The Idaho Student Murders: DNA in Real Time Part 1

Summary

America's Crime Lab: The Idaho Student Murders – DNA in Real Time Part 1

Podcast by iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope
Episode Date: September 10, 2025
Host: Aylin Lance Lesser
Notable Contributors: Glen Washington, Captain Dustin Blaker, Ashley Jennings, Bill Thompson, Stacey Chapin

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Overview

This episode of America’s Crime Lab explores the harrowing 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho—a crime that devastated the community and left investigators with few leads. The episode traces the immediate aftermath of the murders, the initial law enforcement response, and the painstaking early work to identify the perpetrator, with a focus on the critical role of DNA forensics in real time. Personal testimonies from detectives, prosecutors, and the victims’ families highlight the devastation and the desperate search for answers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Life in Moscow, Idaho & The King Road House

• Setting the Scene:
  • Moscow is described as a typical, safe, outdoorsy college town. The University of Idaho is central to its identity, and Greek Row is a social hub.
  • The King Road house, where the murders happened, was a typical, lived-in student home, but architecturally confusing (“hodgepodgey”) with multiple entrances and floors.
  • [04:44–07:50]: Glen Washington paints a vivid picture of the college town atmosphere and details of the house’s structure.

The Crime Unfolds

• Timeline of the Discovery:

  • On November 13, 2022, a 911 call reports an “unresponsive person” at the house; police arrive to confusion and panic among the roommates and friends.
  • The town’s police, unused to serious crime ("Moscow hadn't seen a homicide in about seven years" – 11:42, Glen Washington), are in shock and scrambling for information.
  • First responders were confused, not initially understanding the horror that had occurred.

• Victim Profiles:

  • Zanna Kernoodle: Described as down-to-earth, “no makeup” and "sweatshirt kind of girl." Found with defensive wounds, likely fought the attacker [17:01–18:45].
  • Ethan Chapin: Triplet, popular, and the "dominant" sibling, remembered for his "robust personality" (20:17, Stacey Chapin).
  • Kaylee Goncalves: Outgoing prankster, "middle child," close to Maddie.
  • Madison “Maddie” Mogen: Described as a real-life “Disney princess,” inseparable from Kaylee.
  • [20:26–22:20]: Emotional family perspectives and character sketches.

The Investigation Begins

• Crime Scene & Evidence:

  • Police and prosecutors, like Ashley Jennings, enter a disheveled but typical student home.
  • The key piece of evidence: a leather KA-BAR knife sheath found partly under Maddie Mogen (23:12, Captain Dustin Blaker). The knife itself is missing; the sheath is stamped with "USMC."
  • [23:54]: Discuss why the military-style knife sheath was striking and unique in the context of the house.

• Absence of Clear Leads:

  • Very little physical evidence or suspect traces; the killer appeared careful.
  • Interviews mainly involved circling friends and survivors, trying to reconstruct the previous night (31:40–32:46, Bill Thompson).

Emotional Fallout: Family and Friends

• Breakdown of Events for Survivors:

  • The surviving roommates, Dylan and Bethany, are described as young, easily frightened, and in total shock, initially unable to process or describe the scene.
  • The confusion and terror are palpable—friends found the victims, not realizing at first what they’d seen and defaulting to reporting an “unconscious person” (37:40, Glen Washington).
  • The Chapin family’s anguish in learning of Ethan's death is recounted in detail, with Stacey Chapin struggling to comprehend the loss on the phone with her children (41:45–44:29).

• Quote – Trauma in Real Time:

  • “I was talking to a friend in the produce department...it was Hunter calling from her phone. And he just kept saying, ethan’s not here...they are no longer here on this earth, on this planet. And I was like, what? And that takes a very long time to process.”
    – Stacey Chapin [41:45–44:29]
  • “This is not one that ever plays out in your head.” — Stacey Chapin [44:29]

Forensics & The DNA Challenge

• Initial Forensic Work:

  • Police collect blood, fingerprints, and the knife sheath. They prioritize the sheath for DNA analysis.
  • Captain Blaker:
    • "The very first object that we knew that we needed to get to the state lab as fast as we could was a knife sheath that was located in Maddie's bedroom..." [46:38]
    • The Idaho State Crime Lab quickly produces a "single source DNA profile," called "the cleanest sample that you could find." [47:25]
      "It was almost like you putting your finger on something and then instantly doing a swab of it and pulling the DNA off." — Captain Dustin Blaker [47:25]

• Frustration When DNA Finds No Match:

  • No match found in CODIS (the national criminal DNA database)—the perpetrator had no previous record or DNA on file.
  • “So that made everything harder, knowing that we had to figure out another way to be able to try and figure out who this is.”
    — Captain Dustin Blaker [48:05]

