Murder: True Crime Stories - SOLVED: The Idaho College Murders 1

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

In November 2022, four University of Idaho students—Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin—returned home from a night out in their small college town, unaware that a killer was already watching. In this emotional first episode, Murder: True Crime Stories introduces the vibrant young lives at the heart of the tragedy and follows their final hours inside the now-infamous King Road house. Through detailed timelines, eyewitness accounts, and early clues—including a mysterious white Hyundai Elantra and chilling testimony from a surviving roommate—Carter Roy unpacks how a community built on trust and closeness was thrust into national horror overnight. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Murder True Crime Stories to never miss a case! For Ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Killer Minds, Crime House Daily and Crimes and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios YouTube: @crimehousestudios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, Crime House community. It's Vanessa Richardson. Exciting news. Conspiracy theories, cults, and crimes is leveling up. Starting the week of January 12th, you'll be getting two episodes every week. Wednesdays, we unravel the conspiracy or the cult, and on Fridays we look at a corresponding crime. Every week has a theme. Tech, bioterror, power, paranoia, you name it. Follow conspiracy theories, cults and crimes now. on your podcast app because you're about to dive deeper, get weirder, and go darker than ever before. College towns are supposed to be safe. They're places where young people make lifelong

friends explore their passions and prepare for the real world together that's exactly what moscow was like students left their doors unlocked parents didn't worry too much and nothing bad ever really happened until it did on a cold november night in 2022 four university of idaho students were brutally murdered inside their off-campus home on king road It was an act of senseless violence that thrust this small college town into the national spotlight and left the community wondering why. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end.

But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios that comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. Crime House is made possible by you. Follow Murder True Crime Stories

and subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts for ad-free early access to each two-part series. This is the first of two episodes on the 2022 Item college murders. Today I'll introduce you to the four students at the heart of this tragedy. Madison Mogan, Kaylee Gonzalves, Xanacernodal, and Ethan Chapin. On November 13th, they came home from a night out. What happened next made headlines for all the wrong reasons and changed the city of Moscow, Idaho forever. Next time, I'll dig into the winding investigation. Authorities were tight-lipped about potential suspects and motives, but behind closed doors, law enforcement was piecing

together the puzzle and narrowing in on a dangerous killer. All that and more coming up. There were four college students just trying to figure out who they were going to be. They laughed too loudly and stayed up too late. They had favorite coffee orders, inside jokes, and weekend plans. This is where their story really begins, and this is how they should be remembered. For Madison Mogan, or Maddie, as her friends called her, the University of Idaho was an important stepping stone. She was raised in Cordillane, just 90 minutes north of the university.

Her parents, Karen, and Scott said she was the kind of girl who made friends the second she walked into a room. She was funny, bright, and endlessly loyal. When Maddie graduated high school in 2019, she moved to Moscow for college with plans to major in marketing. She was a little nervous but excited to be on her own. Most of all, she was excited to join a few. sorority on campus. Maddie's first choice was Alpha Phi. Her second choice was Pi Beta Phi. After a week of meeting all the girls in the different sorority houses, it was time for Maddie to learn where she'd spend the next four years. She ripped open her envelope and looked inside.

It said, Pi Beta Phi, otherwise known as Pi Phi Phi. Maddie was disappointed. Alpha Phi was considered a top house on campus. Pi-Fi was not. But she didn't let her true emotion show. She ran to the Pi-Beta-Fi house with her new sisters, all smiles. And once she was there, she threw herself into sorority life. She even used her marketing skills to help promote Pi-Fi on social media. She wanted them to be a top house too.

She was so good at it, the sorority asked her to manage their official Instagram. account. It was impressive, but the rejection still stung, especially because Maddie's best friend, Kaylee Gonzalez, had come to the University of Idaho and gone through the sorority recruitment process with her, but Kaylee had gotten into Alpha Phi. It was the first time since sixth grade that they'd ever done anything apart for most of their lives. Where you saw one, you saw the other. Kaylee had the bigger personality. She was a bit of a jokester, always recording funny videos of herself for social media. Maddie was quieter, but no less confident. Together, they balanced each other out perfectly.

