Ethan Chapin

Ethan James Chapin, a 20-year-old freshman at the University of Idaho, was one of four students fatally stabbed in an off-campus rental house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022. Chapin, a triplet from Conway, Washington, was killed alongside his girlfriend, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, in her second-floor bedroom. The other two victims, both 21, were roommates Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. Two additional roommates in the home survived and were not harmed. Authorities said all four victims were stabbed to death with a large knife, and the killings drew intense national attention as investigators initially reported no suspect and no recovered weapon.

Investigators from the Moscow Police Department, Idaho State Police, and the FBI pursued the case for weeks. A key break came from a tan leather knife sheath found on Mogen's bed; a single source of male DNA on the sheath's button snap was analyzed using investigative genetic genealogy, which helped point investigators toward Bryan Kohberger, a criminology PhD student at nearby Washington State University in Pullman. According to court documents, investigators also cited surveillance footage of a white Hyundai Elantra near the scene and cellphone location data placing the suspect's phone in the area. Kohberger was arrested on December 30, 2022, at his parents' home in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, and later extradited to Idaho. A grand jury indicted him on May 17, 2023, on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.

Kohberger initially stood silent at arraignment, and the court entered not-guilty pleas on his behalf; his defense contested the DNA and other evidence ahead of a trial that had been scheduled for the summer of 2025. On July 2, 2025, weeks before that trial, Kohberger pleaded guilty to all four murder counts and the burglary count under a plea agreement that removed the possibility of the death penalty. On July 23, 2025, Idaho District Judge Steven Hippler sentenced him to four consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 10 years for burglary, along with fines and restitution. Prosecutors said they did not establish a definitive motive. As of 2026, Kohberger is convicted and serving his sentence; the recorded status of Conviction is accurate.