The Social & Psychological Aftershocks

• Rumors, Gag Orders, and Social Media:

  • Gag order initially restricted information, leading to rumors and speculation.
  • The episode closes with hints at the overwhelming pressure on families and detectives:
    • “The media had gotten all of our contact information. Our phones were ringing non stop. Our kids phones were ringing non stop.” — Stacey Chapin [48:52]
    • "Social media made it so much worse. I was getting flooded with death threats." — Aylin Lance Lesser [49:00]

• Law Enforcement’s Determination & Anxiety:

  • "I was extremely nervous that I was going to do something to screw the whole thing up." — Captain Dustin Blaker [49:04]
  • "We tested ex boyfriends, you name it. We were testing anybody we could that would provide us with a DNA swab." — Captain Blaker [49:12]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "This is not one that ever plays out in your head."
  — Stacey Chapin, mother of Ethan Chapin [44:29]

• “Knowing that my kids could have been potentially one of the victims, and how would I feel and what would I want done gave me the focus that I needed to continue on every single day. Especially when we had nothing.” — Captain Dustin Blaker [12:12]

• “[The knife sheath] was the only piece of evidence that stood out as being something unique and that would likely lead to whoever was responsible for the murders.” — Bill Thompson, Prosecutor [24:57]

• “They got a single source DNA profile. They said it was the cleanest sample that you could find.” — Captain Dustin Blaker [47:25]

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:20] — Stacey Chapin’s first, raw account of learning Ethan is gone.
• [04:44–07:50] — Scene-setting: description of Moscow, the house, and King Road.
• [11:42–12:12] — Police and community shock, small-town trauma.
• [17:01–18:45] — First walkthrough of crime scene; signs of a fight.
• [20:17–22:20] — Family perspectives, victim biographies.
• [23:12–24:11] — Discovery and significance of the KA-BAR knife sheath.
• [31:40–32:46] — Reconstruction of victims’ final day; “viral photo” discussed.
• [37:40–39:36] — Explaining roommate and friends’ confusion upon discovery.
• [41:45–44:29] — Stacey Chapin retells receiving the news about her son.
• [46:38–48:05] — Processing the knife sheath for DNA and the setback when there’s no match.

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Closing

This first part of the "DNA in Real Time" series sets the emotional, investigative, and forensic groundwork for one of the nation's most devastating campus crimes. The episode immerses listeners in the grief, confusion, and determination of the community and authorities as they struggle to find answers—ending on the critical scientific cliffhanger: DNA evidence in hand, but still no suspect in sight.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where the investigation pivots and the lab plays its pivotal role.

Transcript

[Glen Washington]

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[Stacey Chapin]

He just kept saying, ethan's not here. And I was like, what? And that takes a very long time to process. I still heard the words and it was not registering inside of my head. What was, you know, what really actually was happening. You worry about things. You worry about your kids, you know, getting in a car accident or being roofied in a bar or, I mean, you know, whatever, right? This is not one that ever plays out in your head.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

In November of 2022, the campus of an Idaho college woke up to a shocking crime. Four young students had been murdered in their bedrooms. Police had no suspects and little evidence. That's when law enforcement decided to try something new and track the killer in real time using their own DNA. This is America's Crime Lab. I'm Ailin Lance Lesser. Producer Kathryn Venalosa is here. And Catherine, the murder of these students at the University of Idaho has been splashed all over the news. But there's still so much about this case that hasn't been made public.

[Glen Washington]

And actually Aylin, I wasn't even sure if we were going to be able to talk about this case. Othram started working on it really early on, but there's been a gag order which meant none of the main people involved in solving this crime could even talk. Until now.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

I get why judges do that, especially in such high profile cases, but I mean, that also can create a vacuum of information where rumors and conspiracy theories could swirl around.

[Glen Washington]

Yeah. And it meant that the people with the real information, you know, the truth of what was going on in the investigation, they couldn't set the record straight, but now they can.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Can you take us back to that November?

[Glen Washington]

So this takes place in Moscow, Idaho. And Moscow borders the Washington state line. It's basically directly east of Pullman, Washington. And it's known as a very outdoorsy place, you know, very picturesque with mountains and hiking trails. And it's home to the University of Idaho. And the campus sits sort of on the western side of the city. There are about 12,000 students and they're known for their football team which is called the Vandals. And Alen. Football games are a huge part of the social scene. Now Moscow's pretty much like any other college town. The neighborhoods that ring the campus house a lot of the students in apartment buildings and off campus houses. There's a huge water tower with a giant yellow eye for Idaho. And across the street from that is Greek Row and it's actually called New Greek Row. It's lined with fraternity and sorority houses.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Got it. So I always love a college town. Like there's nothing like it if you're on a road trip. I love stopping in those types of places. They just feel kind of like cozy and safe. You see all these kids excited for their futures.

