional certification programs.23Ethan’s Smile Foundation. Ethan’s Smile Foundation Home24Ethan’s Smile Foundation. Ethan Chapin Scholarship
Sigma Chi established the Ethan Chapin Memorial Scholarship Fund, endowed at $125,000 through donations from the Chapin family and hundreds of supporters worldwide. The inaugural $5,000 scholarship was awarded to Hunter Chapin in October 2023 at a dinner held at the University of Idaho chapter house, where a bronze plaque honoring Ethan was unveiled the same evening. The scholarship goes annually to an undergraduate member of the Gamma Eta Chapter who “best exemplifies Ethan’s character, his enthusiasm for life and his smile.”25Sigma Chi. Sigma Chi Awards Hunter Chapin With Inaugural Ethan Chapin Memorial Scholarship
Ethan’s longtime basketball coach, Tyler Amaya, founded a nonprofit called “Hoop for the Valley” in his memory, providing basketball access to children from low-income families in Skagit County. The organization has held an annual basketball showcase at Mount Vernon High School since 2022, with the Chapin family donating $5,000 at the 2023 event.1Cascadia Daily. Community Remembers Ethan Chapin With Basketball Showcase
Stacy also wrote a children’s book called “The Boy Who Wore Blue,” tracing the lives of the triplets from birth through their move to the University of Idaho. She described the project as a way to reclaim Ethan’s story from true-crime media and ensure his siblings could pass it on.26Cascade PBS. WA Mom Reclaims Son’s Story After University of Idaho Killings On July 31, 2025, she posted a tribute on Instagram: “You were only with us for 20 years, but you touched the lives of so many people. … We remember your smile, your laugh, how you kept us in check, and the many ways you brought happiness and light to any situation. There will never be another you.”27Court TV. Ethan Chapin’s Family Speaks Out After Bryan Kohberger’s Sentencing