Friends and family of Idaho students killed by Bryan Kohberger explain why they thought they were 'next' in chilling new documentary

Surviving friends and family members of the Idaho students killed by Bryan Kohberger have revealed why they thought the murderer would come for them next in a chilling new documentary.

On November 13, 2022, now-convicted killer Bryan Kohberger crept into a popular student residence, 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, and killed four pals while they slept in their beds: Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20 and Ethan Chapin, 20.

The other two roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were left alive, apparently unaware of their grim deadly visitor in the middle of the night.

Now, speaking out for the first time in a tell-all four-part Amazon docuseries, the friends and family of the victims have revealed what happened in the messy aftermath, from an ill-equipped police force and a stark lack of information, to True Crime social media 'sleuths' harassing survivors and leaving many racked with fear for their own lives.

The first-hand accounts in the documentary reveal the young 20-somethings went through a harrowing ordeal just learning about the gruesome slayings of their friends.

First, friend Hunter Johnson walked directly into the bloody crime scene where he witnessed Xana and her boyfriend, Ethan, stabbed to death some hours after the crime the following day.

In the documentary, friends recalled how Johnson saved the rest of them from 'extreme trauma' by keeping the gory details to himself and forcing the group out of the home to call 911.

The documentary heard how Hunter Johnson spared his friends 'extreme trauma' by keeping them from the crime scene (Amazon Prime)

When Moscow Police Department and paramedics descended onto the scene, the bewildered group gathered on the street by the property where they tried to piece information together.

Hunter and Maizie Chapin, who formed triplets with victim, Ethan, were also called by the pals. Heartbreakingly, Hunter was informed by his friends that his brother had passed.

Hunter, who said the trio were simply 'best friends' and had never gone even more than 12 hours together, recalled how he then had to break the news to his mom in a phone call.

Hunter Chapin, Ethan's brother had to inform his family that his brother had been killed (Amazon Prime)

Stacy Chaplin said her son couldn't find the words, instead telling her that Ethan and Xana were 'not on this Earth anymore'.

"I couldn't face the fact that he was dead," Hunter added.

Meanwhile, the group had no idea Maddie and Kaylee also lay dead in their beds in the student residence, while relatives clambered to the scene including Maddie's mom, Karen Laramie.

Karen thought she was simply going to collect her daughter and comfort her.

The four students were found stabbed in their beds (Amazon Prime)

Horrifically, the pupils and parents then came to learn about Maddie and Kaylee's grim fate through a 'vandal alert' text message. The message revealed police were investigating a homicide involving four victims on King Street.

Starved of any further information for days, the students and the victims' families became bonded in grief - and fear.

"I think the realism actually set in and I was very terrified," Hunter says in the documentary. "I didn't sleep that whole first night.

"There's a person out there who had just murdered our brother. And he's still out there somewhere," he added.

"Every noise we heard, we thought we were going to be attacked," Emily Alandt, who was also first on the crime scene with Johnson, said. "The fear of the unknown got to all of us."

"I was truly scared," Johnson added. "They were our best friends, like if that just happened to our best friends, then who's to say that's not going to happen to all of us?"

Emily recalls how the large group of friends were living in fear for their own lives (Amazon Prime)

Their anxieties were aggravated further when cops stated they believed the murders were a 'targeted incident'.

Emily explained: "It was random to all of us, but they said it was targeted. We were a big group of friends, why would you target those four specifically? And so there’s a big realisation that we had been stalked for so many months and had no clue and we would have no clue if we were currently."

Karen also said she and her husband, Scott, were on 'pins and needles', trying to think of any enemies they had or any stalkers.

"Every time I heard a sound, any time I heard a twig breaking... It absolutely tore the sense of peace and security out of our lives," she added.

But that wasn't the only reason they feared an attack, as within days of the murder, social media 'sleuths' in the True Crime community hounded the friend group, where they were doxxed, accused, harassed with death threats and hate mail and, eventually, forced into hiding.

Karen said she 'ran' into the police department to find out if her daughter was one of the four victims (Amazon Prime)

Johnson said: "It felt like a movie, people thinking we were murderers."

Cops eventually set the record straight in a press conference on November 23, slamming online speculation, misinformation and conjecture on social media though doubled-down that it was a targeted attack.

"We don't want to put our case in jeopardy by releasing what we have," the police chief said. "We believe it was a targeted attack. I mean to be honest, you’re going to have to trust us on that at this point because we’re not going to release why we think that."

Nerves reached boiling point at the subsequent candlelit vigil, marked with a knife arch while FBI and undercover agents guarded the family and pupils.

It wasn't until the end of the year that cops announced that they finally had their suspect, Kohberger, a total stranger and PhD criminology student and teaching assistant at Washington State University.

Kohberger plead guilty to the murders on July 2 (Kyle Green-Pool/Getty Images)

The documentary reveals he likely used his criminology expertise to try to cover his tracks, but was rumbled by genetic genealogy testing, DNA evidence, phone records and his car that was seen in the area before and after the murders.

He was arrested while wearing latex gloves and disposing of trash into separate zip-lock baggies.

Kohberger was later charged with four counts of first-degree murder, and one count of burglary in connection with their deaths and pleaded guilty to murder on July 2, sparing him the death penalty.

Sentencing for the 30-year-old is now set for July 23 where it is anticipated he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

One Night in Idaho: The College Murders is available to watch on Amazon.