[Glen Washington]

And this story starts sort of right here on the street behind New Greek Row. It's called King Road. And, and it's lined with long apartment buildings and multi story houses which are basically full of students. And at night you can kind of picture the scene. Like, students are roaming the streets, you know, going from house party to house party, and it's kind of a hub of nightlife for the campus. And on King Road, there's a funky white house that's built into a sloped hill. It has three stories, and there's a main entrance on the first floor. But since the house is built on a hill, there's also an entrance off the back that leads directly into the second floor of the house. And everyone I talked to said the house sort of looks like it's been added onto at different times. Like, the layout's a little confusing. Yeah.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Kind of hodgepodgey.

[Glen Washington]

Yeah. Like, the third floor seems like an afterthought. And there are bedrooms on all three floors. The main living areas, like the kitchen and living room, are on the second floor.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Mm, interesting. I vaguely remembered that the back door on the second floor, it's maybe like a sliding door or something, Like a window. Sliding door, yeah.

[Glen Washington]

It's a sliding glass door, and that leads into this kitchen, living room area. And the front of the house, where there's a main door, there are some parking spaces, and that seems to be where the residents of the house typically parked, but there's an upper parking lot. So while the front of the house is definitely much more visible from the street, the back area, you can see that slider. So it's more private, but it's still somewhat visible.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Wow. I'm getting a great picture of this in my mind, Katherine.

[Glen Washington]

And on November 13, 2022, shortly before noon, a 911 call comes in about an unresponsive person in this house on King Road.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

No.

[Glen Washington]

The police arrive, and they find two housemates from this house standing outside in the cold with a group of friends. And these two young women are clearly in shock. No one really understands what's happened. There's a lot of confusion. The police and EMT arrive, but they don't bring anybody out on a stretcher. No one is taken to the hospital. They're confused, which we'll come to understand why later. They actually don't even know what's happened.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Oh.

[Glen Washington]

People are now looking out their windows, and they can see King Road filling up with police cars. And everyone is like, oh, my God, what is happening? Kids are calling each other, texting. Everyone is sort of panicked. Now, this street and in particular this house, like, they definitely threw parties, and they had gotten noise complaints. So people are just thinking, like, oh, maybe the police are, like, responding after last night, Maybe some neighbors had called in about a noise complaint. But the longer that the police are out front, the more that all of the neighbors and students in this area are getting worried.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Yeah, I vaguely remember hearing that they had a couple of recent noise complaints.

[Glen Washington]

They did throw a lot of parties, but it was maybe not so unusual. Yeah, it was a college house. Right. Because I know that there were a lot of stories and even, like, news reports and streaming shows saying that there were a lot of people in the house that the roommates didn't know. It's hard to know how true that is. Right. Like, we all remember going to college and, like, somebody has a house party. It's not like, you know, every single person there, but usually everyone's related to somebody else. Right. So I don't want to paint a picture like, it was, like, mayhem in any way. But the kids in the neighboring apartment buildings and houses now, they see police tape start to go up, and information is, like, flying around, like text messages and Snapchat and everything else. One of the first people to arrive on the scene is Ashley Jennings, and she's a senior deputy prosecutor in the Latah county prosecutor's office. Now, Ashley was home on that Sunday when her phone rang, and it was a call from the police chief.

[Ashley Jennings]

I knew when I looked down at my phone and it said that it was Chief James Fry calling, that it was probably something big. I don't typically get a call in the middle of a Sunday afternoon from the chief. And we discussed applying for a search warrant to get into the house. I then went over to the residence.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Gosh, I can just imagine, like, this is not normal for this community. No, both for the kids, the college students, but also, I can imagine for these police officers. They're usually probably dealing with stuff like noise complaints, where it's just like, oh, can you turn down the music a little bit or break up this party? But I feel like if I were in those shoes of one of those police officers, I would just feel terrified or just kind of like, what. What happened?

[Glen Washington]

And it is a very safe area. I mean, Moscow hadn't seen a homicide in about seven years. And you're right, Police are mostly responding to, like, assaults, burglaries, stuff like that. And a lot of these officers have kids or relatives at the university. I spoke to Captain Dustin Blaker of the Moscow Police Department, and at the time, his son was a freshman. I mean, this is an incredibly intertwined community.

