Idaho college murders: Victim's siblings recall arriving at crime scene

On the night of Nov. 12, 2022, University of Idaho student Ethan Chapin joined his sister, Maizie, at her sorority formal.

Once they got home, Ethan -- the funny, quick-witted leader of the Chapin triplets, who all attended the University of Idaho -- wanted to keep the fun going and texted Maizie.

"I think he said, 'Dawg, come hang out. We all want you here,'" Maizie told ABC News. "I said, 'I'm going to bed,' I think, it was, like, 9. Or, 'I'm not gonna go.'"

In a rare move, Ethan texted later, "Love you."

"I didn't even respond to that -- I think I was asleep by then," Maizie said.

Hours later, 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, his girlfriend Xana Kerndole, and Kernodle's roommates Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen were all stabbed to death in the girls' off-campus house. Two roommates inside survived.

The shocking quadruple killings shook the families and the small college town of Moscow to the core while police launched a massive manhunt for a suspect.

Days before news broke about a plea deal in the case, Ethan's sister, Maizie, and brother, Hunter, spoke to ABC News to share their story for the first time. The family is also speaking out in a new documentary, "One Night in Idaho: The College Murders," premiering on Amazon Prime Video on July 11.

On the morning of Nov. 13, a friend woke up Hunter at his fraternity to tell him police officers were across the street at Xana's house, where Ethan often spent the night.

"I got dressed sluggishly," Hunter said. "I wasn't worried. ... Ethan was 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, 230 pounds. ... I was like, 'Oh, he'll be fine,' like, if there was anything. Maybe someone drank too much and, I mean, that stuff does happen in college."

"When I walked over there, I didn't see him outside. So I figured he was inside helping whoever needed to be helped," Hunter said.

That's when their friend -- who had gone inside the house at 1122 King Road that morning and made the chilling discovery -- approached Hunter.

"I was like, 'Where's Ethan and Xana?'" Hunter recalled. "And he's like, 'They're not here anymore.' It's like, 'What do you mean, they're not here anymore?' He's like, 'I think they were murdered last night.'"

"I don't know if those are the exact words," Hunter said. "So I had to call Maizie and then call my mom."

Maizie said she arrived at King Road to find her brother and their friends huddled outside. The house that had been their gathering place was now a crime scene. Ambulances had already come and gone, without taking any patients, the siblings said, and soon Maizie was in shock.

Stacy Chapin, Ethan's mom, was at the grocery store when her son called.

"[Hunter] just said, "He's not here,'" she recalled. "And he kept repeating it. ... Your mind does not register that ... so I was like, 'Well, go get him. Go find him.'"

"And he just kept saying it," Stacy Chapin said. "And he goes, 'No, Mom. You don't understand. Ethan and Xana,' I think he said, 'are not on this earth anymore.'"

Stacy and Jim Chapin jumped in the car in Washington state for the long, heartbreaking drive to their surviving children.

In December 2022, nearly seven weeks after the killings, Bryan Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time, was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania.

Kohberger's trial was set to start in August. However, on Monday, prosecutors revealed in a letter to the families that Kohberger has agreed to plead guilty to all counts, sparing him from the death penalty.

Kohberger -- who was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary -- will be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences on the murder counts and the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count, according to the plea agreement.

Kohberger will waive all right to appeal, the agreement said. The state also will seek restitution for the victims and their families, the agreement said.

Prosecutors anticipate sentencing to take place in late July, as long as Kohberger enters the guilty plea as expected at a change of plea hearing that's scheduled for Wednesday, according to the letter received by the family of one of the victims.

'I can't pretend like I feel like this is justice'

The father of Kaylee Goncalves is blasting the plea deal offered to Kohberger, accusing the prosecutors of mishandling and rushing the deal.

"We were not prepared for this -- we had no idea that this was going to happen," Steve Goncalves told ABC News hours after the plea deal was announced.

Steve Goncalves told ABC News the subject of a possible plea deal was first broached at the end of their Friday meeting.

"Up until that point, we had never even considered it," he said. "It was described to me as, like, due diligence. We're going to, like, look at this option, see if it could fit."

"At the least, justice starts with an interview of the families to ask them what justice is. And we didn't get that," he said.

On Monday, prosecutors sent a letter to the families informing them that Kohberger had accepted the proposed terms of the deal and would enter guilty pleas at a change of plea hearing on Wednesday.

"All of a sudden," Steve Goncalves said, "the trial's over. Two-and-a-half years of your life is over."

"It's the opposite of what we wanted and it's the opposite of the majority of what the families wanted," he said.

The Goncalves family is also frustrated with how little time they were afforded to mentally prepare -- and make travel arrangements -- for Kohberger's Wednesday hearing.