Their family's joke that they were like sisters who just happened to have different last names. Real sisters, not sorority ones. But when they joined separate houses, Kaylee and Maddie had to make new friends on their own for the first time. But then COVID hit their sophomore year and everything changed. The girls moved back home to northern Idaho, where they were both from. By the time they got back to campus, things felt different. They weren't as jazzed about sorority life as they used to be. They didn't like the rules and restrictions, and they didn't want to live in their sorority houses anymore. So the summer before senior year in 2022, they moved in together. By then, 21-year-old Kaylee was about to graduate a semester early. She just landed

a job with an IT company in Texas. Maddie, also 21, was still finishing her degree in marketing, but she was incredibly proud of her best friend for already getting her foot in the door, and she would soon follow in her footsteps and strike out on her own. According to Maddie's boyfriend, she wanted to explore the world. But Maddie knew that no matter what they did, or how many miles were between them, nothing would ever separate her and Kaylee. And in the meantime, they were determined to have a great senior year, especially now that they lived off campus. Their house at 1122 King Road was a rental with five bedrooms. The entrance was was on the ground floor, which had two bedrooms.

There was another bedroom in the basement below, and two more upstairs. That's where Maddie and Kaylee lived. Kaylee also brought along her Golden Doodle Murphy, who she shared with her ex-boyfriend. Besides that, there were three other girls who lived there. Bethany Funk was in the basement, while Dylan Mortensen and Xanacernodal were on the ground floor. 20-year-old Zana was majoring in marketing and working part-time at a local restaurant. She was also one of Maddie's sorority sisters in Pi-Fi. Her friends described her as funny, sharp, and refreshingly herself.

She was the group's de facto DJ, and she didn't care much for appearances. She'd show up to a party in an oversized sweatshirt, hair, and a messy bun, no makeup, and still steal the show. Unlike the other girls in the house, Zana didn't have any specific plans for the future when she came to the University of Idaho, but things had been slowly shifting for her. She was dating a guy named Ethan Chapin. The 20-year-old was majoring in recreation, sport, and tourism management.

They'd met at a frat party the year before. It wasn't instant fireworks, but they ran in the same circles, were always hanging out together and their connection just grew naturally. Zana had just spent the summer with his family and now he was spending almost every night at the King Roadhouse with her.

Zana still wasn't sure what her future held, but she believed Ethan would be part of it. Ethan was a triplet, born just minutes apart from his brother Hunter and his sister, Maisie. They had grown up in Mountie. Vernon in Washington State and had been incredibly close their entire lives. So when it came time for college, they all decided to go to the University of Idaho together. Ethan and Hunter joined

Sigma Kai, and that's actually how Ethan met Zana at a party hosted by his frat. And while he and his brother were both tall, athletic and easygoing, Ethan stood out as the kind of guy who could make anyone feel welcome. His siblings said he was magnetic and a natural leader. When his parents, Jim and Stacey, came to visit for parents' weekend in early November 2022, they were thrilled to see how well their kids had adjusted to college life. They tailgated at the football game, met their kids' friends, and spent time with Zana. It was clear that she and Ethan were getting serious. left Moscow to drive back home, Stacey turned to Jim and said she felt proud. Like they'd made it through the hardest part of raising their kids, and now they were all thriving. But just one

week later, all of that would change. And four young lives full of promise and plans would come to a devastating end. November 12th, 2020 was a Saturday in Moscow, Idaho. That evening, the University of Idaho's football team played a home game. The students were out in full force, tailgating all day before the game. even after the team lost, the party didn't stop. That night, music spilled from fraternity houses, and the streets were alive with clusters of students walking from one party to the next.