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

Knowing that my kids could have been potentially one of the victims, and how would I feel and what would I want done gave me the focus that I needed to continue on every single day. Especially when we had nothing. We had no idea which direction we needed to go next.

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[Glen Washington]

So Ashley arrives with a search warrant and later her boss, Bill Thompson, who's the prosecutor for the county, he also arrives. And Aylin Bill is like this really gentle guy. He's got a huge white beard. He's almost like disarming. And when he got the call that something had happened on King Road, he was actually on his way to play at a folk festival.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Folk musician and a prosecutor love that.

[Glen Washington]

And so Ashley enters the house with police through that main door on the first floor. There's a wreath on the door. And as she enters, she sees two bedrooms on the ground level. And one bedroom clearly is unoccupied. The other bedroom belongs to one of the roommates, Bethany, who's standing outside on the street. Mm. Ashley goes up the stairs to the second floor.

[Ashley Jennings]

You can tell, you know, students live there. There's, you know, some empty beer cans and, you know, stuff like that just hanging out on the steps.

[Glen Washington]

When she gets to the second floor, there's a beer pong table set up. There's a living room with a couch and the kitchen. And then off of the kitchen is that sliding glass door.

[Ashley Jennings]

And it was immediately apparent and worth our note that there was an exit on that floor. Outside of the kitchen, there was a sliding glass door and it was open weird.

[Glen Washington]

And she says as she's walking through the house, she's got like a video running in her brain. Like she's trying to literally record everything that she's seeing and trying to spot out anything that Seems unusual. Now, on the second floor, there are also two bedrooms. One belongs to Dylan, another roommate, and she's also standing outside with Bethany. And the other bedroom belongs to Zanna Kernoodle. And Zanna is 20. She's got long brown hair. Everyone describes her as, like, super down to earth. Funny. She's kind of like a no makeup, more of like a sweatshirt kind of girl, if you. That gives you a picture. Totally. So Zanna is found lying on the floor of her bedroom, unresponsive, and she has what looks like are defensive wounds on her hands.

[Ashley Jennings]

It was pretty apparent from looking just at the scene that there was a fight that occurred there in Zanna's bedroom.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Defensive wounds against a knife.

[Glen Washington]

Detectives determined that she had been attacked with a fixed blade knife, and the wounds on her hand show that she probably fought with whomever did this. Along with Ashley and Bill, the prosecutors, there are state crime scene investigators and Moscow police, including Captain Blaker.

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

So there wasn't as much blood throughout the entire house as, I think, what most people would assume. Most of it was confined to the two bedrooms where the victims were found. So, you know, you had the room where Ethan and Zana were located at. There was a lot of blood in.

[Glen Washington]

That room, in the bed. In her room, they find her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin. Now, Ethan's actually a triplet. His brother and sister are also students at the school.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Oh, wow. So they must be pretty close if they're all at the same school, same age.

[Glen Washington]

They're incredibly bonded. The three siblings, Ethan, Hunter, and Maisie, they do a lot together. I spoke to Ethan's mom, Stacey, and his dad, Jim, They're a minute apart.

[Stacey Chapin]

In birth, but Ethan kind of was the dominant triplet, kind of. All things went through Ethan. He had a big personality and a lot of character.

[Glen Washington]

Ethan and his brother Hunter, they're members of the same fraternity. And Ethan is known in the family as being sort of like the leader of the trio. He's very charming, as his family describes him. Like, whenever he enters a room, he doesn't demand attention, but it's just everybody is drawn to him.

[Stacey Chapin]

I don't know, like, a robust personality that just the energy was there with him, kind of.

[Gwen Washington]

And it's like when Kramer walked in.

[Stacey Chapin]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We always joke it was like Kramer from the old Seinfeld. Yeah, he was great. He was good for any adventure.

[Glen Washington]

From there, Ashley makes her way up to the third floor, and she says because of this, like, funky layout in the house, it's a little quirky to get up to the third floor. There are two more bedrooms up there. One belongs to Kaylee Goncalves. And Kaylee is very bubbly. She's got thick long hair. She's the middle of five, six. And she's known for pulling pranks on her friends. She once glued her upper lip to the bottom of her nose and what, Pretended like she had had a bad experience with lip filler. She's just a prankster.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

I love that.

[Glen Washington]

The other bedroom on the third floor belongs to Maddie Mogan. And Maddie to me, kind of looks like, I don't know, like a real life princess from a Disney movie. She's got long blonde hair, a cute little nose. These two girls have been inseparable since the sixth grade. And from then on, they spent like every minute together. And when it came time to apply to college, there was no question these girls were gonna go to the same school.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Oh, wow.

