University of Idaho murder victim Ethan Chapin’s sister, Maizie Chapin, recalled the last text she received from her brother before his death on November 13, 2022.
Prime Video’s four-part docuseries One Night in Idaho: The College Murders, released on Friday, July 11, revealed that Maizie took Ethan as her date to the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority formal.
“I don’t usually invite anyone to formals but some of Ethan’s friends were going and he wasn’t going,” Maizie recalled in the docuseries. “So, I was like, ‘OK, you can just be my date.’ It was super fun.”
Hours later, Bryan Kohberger broke into the house on 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, killing Ethan, along with his girlfriend, Xana Kernodle and two of her roommates, Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves.
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Maizie recalled everyone else leaving the formal around 9:00 p.m. and returning to Ethan and his brother, Hunter Chapin’s Sigma Chi fraternity house.
“For some reason I stayed and went to bed,” she continued. “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.”
Hunter, meanwhile, explained that Sigma Chi was hosting a party at their fraternity house — which the brothers attended after going with Maizie to formal. At around 1:40 a.m. on November 13, Ethan and Xana went back to the King Road house. They were murdered just after 4:00 a.m.
Kohberger was arrested in late December 2022, a little over a month after the murders. He initially entered a not guilty plea. Earlier this month, Kohberger changed his plea to guilty as part of a deal that spared him from receiving the death penalty, which was a possibility if the case went to trial.
Kohberger signed a confession on July 2, admitting to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. His sentencing hearing is set for later this month. Kohberger is facing up to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders, along with a 10-year sentence for the burglary charge.
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Ethan’s mom, Stacy Chapin, explained in Friday’s docuseries why she and the family refused to attend any of Kohberger’s court hearings following his arrest.
“Sitting in the courtroom just doesn’t feel right. Why would I go sit in a courtroom with that person?” she said. “We won’t attend any of the hearings. What’s the purpose?”
Stacy added, “I don’t have a need to go look him in the eyes. I don’t. It is what it is, we cannot change the outcome on this thing. We cannot bring Ethan back.”
Ethan’s dad, Jim Chapin, shared elsewhere in the docuseries that he decided the “best place” for his son’s cremated remains was “home.”
“He will sit in the basement until one of us pass,” Jim said through tears. “He’s safe and I can go down and talk to him any time I want, and I do.”
