Idaho college victim's siblings remember arriving at crime scene: 'Not on this earth anymore'
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.
The weekend before the murders, the five Chapins were all together for the University of Idaho's parents weekend. Their mom, Stacy Chapin, said in the documentary that she could tell Ethan was serious about Xana.
"It was just an amazing weekend," Stacy Chapin told ABC News. "You raise your kids and you just wonder at what point are they gonna kind of feel like they're independent enough to kind of fly out of the nest. ... We drove away that weekend, it was incredible. ... We just were like, 'We've done it.'"
One week later, 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 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.
"It drives me crazy, because I always wanted to protect my family. And there was really nothing there that I could've done," Jim Chapin said. "Instantly he was taken. And I couldn't do a thing about it."
But within hours of getting the most tragic news she could've imagined, Stacy Chapin had steeled her resolve.
"The first thing that I told these kids was, 'I do not know what in the hell has just happened to our family right now, but this isn't gonna sink us. We will carry on,'" Stacy Chapin said. "It will look different, it's gonna feel different. But we will do it."
"These two deserve a lifetime of happiness. I mean, they have seen the very bottom," she said of her kids, crying. "I'd do anything for them."
The Chapins were not only confronted with grief, but also fear and uncertainty as police searched for a suspect.
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.
As the Chapins brace for the next chapter, they're also looking back at their 20 years with Ethan with no regrets.
"When you lose your son at 20, you know, it's different. It's a different loss," Jim Chapin said. "I miss him every single day and I always will."
But he added, "I don't have any regrets whatsoever. I know that he lived the very best."
Stacy Chapin agreed.
"I would imagine there's parents in the similar situation that would look back and think, 'Oh, I, you know, maybe I should've worked half-time.' ... We can't come up with one thing we would change in our life," she said.
"We all benefited from having Ethan in our lives for 20 years," she said. "He set a high bar for love and laughter and jokes -- he was kind of the life of the party. I mean, you know, it's a tremendous loss. But at the same time, you have to be super thankful that you had him for those 20 years."