[Glen Washington]

Now Maddie and Kaylee are discovered together. They're in Maddie's bed. Neither of them are alive.

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

Where Maddie and Kaylee were. There was a lot of blood in that room. We found some blood droplets coming out of Maddie and Kaylee's room where they were at. We found some blood droplets on a wall that was leading towards Zana and Ethan's room.

[Glen Washington]

Kaylee's dog, she has a goldendoodle named Murphy, is also in the room, alive.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Oh, wow.

[Glen Washington]

Kaylee shares him with an ex boyfriend. And in the bed next to Kaylee and Maddie, law enforcement finds a leather knife sheath.

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

And I believe it was found kind of underneath Maddie, a little bit underneath. I think the blanket that was on the bed, we knew that was going to be a key piece to this investigation, especially where all the injuries that we saw we knew came from a fixed blade knife.

[Glen Washington]

You know, it's like a holder for a knife and it's for a KA Bar knife, which is a steel fixed blade knife. And I guess it was originally standard issue for the military during the Second World War. But this is a new knife. I mean, they still make it today. And the leather holder is stamped with USMC for the US Marine Corps.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Oh, interesting. This seems like a key piece of evidence.

[Glen Washington]

They know that. This seems like an odd thing to find in this particular house. You know, from what they can tell walking through the house, they're not finding other objects where it would lead them to believe, like, oh, well, someone's like a serious outdoorsman.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Yeah, that is really strange to have a big military knife like that just sitting around a college house.

[Glen Washington]

Yeah. And the knife isn't in it, it's just the holder. So Ashley Jennings and her boss, Bill Thompson, the prosecutor, they've now walked through the house and police start documenting everything. They're taking photos, they're dusting for fingerprints, they gather blood samples. And it seems like whoever did this was very careful to cover their tracks because, honestly, police aren't really finding any evidence that point to who the killer is, except for this leather knife sheath. I mean, it is a huge find because so far it is the only.

[Bill Thompson]

Thing they have that was the only piece of evidence that stood out as being something unique and that would likely lead to whoever was responsible for the murders. But that's really what they had at that point. They were starting from scratch.

[Glen Washington]

And really all they know is that these four students are dead, but they do not find a murder weapon and they have no suspects.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

What a nightmare. Honestly, there are four victims here that it sounds like may have been stabbed to death. I mean, for housemates or friends, I. It's like, where does this come from? Why. Why also so many. I mean, not that any one death is comprehensible, but for young people, I mean, it just. It just seems excessive and.

[Glen Washington]

And completely senseless.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Yeah, complete. That maybe. That's what I'm trying to say. Completely senseless. Yeah.

[Glen Washington]

It's a cold November day now. There's police tape all around the house. There's more law enforcement arriving, and it's almost happening in, like a fishbowl. All of these students. It's such a crowded neighborhood, and everyone is watching this unfold, and everybody is like, what the heck happened?

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

We're going to look at any blood spatter, any blood patterns that are on the walls, injuries to the victim, anything that looks out of place, that may have been touched or moved by a potential suspect. You're going to try and find point of entry to see if you can pull fingerprints or DNA off of any of those kind of things. Trying to figure maybe course of events, where did it start, where did it end?

[Glen Washington]

And there's very little information. I mean, police are doing the best they can, but they're just as stumped as anybody else.

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

We had four people that were killed, no eyewitnesses, and we had to start from basically with nothing and try and figure everything out.

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[Gwen Washington]

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[Glen Washington]

Goodbye. Wasn't that delicious? So good. Your bill, ladies. I got it. I got it.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

No, I got it.

[Glen Washington]

Seriously, I insist.

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[Glen Washington]

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[Glen Washington]

Okay. Rock, paper, scissors for it.

[Stacey Chapin]

Rock, paper, scissors.

[Glen Washington]

Shoot.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

No.

[Gwen Washington]

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[Glen Washington]

Police start to do initial interviews of the surviving roommates, who at this point are still standing out in the cold on the street. They're with Ethan's siblings and a circle of good friends. And a lot of them are in shorts. Dylan, one of the roommates, is actually standing there barefoot.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

I just can picture if I were a student at this school and I got a text from a friend like, oh, did you hear what happened? And you go out and you pile around this house. I mean, how scary. You don't know who did this. They could be someone even amongst the crowd.

[Glen Washington]

Yeah.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

You know that you don't. You don't know if you're safe or if this could happen again to someone you care about or if maybe someone you know is in that house. I mean, it just would be terrifying.

[Glen Washington]

Yeah. And prosecutor Bill Thompson says officers are gathering just as much information as they can.