At 1122 King Road, the three-story rental home just off campus, five roommates got ready to go out and join the fun. 21-year-old Kaylee Gonzalez and 21-year-old Maddie Mogan put on makeup in the mirror of their shared bathroom upstairs. The cramped space was no problem for the two best friends. Below them on the ground floor, 20-year-old Xanerker Nodal got ready in her room. She was meeting up with her boyfriend,

20-year-old Ethan Chapin later. He was currently with his sister at her sorority formal because she didn't have a date. Down the hall was Dylan Mortensen, and below her in the basement bedroom was Bethany Funk. They were both Maddie's Pi-Fi sisters. Bethany was Maddie's little, a younger girl in the sorority who Maddie mentored. That night, all five girls went out in Moscow.

Kaylee and Maddie headed to a local sports bar called The Corner Club. It was a long-time Moscow staple with neon lights and affordable drinks. Once Zana met up with Ethan, they went to a party at Sigma Chi just a few blocks away. They danced the night away amongst friends. Dylan and Bethany went out separately. They were doing their own thing, but they said they would probably end up at the Sigma Chi party. After they'd gotten their fill of the corner club,

Kaylee and Maddie wanted a late-night snack, so they stopped by a popular food truck called the Grub Truck. For some reason, the Grub Truck live streamed their late-night rush on Twitch. So anyone who came to order was caught on camera, and anyone could tune in online and watch if they wanted to. Kaylee and Maddie showed up around 1.30 a.m. The live stream didn't capture their audio, but they were seen smiling and chatting with each other. Then at one point, a man in a hoodie appeared nearby. They chatted for a bit, then turned and walked away. A few seconds later,

he followed in their direction. The exchange would become a point of contention later, but for now, Kaylee and Maddie called an Uber and went home. Meanwhile, Zana and Ethan continued to party, but around 1.45 a.m., they decided to call it a night and head home. Dylan and Bethany, who also stopped by the party, got back to the house soon after. By about 2 a.m., all five roommates plus Ethan were back under the same roof. The lights inside the King Roadhouse flicked off one by one.

Outside, the rest of the town was winding down, a normal, except for one thing. Around 3.30 a.m., a white Hyundai Alontera began appearing on security cameras from nearby homes. It drove past the King Road House once, then again, and again. Over the next half hour, it circled the block several times before finally stopping near the home. Inside, Zana was still awake. Hungry after a night of drinking, she ordered DoorDash. The delivery guy arrived around 4 a.m., handing off her order at the front door. She took it back to her room on the ground floor where Ethan was already asleep and began scrolling through TikTok.

She didn't hear when minutes later the sliding glass door in the kitchen opened and a masked figure stepped inside. The intruder moved quietly through the house. He went right to the stairs heading to the second floor where Maddie and Kaylee were cuddled together. in Maddie's bed. Meanwhile, on the ground floor, Dylan stirred when she heard a sound. She thought it must have been Kaylee playing with her dog upstairs, but then she heard something else. Kaylee's voice saying softly, there's someone here. Dylan cracked open her bedroom door listening. She didn't see anyone, so she closed it again, assuming she'd imagined it. She couldn't have known that just above her, the intruder had unsheathed a knife and was stabbing Maddie and Kaylee to death.

Back in her room, Dylan heard more strange noises. Then a man's voice say, it's okay, I'm going to help you. Dylan opened her door again just a crack. Still, she didn't see anything. she was thoroughly freaked out at that point especially when she heard crying she thought it might be zana and then there was a thud after that caley's dog murphy started barking upstairs so dylan looked out her door a third time that was when she saw him a masked man dressed in black walking toward her The only distinguishing feature she noticed was his bushy eyebrows and his height, roughly five feet ten.

She froze in panic, but it seemed like the intruder hadn't noticed her. He walked right past her room, down the hallway toward the sliding glass door in the kitchen. Dylan couldn't make sense of it. What was going on? She went back into her bedroom, locked her door, and grabbed her phone. She started texting her roommates. Nothing from Kaylee or Maddie or Zana or Ethan. The only person who responded was Bethany, who was in the basement bedroom.

