Idaho college victims' friends recall moment they responded to home: 'You know something's wrong'
On Nov. 13, 2022, University of Idaho student Emily Alandt and her boyfriend Hunter Johnson answered a phone call from a worried friend asking them to come over.
The couple and another friend walked down the street to the now-infamous 1122 King Road home in Moscow -- a walk, they told ABC News, that would change their lives.
In the early hours of Nov. 13, students Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle were stabbed to death in the girls' off-campus house. Chapin, Kernodle's boyfriend, was sleeping over at the time.
Two roommates inside survived, including one roommate who told authorities in the middle of the night she saw a man in black clothes and a mask walking past her in the house, according to court documents.
Alandt and Johnson, who are sharing their story for the first time with ABC News, are also speaking out in a new documentary, "One Night in Idaho: The College Murders," premiering on Amazon Prime Video on July 11.
Alandt said in the documentary that she didn't expect a real problem when they headed toward 1122 King Road that morning -- that was until they saw both surviving roommates standing outside.
"As soon as you get there, you know something's wrong," Johnson told ABC News.
Johnson was the first to go inside -- and realizing what happened, he rushed the girls trailing him out of the home and told them to call 911.
Alandt said in the documentary that her boyfriend shielded the girls from the trauma of what he found inside. Just after 11:55 a.m., they called 911 and told the dispatcher about an "unconscious person" inside.
Several girls frantically spoke to the dispatcher, saying, "She’s passed out," and, "She’s not waking up." You then hear Johnson on the call, using all his strength to remain calm, telling the dispatcher that Kernodle wasn't breathing.
"I think most of the girls at that point were very irrational, which is a very, probably, normal thing to be feeling in that time," Johnson explained to ABC News. "You don't expect anything so terribly scary like that to ever happen in your own house."
"Your brain doesn't allow you to believe things that are terrible when you've never had anything terrible before that," Alandt added.
Johnson didn't tell ABC News what he saw inside the house, citing the upcoming trial.
Once police arrived, "We were just placed, you know, on the street to sit down and wait," Alandt said. "We were all cold, you know, we were all scared. And we were there for a long time. And I think our brains just started to continue to spiral. You know, we watched the ambulance come -- and we watched them immediately leave."
Alandt and Johnson were close friends with victims Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20. A surviving roommate has described them as the "perfect pair."
"She's a blast -- never a dull moment with her," Johnson said of Kernodle. "If you're not happy, she'll make you happy. Like, somehow, she'll make you laugh. And Ethan's the same way."
The other victims, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21, were lifelong best friends. Goncalves was set to graduate one month after the murders.
"I don't think I've ever been around her when she didn't have a smile on her face," Alandt said of Goncalves. "And it would always put a smile on all of our faces."
"Her and Maddie were both super welcoming to me," Johnson added. "They, like, took me in."
The shocking quadruple killings shook the small college town of Moscow and launched a nearly seven-week manhunt.
In December 2022, Bryan Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time, was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania. He's charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, and a not guilty plea has been entered on his behalf.
For Alandt and Johnson, while they grieve their friends, they also lean on each other to process their own trauma.
"It's just a pivotal moment in your life where, you know, you see the world in pure innocence -- and that all gets ripped away from you," Alandt said.
"I was fearless when I was a kid ... now I fear everything," she added.
Kohberger's trial is set to begin on Aug. 18. Alandt and Johnson are expected to be witnesses for the prosecution.
"I'll be there when I have to ... and when I can, I'll be there to support others," Alandt said.
"We just want happiness for the [victims'] families, and we want them to come to a point where they can, you know, wake up and have a good day. And I think that trial will have a big part in that," she added.
She also wants the world to remember how her friends lived their lives -- not just how they died.
"They were not what happened to them," she said. "Who they are as people is so much more than the 'Idaho Four.'"
Since that tragic day on King Road, Alandt and Johnson have graduated from the University of Idaho and moved in together.
This experience "sticks with you forever, but you get the option to get up and choose to live a happy life," Alandt said.
"Hopefully the next part of life is building our own family together," Johnson said.