[Bill Thompson]

They were interviewing friends and family of the victims, just trying to learn what might have occurred. They were talking to people who had seen the victims or been with them the day before and the night before, trying to recreate their activities. The investigation really was a blank slate at this point.

[Glen Washington]

And what they learn is that on Saturday, so the day before, there's a big football game at the university, and this group of friends gets together at the house on King Road to pregame, basically, like, party before the game. And if you follow this case, there's a photo that's gone viral from that day, and it's of the six friends, and they're standing on a porch. Maddie is perched on Kaylee's shoulders. Ethan has his arm around Zanna. And the two surviving roommates, Dylan and Bethany, are posed on either end of the circle of friends. This was taken the day before this whole thing happens.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

And wasn't it even posted that evening? They had posted this happy, warm, friendly photo. It's just heartbreaking.

[Glen Washington]

Yeah. It's Kaylee who posts the photo, and on social media, her caption is basically like, you know, one lucky girl to be surrounded by these people every day.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Oh.

[Glen Washington]

And so Saturday night, Ethan, I mentioned, is a Triplet. His sister Maisie is in a sorority and she has a formal at her sorority. And she's like, you know, I usually don't invite a date, but this time her brother Ethan goes with her.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

That's so sweet.

[Glen Washington]

It just goes to show you how close they are.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Right? Yeah, I love that.

[Glen Washington]

So Maisie's in a black dress, Ithan's wearing a dark suit. They take photos. They leave the formal around nine, or maybe a little bit before. And Maisie's pretty tired, so she goes back to her place and Ethan heads straight to his fraternity house. Their brother Hunter is already at the frat house and there's kind of a party going on. And also at the frat house is Zanna, one of the roommates from King Road, who's Ithan's girlfriend. And Ethan starts texting Maisie, like, come on, come to the frat house. Everyone misses you here. Come hang out, come on, come on. And Maisie's like, I'm so tired. So she actually just like ignores his text messages and she goes to bed. Meanwhile, Kaylee and Maddy decide to skip the frat house and instead they hit a local bar in Moscow called the Corner Club. At some point they leave and they go to a food truck, which is called the Grub Truck. And from what I can tell, sort of by 1:45, all of the roommates have made their way back to the house on King Road. So Bethany's in her room on the first floor, Dylan's in her room on the second floor. The next day, Sunday, Dylan calls some friends of the group. There's a couple that's really tight with this group. Their names are Emily and Hunter, a different Hunter. And Dylan's like, listen, something really weird happened here last night. And I'm scared. I'm in the basement with Bethany. We're in her bedroom and I've called Zanna and she's not responding. I'm just, I'm really, I'm scared. Can you come over? When these two friends, Emily and Hunter, get the phone call from Dylan, they actually don't think anything's wrong. Ashley Jennings from the prosecutor's office says this is actually kind of Dylan's M.O. to make phone calls like this to her friends.

[Ashley Jennings]

She's known amongst her roommates and she's a self professed kind of stuff. Scaredy cat. She's only 19. She's the baby. She and Bethany are the babies in the household. And they had a reputation for getting easily scared.

[Glen Washington]

And so when these two friends get a call they actually. They're just like, oh, my God. You know, the girls are scared again. Let's head over there. So they go over to King Road with another friend, and as they're walking up the road, they see Bethany and Dylan standing outside. And they're clearly scared. They're actually speechless. And the friends are asking them, like, why are you standing outside? What's going on? And they literally have their hands over their mouths and they're not talking. And, oh, my God, one of them is like, we don't know what's going on.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Whoa. So they must have seen or heard something, but they're just so terrified and in shock.

[Glen Washington]

They're literally terrified. So Hunter, the friend, says, all right, I'm gonna go into the house. And he goes up to the second floor, where he discovers Zanna and Ethan's bodies, and it's clear that they are dead. He rushes down the stairs just as the other two friends, Emily and Josie, are coming in that ground floor door. And he just basically, like, pushes them out of the house, and he yells for someone to call 911.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

So suddenly this has gotten serious. Like, he's realizing something really bad has happened.

[Glen Washington]

So Bethany dials 911, and she and Dylan are still confused. They're like, what do I say? And Hunter says, look, just tell the police there's an unconscious person. Hunter was maybe trying to protect the group. Like, maybe he couldn't bring himself to tell his friends what he had just seen inside the house.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

I can imagine. And they're already in shock. And does he want to be the one to tell them?

