On Nov. 13, 2022, University of Idaho freshman Ethan Chapin sent his final text to his triplet sister, Mazie, just hours before he was brutally murdered in an off-campus home. Bryan Kohberger, 30, recently confessed to the killings of Ethan, 20, his girlfriend Xana Kernodle, 20, and their friends Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. The shocking details of that night and its aftermath are explored in a new Amazon Prime documentary series, “One Night in Idaho: The College Murders.”
The evening before the tragedy, Mazie invited Ethan to be her date for her sorority formal, as she didn’t have a date and some of Ethan’s friends were attending. “I don’t usually invite anyone to formals, but some of Ethan’s friends were going, and he wasn’t,” Mazie shares in the docuseries. “So, I was like, ‘OK, you can just be my date.’ It was super fun.” The siblings left the event around 9 p.m. While some students continued to Ethan and Hunter’s fraternity house, Mazie decided to stay behind and go to bed.
As she slept, Ethan texted her, urging, “Maizie, come hang out.” She didn’t respond, having already fallen asleep. His final message to her was, “I love you,” which stood out to Mazie as unusual since they rarely expressed such sentiments to each other.
The next morning, the devastating news broke: Ethan, Xana, Madison, and Kaylee had been stabbed to death in their rental home at 1122 King Road, just steps from the University of Idaho campus. The brutal attack occurred around 4 a.m., shattering the small college town of Moscow, Idaho.
Nearly two-and-a-half years later, on July 1, 2025, Kohberger signed a confession as part of a plea agreement, admitting to breaking into the off-campus house with the intent to commit murder. He detailed how he stabbed Ethan, Xana, Madison, and Kaylee with premeditation and malice. The following day, July 2, he appeared in court to formally plead guilty.
Ethan’s mother, Stacy Chapin, was present at the hearing. She described Kohberger’s demeanor as chillingly detached, likening his delivery to “an automated phone message.” “It was cold and calculated,” Stacy recalls in the documentary. “You expected some remorse, emotion, something. And there was zero.”
The murders and Kohberger’s confession have left a lasting impact on the Chapin family and the Moscow community. Mazie’s reflections in the docuseries highlight the personal loss of her brother, whose final words to her were a rare expression of love, now etched in her memory. The case, which gripped the nation, continues to resonate as a tragic reminder of lives cut short and a community forever changed.
