The biggest bombshells from Netflix’s ‘The Idaho Murders’ documentary
Warning: Do not proceed unless you’ve watched “The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare” on Netflix.
A harrowing new docuseries on Netflix, “The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare,” is shedding new light on the gruesome 2022 death of four University of Idaho students.
In November 2022, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were fatally stabbed at an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho.
Years later, on July 2, 2025, former Washington State University criminology student Bryan Kohberger, now 31, pleaded guilty to the crime, and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison. He didn’t say why he committed the horrifying crime.
A year later, on July 26, 2026, Kohberger claimed in a shocking turn of events that he is innocent and wants to withdraw his guilty plea. The latest twist in the case was not part of the series.
See below for the biggest bombshells from the three-part docuseries, which is now streaming on Netflix.
The victims’ friends found out through a campus-wide text alert
When surviving roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke called the police, she tearfully said, “Something’s happened in our house and we don’t know what.”
Funke said in the 911 call that her friends were, “not waking up” and and “passed out,” not realizing their friends were dead.
The responding officers’ bodycam footage shows Mortensen, Funke and other friends — with their faces blurred out — sitting on the curb outside the house, as cops investigated the scene.
One of them tearfully told a cop, “you could have told us what happened before they sent a text.”
When the cop replied, “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” the victims’ friend explained, “they sent a text [message] to the entire university – before even telling us what happened.”
Blaine Eckles, the Dean of Students at the University of Idaho, explained onscreen that he was “flabbergasted” when the cops told him, “We have four dead individuals, and we think they may be college students.”
He added that the protocol for crimes was to use an internal emergency alert system, to “get information out immediately” to everyone’s phones.
Anthony Dahlinger, chief of the Moscow Police Department, noted that the college didn’t give police a warning before they released the alert, and cops would have preferred if they had “collaborated.”
Cooper Atkinson, who was friends with Chapin, recalled that the alert said “homicide,” which was “a heavy word” that made everyone “freak out.”
“Most of us knew they weren’t alive anymore, but didn’t know what happened,” he said, adding that the college community was beset by “ongoing panic, phone calls, texts.”
Kohberger allegedly told his victims he was going to ‘help’ them
Surviving roommate Mortensen was home the night of the murders, recalling that she heard a scream, and she heard one of her deceased roommates say, “Someone’s here.”
Mortensen told police, “I locked my door, because I was so scared.”
She added, “I remember hearing this guy’s voice that I didn’t recognize saying, ‘You’re going to be OK. I’m gonna help.’” She noted that he didn’t say it in “a nice way,” but rather, “in a weird way. Like, a weird tone.”
The victims friends got nasty messages while they were grieving
Kohberger was arrested over a month after the slayings, on Dec. 30, 2022.
In the weeks before police took him into custody, social media was abuzz with conspiracy theories about who killed the four students.
Atkinson recalled onscreen that he got messages on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, from people asking what he knew.
“There were accusations flying left and right. There were just no answers, so people were finding answers themselves,” he said.
Atkinson added that it was “hard” because they were “processing” it, and “trying to deal with our friends who just got killed – and also, protect ourselves from the internet.”
Chapin’s friend Peter Elgorriaga said, “I got a few of those messages – people saying that I’m the killer, I’m gonna get caught. Like, what are you saying?”
It wouldn’t have made a difference if someone called the cops sooner
The murders happened between 4:00 and 4:25 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022. The surviving roommates didn’t call the cops until nearly eight hours later, close to noon.
Kristi Goncalves, Kaylee’s mother, recalled that she asked the coroner if the victims could have been saved if someone called 911 sooner.
“The answer was no,” she said.
Kacy Johnston, who was friends with Kernodle, said that she “didn’t blame” the surviving roommates for “making the phone call late.”
“I can only imagine if it were me in either one of their shoes – I would have never believed what occurred in the house that night,” she said.
Dahlinger explained that there are “many reasons” why the victims’ friends didn’t call the police sooner.
“People are in shock, it’s traumatic. I mean, I can’t imagine being of that age, and being able to comprehend that this horrific thing just occurred,” he said.
Kohberger ‘adored’ his serial killer class
Lilly Karaban, who was Kohberger’s classmate when he was studying Criminal Justice at Washington State University, said that she sat next to him in a class called, “Minds of a Serial Killer.”
“I remember him asking a question about every single topic in that class,” she said, adding that the class would “roll their eyes” because he asked so many questions.
She recalled that Kohberger “adored” that class, and it was like “a switch went off” in him.
Karaban remembered seeing Kohberger “sitting by himself, not talking to anybody” before class.
When class began, he was “a different person” and “actively taking notes on everything.”
She added, “I never saw him socialize, I never saw him at any party, any sporting event. He was in his own world.”
Kohberger allegedly asked criminals how they chose their victims
After Kohberger’s arrest, Alivea, Kaylee’s sister, found a questionnaire that he allegedly posted on Reddit aimed at people who had been incarcerated for crimes.
“Some of the questions were, ‘why did you choose that victim or target over others?’” she said.
Another alleged question shown was, “Before making your move, how did you approach the victim or target?”
He also allegedly asked people what they were “thinking and feeling” after committing a crime.
Alivea said, “Looking at the questions now, it almost seemed like preparation for the perfect crime.”
Kohberger was ‘not well liked’
Dahlinger said that after Kohberger was arrested, “We had many interviews with staff and students at WSU, and learned that he was not particularly well liked by his fellow TAs and students.”
Notes from internal complaints at WSU alleged that Kohberger was “disrespectful to female instructors.”
Dahlinger said that Kohberger made a lot of female students “uncomfortable,” according to their findings, and “had this aptitude for talking down to females, and being curt and argumentative.”
Kohberger’s location habits changed after the murders
At the time of the murders, Kohberger was studying criminal justice at WSU, located in Pullman, Washington – a 15 minute drive from Moscow, Idaho.
When police looked at his cell phone records, they noticed his phone in the area of the victims’ house multiple times and “odd hours late at night,” according to Dahlinger.
He added that after the murders, Kohberger’s phone records showed that he “never came back to Moscow as he did prior.”
Staying away from that town was a display of “starkly different behavior” after the murders, he explained.
Kohberger had an ‘abnormal’ lack of data on his devices
Heather and Jared Barnhart, digital forensics experts who assisted with the investigation, said it was “abnormal” that Kohberger only had 18 contacts on his cell phone.
He also browsed in “incognito” mode, leaving few traces of his online activity.
They were still able to find that in the days leading up to his arrest, he did online searches for “federal wiretapping” and “serial killers,” they alleged.
The lack of data on his device shows that he wanted to “remain completely anonymous,” Jared alleged.
The morning after the murders, Heather said, he stood, “in what we believe was his bathroom in his apartment and gave a thumbs-up selfie, seeming to go on proudly with his life.”
She alleged, “I believe he thought he would get away with these murders.”
The victims’ parents were unhappy the house was torn down
On Dec. 28, 2023, the university demolished the house where the students were murdered.
Jeff Kernodle, Xana’s father said, “That whole house is evidence, as far as I’m concerned. There are still stains and things that should have been left there until the end of the trial. But, they did it anyway.”
Kaylee’s mom added that people don’t understand why she wouldn’t want the house destroyed.
“My daughter didn’t just die in that house, my daughter lived in that house. That was where she took her last breath,” she said.
The victims’ families think Kohberger got off too easy
Kohberger entered a guilty plea deal in July 2025 to avoid the death penalty.
Tami, Kaylee’s aunt, said, “He got off, in a sense, in our eyes, easy,” because when the judge asked if he committed the crimes, all he had to say was, “Yes.”
“That’s not enough,” she said. “The biggest answer I want is why. Why would you choose these kids, and this house.”
Jeff agreed, adding, “Tell all of us parents why he did it, if he was gonna get the plea.”
“What I want is for him to die. Justice would be if the kids came back … they’re never coming back, but I want him to die,” Kristi said.
The responding cops had to seek therapy
Dahlinger recalled that when his police department responded to the scene, it was, “absolutely horrific.”
He said onscreen, “I know not only myself, but every officer that was involved that day, has had a hard time with that.”
Over the course of the case, the Moscow police department got help from the Idaho State Police, and 22 FBI agents.
“This was so outside anything that we had dealt with at the police department,” he noted.
Dahlinger said the case affected him “very strongly” and “caused me a lot of trauma, to the point where I ended up having to get help and talk to a professional – which, for law enforcement officers, is a very difficult thing to do.”