[Glen Washington]

So he's trying to wrap his mind around, like, what did I just see? And I admit when I first heard about this case and that the 911 call came in, that there was an unconscious person. I was like, how could somebody not know that they had just seen someone who was clearly attacked and was no longer living? I guess it just goes to show you that especially with crimes like these are horrible, horrible events. There's so much misinterpretation or reading into the facts and placing judgment that is so wrong. But now, having learned really what happened, I think it was truly this young friend trying to protect the group of friends from the absolute just horror of what he had just seen in the house. You know?

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

And it's also interesting, I have to say, with cases like these, it's like you can interpret or read into anything, but also you can read into things in the opposite ways. In that my reaction is always like, I've Always wondered, how can you tell that someone has died unless you actually go up and do, like, sort of a mini medical exam? So it's interesting that I almost have the opposite reaction to you in the sense that if I were in that situation, I can't imagine being like, oh, they're dead, when I haven't even, like, felt a pulse necessarily or really investigated. But it sounds like it was pretty clear.

[Glen Washington]

Yeah. And, you know, prosecutor Bill Thompson says Dylan and Bethany, the roommates, I mean, they didn't go looking around the house. They were just completely spooked and wanted to get out of there.

[Bill Thompson]

You have to remember these are very young people, and we're talking some young folks who are barely 19 years old and don't quite have the tools to process what was going on there. I think many adults probably wouldn't as well.

[Glen Washington]

Hunter Chapin, Ethan's brother, is asleep at the frat house on that Sunday morning, and he's literally just a few minutes from the King Road house. And he wakes up to a friend telling him that something has happened. There are police over at King Road. And Ethan's brother, he also doesn't think anything of it. I mean, he's like, yeah, I know that house gets noise complaints all the time. You know, no big deal. But his friend is pretty insistent that he should go over there. And so he walks over to the house, and as he approaches, he sees the two surviving roommates, Dylan and Bethany, with a group of friends. And they're really upset, and they just keep saying, ethan's gone. And he's like, what are you talking about?

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

This is just a devastating story. And I do appreciate you actually walking me through this because it makes me feel the pain. I mean, not to the extent, obviously, that they were feeling it, but I can imagine what that would have felt like to hear about your sibling or your friend, or even imagining Hunter walking in and, like, seeing stab wounds in his friend and then having to come out and tell, like, just that image in that moment. What absolute horror. And then to find out your sibling is gone with no explanation. I mean, it's just. And this is just the beginning.

[Glen Washington]

And now Hunter, Ethan's brother, he needs to call his parents.

[Stacey Chapin]

I was in the grocery store, and I was talking to a friend in the produce department. It's funny how those details are very clear. And my phone, you know, you have certain ways that you communicate with your kids. A phone call with my daughter, Maisie, is never. We always text or Snapchat or whatever. And, you know, she was calling Me, which I thought was weird, but I declined the first one because, you know, it's Sunday at noon and whatever. And then it rang back a couple times. Then I thought, oh, I said, you know, I'm sorry, I need to take this call, assuming, you know, obviously something's up. And it was Hunter calling from her phone. And he just kept saying, ethan's not here. And I couldn't. It did not occur to me that, you know, what had happened. He just kept saying, he's not here. And I kept telling him, well, then go get him. I mean, I literally was like, then go get him. Get in the car. Get a Uber. Go, go get him. And then he would say, no, you don't understand. Ethan and Zanna aren't here anymore. And I'm like, well, go get them. At this point, I had abandoned my shopping cart and was walking out the front door on my phone because I still had not registered what had happened. But I was starting to feel a little. I'm not sure what you're telling me here, you know, and I don't know where in the course of that, but he just said finally he goes. He never uses the words and he still will not. But he said, mom, you don't understand. They are no longer here on this earth, on this planet. And I was like, what? And that takes a very long time to process. I still heard the words, and it was not registering inside of my head. What was, you know, what. What really actually was happening, you know, you have no details. You. You know, do you worry about your kids, you know, getting in a car accident or, I mean, you know, whatever, right? So you just go through this process of elimination in your head and you just. I don't know. And so it was actually became real when I had to call Jim and tell him. And that is when it hit that it. I'm really saying something that I never. You never think is gonna. Never, never. You worry about things. You worry about your kids. This is not one that ever plays out in your head.

[Glen Washington]

They had just been to the campus the week before for parents weekend, and Ethan, Hunter and Maisie were like, settled into their sophomore year. They were super happy. Stacy says on the drive home from parents weekend, she and her husband Jim actually like, high fived each other. Like, we did it like our kids are launched. We have been successful parents, we've done our jobs. And a week later, it all comes crashing down. I mean, their worlds are totally shattered. And Jim and Stacy jump into their car and they drive to Moscow.