Dylan told her she'd seen someone in a ski mask and that she was terrified. Bethany said she hadn't heard anything, but told Dylan to run to her room. So Dylan did. she and Bethany huddled together for the next few hours later that morning Bethany and Dylan still hadn't heard back from any of their roommates so Dylan reached out to some friends for help Hunter Johnson and his girlfriend Emily Alant Dylan said something weird had happened during the night and she was scared she asked if they could come check out the house apparently this wasn't the first time Dylan had called her friends in a panic, but in the past it had been for small things, like a strange noise that ended up just being a pan falling off a shelf. So even though Dylan sounded frightened, Hunter and Emily weren't super alarmed. Still, they agreed to come by. Hunter arrived at the house first, just ahead of Emily and a few other friends who had come with them.

Dylan and Bethany met them outside and waited while Hunter went in. He headed straight to Zana's room, but he saw made him sick to his stomach. Zana and Ethan lay lifeless with what appeared to be stab wounds. He searched for a pulse, but felt nothing. Hunter was in shock, but he still wanted to protect his friends, so he turned back and told the others that someone needed to call 911 because there was an unconscious person. in the house. He didn't say what he already knew to be true.

Zana and Ethan were dead. In the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, a massed intruder walked into the King Road house where five universe. of Idaho students lived. One of those students, 19-year-old Dylan Mortensen, saw him leave the residence. Earlier, she'd heard strange sounds, a loud thump, crying, a man's voice telling someone it would all be okay. Dylan was terrified. She ran downstairs to another roommate, Bethany Funk, who lived in the basement, and spent the rest of the morning sleeping beside her. Hours later, they worked up the courage to call a friend hunter johnson and some others to come over as soon as he

stepped inside hunter realized the king road house was a crime scene he told friends to call 911 by then it was 1158 a.m nearly eight hours after the murders now it's easy in hindsight to wonder why dylan and bethany didn't call sooner but remember they were just college kids barely 20 years years old, a little drunk, and they lived in a town where nothing bad ever really happened. Even in their worst nightmares, they couldn't have imagined the truth. Within minutes of receiving the call, officers from the Moscow Police Department arrived. They were followed by the Idaho State Police Forensic Team. Inside, they discovered four bodies.

But outside, no one told the group of friends waiting in the driveway what had really happened. As far as the friends knew, only Zana and Ethan had been targeted. After the officers realized the scope of the violence, they called for backup, Corporal Brett Payne from the Moscow Police Department, was brought in to help secure and process the scene. Officer Smith, one of the first responders, walked him through the house. They started on the second floor in Zana's bedroom. Zana lay on the floor with what appeared to be stab wounds.

Ethan was nearby with similar injuries. Both were dead. Then Payne followed Smith upstairs to the third floor where Kaylee's dog, Murphy, was unharmed. But the horror was in the next room. Maddie's bedroom. Kaylee and Maddie were in bed together with visible stab wounds. Next to them, Corporal Payne noticed something that would soon become key evidence. A tan leather knife sheath embossed with a Marine Corps insignia.

Outside, police taped off the scene, the friends gathered on the sidewalk began to realize that something truly terrible had happened. Then at 104 p.m., the University of Idaho sent out a campus alert that there was an ongoing homicide investigation on King Road. It warned other students to stay away and shelter in place. Then, not long after that, a second alert followed. This time, it confirmed that four people were dead. The group outside the King Roadhouse struggled to process what they were. reading. No one from law enforcement had told them anything, and now they were learning from

a university text message that four of their friends had been murdered. In the same house, some of them had slept in that night. It didn't feel real. The friends got in touch with Ethan's siblings, Hunter, and Maisie, and told them the news. The two surviving triplets were the ones who had to call their parents and tell them that Ethan was gone. Their mom had been grocery shopping when they called, and she couldn't understand what they were telling her at first. But she knew one thing. Whatever had happened,

she and her husband needed to get to the campus right away. They needed to be there for their kids. So they started the six-hour drive to Moscow. Meanwhile, the news reached Zana's sister, who was studying at Washington State University 10 miles away. She called their father. She didn't tell him the details over the phone. She just told him to come to Moscow.

