Murder victim Ethan Chapin’s sister has shared the final text her brother sent her just hours before he was brutally killed in a home near the University of Idaho campus, as she admits it was “weird”.
Ethan, a 20-year-old freshman, was killed alongside his girlfriend, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her roommates Madison Mogen, 21 and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, during a horrifying home invasion attack in the early hours of November 13, 2022. Earlier this month, Bryan Kohberger, a 30-year-old former PhD student of criminology, confessed to the murders as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
Ethan’s sister, Maizie Chapin, revealed she thought it was strange when her brother texted her “I love you” the night before the murders. It comes as Ethan’s parents break their silence on Kohberger’s death penalty plea.
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Ethan was murdered alongside his girlfriend, Xana, and two of her roommates at their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho(Image: AP)
Maizie, the triplet sister of Ethan and his brother, Hunter Chapin, had invited Ethan to accompany her to a sorority formal on the Saturday evening. They left the formal at around 9pm and while some students went on to Ethan and Hunter’s fraternity house, Maizie stayed behind.
“For some reason, I stayed and went to bed,” she told a new Amazon Prime documentary series about the murders titled “One Night in Idaho: The College Murders.” But Ethan continued to message Maizie.
Recalling his final text, she said: “Ethan kept texting me, ‘Maizie, come hang out.’ I went to sleep, so I wasn’t responding to any of them. Last one said, ‘I love you,’ which was also weird because we don’t say that to each other.”
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Bryan Kohberger was arrested for the murders weeks later (Image: Getty Images)
The next day, Ethan was found dead at the off-campus Moscow, Idaho house of his girlfriend, Xana, and her roommates. The four students had been brutally stabbed to death in their rental home in the early hours of Sunday, November 13.
Two roommates in the house survived, including one who told authorities that she saw a man walking past her in the house during the middle of the night. Weeks later, Kohberger, who at the time was a doctoral student at the nearby Washington State University, was arrested based on DNA and other digital forensic evidence.
After months of delays, his trial was set to begin on August 18. But at a change of plea hearing on July 2, Kohberger admitted four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
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University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves (second from left, bottom) and Madison Mogen (second from left, top), Ethan Chapin (center) and Xana Kernodle (second from right) were stabbed to death in their beds as they slept(Image: ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)
Judge Steven Hippler asked Kohberger if he “killed and murdered” each victim, naming the four students. Kohberger stoically responded “yes” each time.
Ethan’s mother, Stacy Chapin, was in court when Kohberger pleaded guilty. Describing seeing him, she told TODAY: “It was cold and calculated and weirdly, like an automated phone message.
“I mean, it was just like you expected some, I don’t know, remorse, emotion, something. And there was zero.” The Chapin family have supported the move to offer Kohberger a plea deal.
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Kohberger confessed to the murders as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty(Image: AP)
“If I could physically do a handstand, I’d probably do one, because I am so ready,” Jim Chapin, Ethan’s father, said. “I’m ready for my kids to move on. I’m ready for us to move on. I mean, it’s been almost two-and-a-half years, and it’s, just, it’s over.”
“He gets put away, and there’s no appeal system to it,” Stacy Chapin told the outlet. “And there were so many kids, including our own, that had been subpoenaed that no longer have this hanging over their heads.”
Kohbeger is due to be sentenced on July 23. He is expected to receive four consecutive terms of life in prison without parole, plus another 10 years.