[Stacey Chapin]

I remember seeing the sign on the road out in the middle of nowhere, that was like, pullman is still 90 miles away. And I thought to myself, mike, God, I don't know if we're going to make. Was terrible. It was terrible. What do you talk about? I mean.

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

I mean, you just kind of look at one another. Disbelief.

[Stacey Chapin]

Yeah. It is a tremendous loss. And I believe that the first thing that I told Maisie and Hunter when they got in the car was, I do not know what in hell has just happened to our family, but this thing isn't going to sink us.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

In a way. I just have no words at that. That is the worst kind of thing to have happen. But I also think it's an example of how traumatic situations can feel and how so often it's even like, how you get the news also affects your experience of it. I mean, I can just imagine that feeling of confusion and chaos intermixed with the pain. It's like, is this even real?

[Glen Washington]

Yeah.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Ugh.

[Glen Washington]

Meanwhile, the police asked the roommates, along with Ethan's siblings and the friends who had entered the house that morning, to go to the police station. Detectives are also reviewing the evidence that they've collected.

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

So the very first object that we knew that we needed to get to the state lab as fast as we could was a knife sheath that was located in Maddie's bedroom. We believe very strongly at that point in time that it was brought in by the person who committed these murders. And we needed to see if we could find either any blood on it that came back to somebody not related to the victims or any of the victims itself, or if we could find any DNA or anything like that on it. So that was sent to the lab almost immediately.

[Glen Washington]

Yeah.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

With four such violent stabbings, and it sounds like Zanna fought whoever attacked her. I just hope that there's a lot of potential DNA evidence.

[Glen Washington]

Yeah. The lab actually gets some incredible evidence.

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

And they got a single source DNA profile. They said it was the cleanest sample that you could find. It was almost like you putting your finger on something and then instantly doing a swab of it and pulling the DNA off of it.

[Glen Washington]

I should mention that it can take a while to develop a DNA profile, but in this case, Aylin. The Idaho State Crime lab is working as fast as they can, and they develop a profile of the attacker in just a few days. Captain Blaker says detectives got a call on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. It's just a week after the murders in 2022.

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

So the state lab ran it through CODIS with No hits. So we knew that whoever did this was either somebody who had never been charged with a felony or for whatever purposes, never had to have their DNA put into the system. So that made everything harder. Knowing that we had to figure out another way to be able to try and figure out who this is.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Next time on America's Crime Lab. I was so frantic that morning and scared death not knowing what had happened. I was scared that the person who did this would come for me next. What can I use to defend myself? Who can help?

[Stacey Chapin]

The media had gotten all of our contact information. Our phones were ringing non stop. Our kids phones were ringing non stop.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

Social media made it so much worse. I was getting flooded with death threats.

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

And I was extremely nervous that I was going to do something to screw.

[Glen Washington]

The whole thing up.

[Bill Thompson]

They were struggling to identify a direction, a person of interest.

[Captain Dustin Blaker]

We tested ex boyfriends, you name it. We were testing anybody we could that would provide us with a DNA swab.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

DNA.

[Glen Washington]

David and I got a phone call and they asked if we were willing.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

To work a high profile case in real time.

[Hill House Advertiser]

And so he got off the phone.

[Glen Washington]

And I said, why wouldn't we work this case?

[Stacey Chapin]

At the time I had no idea who she was. You know, she just hugged me and she basically said, you don't need to worry about this case. And I had to say to her, what did you just say to me? I mean, here's a stranger hugging me.

[Glen Washington]

And I'm crying and you know, she's.

[Stacey Chapin]

Like, you don't, you don't have to worry.

[Aylin Lance Lesser]

America's Crime Lab is produced by Rococo Punch for Kaleidoscope. Erica Lance is our story editor and sound design is by David Woji. Our producing team is Catherine Fetalosa and Jessica Jessica Alpert. Our executive producers are Kate Osborne, Mangesh Hadikadur and David and Kristen Mittleman. And from Iheart, Katrina Norville and Ali Perry. Special thanks to Connell Byrne, Will Pearson, Kerry Lieberman, Nikki Etor, Nathan Netoski, John Burbank and the entire team at othram. I'm Aylin Lance Lesser. Thanks for listening.

[Glen Washington]

Foreign.

[Gwen Washington]

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[Glen Washington]

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[Gwen Washington]

I'm Gwen Washington, the host of Snap Judgment from kqed. Every week we don't just tell stories, we drop you inside them. Real people, real voices, real moments that split a life in two. What do you believe? What do you risk? What do you want? Snap Judgment New episodes every Thursday. Wherever you get your podcast.

[Glen Washington]

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[Aylin Lance Lesser]

This is an iHeart podcast.