In northern Idaho, Kaylee and Maddie's families were both starting to get concerning messages from the girl's friends, but no one could get a hold of either Kaylee or Maddie. So Kaylee's parents called Maddie's mom to see if she knew what was going on, She said she was already on her way to the campus. She promised to bring both girls home when she found them. The confusion lasted until late afternoon, when police finally confirmed the worst for the families. All four of their kids had been killed, and no one knew why.

As the families tried to process everything, Corporal Payne began interviewing anyone who might help. fill in the blanks. Rumors were spreading among students that drugs had been involved, maybe even a cartel, or that there was some love triangle that had gone wrong, but the police weren't inclined to believe any of that just yet. They needed to get the facts straight first. Corporal Payne spoke to Kaylee's ex-boyfriend, Jack Ducor, who said he was Murphy's co-owner, but he didn't have much else to add.

Payne also talked to the surviving roommates. Dylan told him about the masked man she'd seen. She described him as wearing all black, standing around 5, 10, and having an athletic build. She also added that he had pushy eyebrows. It wasn't a lot to go on, but it was something. Bethany, the other surviving roommate, said she hadn't heard or seen anything that night. All she knew was what Dylan had told her. Meanwhile, forensic investigators processed the crime scene inside the King Road House.

They had found the knife sheath in Maddie's room, which seemed to be left behind by the killer. They sent it off for further testing. They also found a partially visible shoe print outside of Dylan's bedroom door. It had a pattern of repeated diamond shapes, similar to what you'd find on the sole of a van's type shoe. The print was directly in the path. Dylan had described the intruder taking as he left the house, so it seemed likely it was his footprint. They were solid clues, but they needed to find a suspect first. So detectives began combing through nearby surveillance footage from neighborhood ring cameras. That's when they found something chilling. A video

of a white Hyundai Alontera circling the King Road Street multiple times in the early morning hours of November 13th. Then at around 4.20 a.m., the same car was seen speeding away from the area. It was the best lead they had. If they could find the vehicle, they could find the driver, and maybe they would find their killer. The horror inside the King Roadhouse was unlike anything Moscow, Idaho had ever seen. Four college students, brights, beloved and full of life, were gone in one night and for seemingly no reason at all. The college town went from a place of safety to a city on

edge. Students were locking their doors, worried that the killer might come for them next. Now, with only a vague vehicle description and a shaky eyewitness account, police were under immense pressure to find whoever had done this. When word of the murder spread, the internet exploded with theories. Everyone wanted answers, even people who had no connection to the case. But as detectives began piecing together the evidence themselves, one thing was undeniable. This attack was not random. And eventually, the clues would lead them to someone they never expected. An unassuming graduate student living just 10 miles away. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy, and this is murder true crime stories.

Come back next time for part two on the Idaho College Murders and all. all the people it affected. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House original, powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media at Crime House on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow Murder, True Crime Stories, wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback, truly, makes a difference. and to enhance your murder true crime stories listening experience,

subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad-free, and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two-part series, you'll get access to both at once. We'll be back on Thursday. Murder True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy, and is a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team,

Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Natalie Pertzowski, Molly Quinlan Artwick, Sarah Camp, Alex Burns, Honeya Said, and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening. exciting news, conspiracy theories, cults, and crimes is leveling up. Starting the week of January 12th, you'll be getting two episodes every week. Wednesdays, we unravel the conspiracy or the cult, and on Fridays we look at a corresponding crime. Follow conspiracy theories, cults, and crimes now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen.