The College Murders’ Is a Terrifying True-Crime Story

The harrowing four-part documentary One Night in Idaho: The College Murders recounts the heinous murders of four University of Idaho students in the middle of the night on November 13, 2022, in the college town of Moscow, Idaho. The docuseries not only delves into the brutal slayings, the subsequent investigation, and the potential motives and upcoming trial of Bryan Kohberger (who ultimately pleaded guilty to the crimes on July 2, 2025), but it poignantly honors the victims by celebrating their lives and the impact they had on their loved ones and community.

True crime documentaries have steadily become a certified sensation on the small screen, and One Night in Idaho provides a chilling look at the killings while also featuring intimate interviews with the victims’ families and friends. The Prime Video original has already been garnering positive praise from critics and audiences thanks to its sensitive handling of the subject matter, and is just begging to be binged by true crime lovers everywhere.

‘One Night in Idaho’ Provides a Chilling Look at the Murders

One Night in Idaho: The College Murders chronicles what happened to University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin at their off-campus residence on November 13, 2022, and the aftermath of the violent murders. The series was directed by Liz Garbus (Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer) and Matthew Galkin (I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA), with the duo having first begun documenting the shocking case months after the crime by reaching out to the Laramie and Chapin families and explaining they would take a victim-forward style of filmmaking for the project.

On December 30, 2022, 28-year-old PhD candidate and teaching assistant Bryan Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, on four counts of first-degree murder and one felony count of burglary following an intense investigation and nationwide pursuit. According to the authorities, Kohberger had “cleaned his car, inside and outside, not missing an inch [of area]” and, after searching the home where he was arrested, found a pistol, knife, and black face mask. At the time of the murders, Kohberger was a doctoral student in criminology and had just finished his first semester.

The docuseries outlines the events that led to Kohberger’s arrest while presenting theories about his potential motives, though Garbus and Galkin largely set out to pay tribute to the victims and the legacy they left behind after attracting the obsession of the media and countless amateur sleuths trying to solve the case. Garbus told Variety, “We wanted to reclaim them from this maelstrom of social media. In this case, it was the entire world wanting to solve this, casting aspersions on boyfriends and developing conspiracy theories that really overtook those who were living through the heart of this darkness.”

The Docuseries Sets Out To Honor the Victims and Their Families

One Night in Idaho features powerful interviews with those closest to the students, including Maddie’s mother and step-father, Karen and Scott Laramie, and Ethan’s parents, Jim and Stacy Chapin, as well as their friends, siblings, and journalists. The docuseries also includes peers of Kohberger’s from his undergraduate criminology classes coming forward to discuss what they noticed about him while attending DeSales University, namely how he never socialized and always asked about a killer’s motives and how they felt after committing the crimes. Garbus said to Time about honoring the four slain students:

“We don’t want to remember them just as victims, we want to remember them as human beings. You get a sense of their personalities, who they like to hang out with, what kind of music they love, what their college experience was like.”

The filmmakers even reconstructed portions of the house at 1122 King Road to put audiences at the scene of the crime while also sharing many of the students’ social media posts that have effectively immortalized the tight-knit friend group. The four-part documentary is equally heartbreaking and touching to watch, as the families of Kaylee, Madison, Xana, and Ethan were put through the emotional ringer due to the relentless speculation, accusations, and false narratives presented by the media and people online, essentially becoming victims themselves by the disturbing discourse.

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When news first broke in July 2025 that Kohberger was going to plead guilty to all the charges against him in a deal that would help him avoid the death penalty and instead sentence him to four consecutive life sentences, a decision that divided the families; the Chapin and Mogen families were in support of the deal while the Kernodle and Goncalves families wanted it to go to trial. Co-director Galkin will be in the courtroom when Kohberger appears for his sentencing on July 23, and after questions swirled about whether One Night in Idaho should be released in light of the deal, Galkin stated:

“It changes the ending. We changed the final card. But I don’t think knowing the ending completely changes the way you should look at these four hours.”

Stream One Night in Idaho: The College Murders on Prime Video.