Best friends of the University of Idaho college students who were murdered are speaking out for the very first time.
As you’ll recall, after the “Idaho Four” — Maddie Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20 — were brutally stabbed in their off-campus house just after 4 a.m., it was their BFFs Emily Alandt and Hunter Johnson who found them dead.
Related: Bryan Kohberger’s Mom Is Secretly Ruining His Defense: REPORT
Speaking to People in their first interview since the November 2022 killings, Hunter recalled uncharacteristically getting up at 3 a.m. to lock the door to his girlfriend’s off-campus apartment just down the road from their friend’s home, he reflected:
“That’s something I’ve never done in my life there.”
Whoa.
He claims there was no reason to do so either:
“There was no noise. I don’t know why, but something in my soul told me that I should go lock my door.”
That’s so eerie. At that time, his girlfriend Emily, her roommate Josie Lauteren, and her boyfriend at the time all woke up, Emily said:
“We hung out in the living room for about 30 minutes before we all went back to bed.”
Less than an hour later, something truly horrifying was happening nearby.
Their four friends were stabbed to death by alleged murder suspect Bryan Kohberger, who has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder. According to police, between 4 and 4:20 a.m. a suspect dressed in black and a ski mask entered the college students’ kitchen and snuck up to the third floor where they killed Mogen and her friend Goncalves.
In another room, Kernodle, who received a DoorDash delivery at 4 a.m., was scrolling on TikTok at 4:12 a.m. with her boyfriend Chapin present. The assailant killed them next before making an exit.
But while all this was going on, two other housemates were freaking out and didn’t understand what was happening following a night of partying. According to court records, one of the living roommates, Dylan Mortensen “heard strange noises and crying,” saw the masked suspect, and even saw her friend Xana lying on the ground (but she thought she was passed out drunk). Dylan joined Bethany Funke in her room as they were unnerved, but they didn’t call 911 right away.
The next morning, Dylan dialed her friends to come and check out the home because of the strange evening. Hunter entered first with his 23-year-old girlfriend and their friend Josie close behind. He was left in shock when he stumbled into the bodies of Kernodle and Chapin in their second-floor bedroom, the 24-year-old shared with People:
“I was like, ‘What is going on? 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.”
He harrowingly added:
“That was our last day living as kids.”
His girlfriend felt the same way, elaborating:
“Our innocence was gone.”
We cannot imagine how traumatizing that must’ve been…
The couple is set to share more of their experience in the upcoming Amazon Prime docuseries One Night in Idaho: The College Murders out on July 11. More details will follow in The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy, a book by James Patterson and Vicky Ward out on July 14. See the trailer (below):
Bryan’s trial is set to begin on August 11. If convicted, prosecutors are likely to seek the death penalty.
Thoughts? Let us know (below).
[Image via Kaylee Goncalves/Instagram & ABC/YouTube]
The post Friends Who Discovered Slain University Of Idaho Victims Speak Out For The First Time: ‘Our Last Day Living As Kids’ appeared first on Perez Hilton.