A new book examines the Idaho student murders and what happened (exclusive)

A gruesome quadruple murder shocked the University of Idaho in the fall of 2022, and now the journalist whose reporting earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination has written a book about the case.

Howard Blum’s When the Night Comes Calling: A Requiem for the Idaho Student Murders, out June 25, offers a detailed account of the police manhunt that ultimately led to the arrest of the suspected killer.

On November 13, 2022, Madison Mogen (21), Kaylee Goncalves (21), Xana Kernodle (20), and Ethan Chapin (20) were stabbed to death in second- and third-floor bedrooms of a home in Moscow, Idaho. All four victims attended the University of Idaho, which was devastated by the news. Over a month after the murders, suspect Bryan Christopher Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania in connection with the murders – the same day a memorial service was planned for Mogen and Goncalves.

A three-part Paramount+ documentary series about the murders, #Cybersleuths: The murders in Idaho, Premiering February 6, read an exclusive excerpt from Blum’s book below, detailing what may have happened that night.

It is half past three on this cold, starry Sunday morning, November 13, and the silence on King Road is overwhelming. A whisper, it seems, would echo like a scream.

A white car appears, and it’s in no hurry. It tiptoes past 1122. It continues past the adjacent Queen Apartments, climbs the hill, and suddenly gets stuck in a dead end. But there’s no sign of frustration. The driver carefully turns around and the car heads off toward Greek Row.

Is that it?

The driver can’t seem to bring himself to park. He has to stop hesitating and keep the idea, the possibility, firmly in his mind. Only the driver of the white car is dissatisfied. He is not there yet. But he wants to be there so badly, because he returns as if on cue. The white car goes back along its previous route. But it seems he still can’t jump to the place he wants to get to, that he needs to get to. He still sees other possibilities. Again the white car leaves the neighborhood.

But minutes later, the car comes back, as if pulled by an invisible force. He must summon the courage to act. But he can’t. Again, the car approaches, only to eventually drive away again. And this time, he is determined to stay away. It’s as if he doesn’t want to be that other person. He continues driving down Taylor Avenue until King Road is just a faint, distant blur in his rearview mirror. He flees.

But he can’t help it. It’s 4 a.m. and the driver turns around and comes back a third time.

The white car has stopped with the engine running in the asphalt parking lot above the house on King Road. Turning off the ignition requires the strength of Hercules. It seems an impossible task. It is not yet too late to escape.

But he must know that his hesitation is a joke. He must understand that only action will silence the voices screaming in his head like a chorus of banshees. With this realization, self-control crumbles. And in an incredible moment, he finds the will. The idea has become as natural as breathing. He is determined. He turns off the ignition. The door of the white car opens. No one notices. Everything remains silent. A dark figure walks down the earthen slope, the ground hard with a thin layer of frost. He walks to the back of the house. In his gloved hand he holds a leather sheath containing a Ka-Bar knife with a sharp, seven-inch steel blade. It is a killer weapon.

The sliding glass door to the kitchen is rarely locked, and tonight is no exception. The door opens easily, making only a muffled sound, as quiet as a sudden intake of breath, and he steps inside. Is he listening for a telltale sound? Does he need a moment to adjust to this new kind of darkness? Or is the faint glow of good neon vibes enough to light his way?

Once in the kitchen, he goes up the narrow stairs to the third floor. And that is telling. If he were aimless and driven only by angry emotions, he would storm into one of the bedrooms on the second floor. But he has a plan. He knows where he is going. He is a hunter who pursues his prey.

Another speculation: Since Kaylee no longer lives in the house full-time, his target since the madness first entered his mind has always been the petite Maddie. The stairs to the third floor creak under his feet. He walks toward the bedroom door. Is his heart rate calming? Does he feel invulnerable? Is he holding back because he knows that attacking blows are better for this moment of delay?

When he opens the door, he finds two girls sleeping in bed. He strikes fast and wildly. The wounds are long and very deep. It is a quick, cruel job. The two lie dying in the single bed, their bodies stretched out but touching. Their blood seeps into the mattress and leaves a spreading red stain. But despite her wounds, Kaylee manages to sit up and squeeze herself into the far corner of the small room as if she wants to escape. The determined killer comes closer and she fights back. But it is all over quickly and her bloody body falls to the floor.

The commotion and the smell of blood awaken Murphy the dog. From the room across the hall, the dog can be heard panicking, his sense of danger heightened. He roars loudly and cathartically. Downstairs, Dylan wakes up. Is Kaylee playing with Murphy at this time? She calls disapprovingly from her bed into the darkness.

No one answers, but Murphy has calmed down somewhat. The sounds the dog makes are steady and quiet.

The killer goes down the stairs. Xana is awake. “Someone’s here!” she screams, and the alarm is so loud that Dylan can hear every word from her bedroom across the hall. She opens the bedroom door and peeks out. It’s just darkness, and she closes the door behind her and goes back to her bed. This is not the time, she decides, to make sense of things.

But Ethan has come out of Xana’s room to investigate. And suddenly he is faced with an intruder dressed all in black and with a black mask pulled high over the bridge of his nose. Ethan is 6’4″, strong and an athlete. But the killer does not hesitate. He strikes without scruples, and an arcing blow cuts through Ethan’s neck and hits the carotid artery. His body begins to tip and then falls into the door frame with a dull thud. Does the killer crouch over his victim and continue his attack? If so, the attack is unnecessary. Ethan is already dead.

Xana sobs.

The plaintive sound wakes Dylan again. She opens her bedroom door a crack and peers in again. The darkness gives nothing away. The killer has now come close enough to Xana to see that she is shaking. Despite everything raging inside him, he chooses his words carefully. “It’s okay, I’ll help you,” he says.

It’s a lie. He only came to help himself.

He raises his knife and attacks.

Dylan hears the murderer speaking from behind her half-open door. Nothing makes sense. She closes the door and retreats to her bed. Xana, 5’3″ tall and weighing 110 pounds, is fighting for her life. But she is no match for the murderer. He plunges his knife deep into her again and again. She sinks to the floor. Then he steps over Ethan’s body and leaves the room.

His gait is leisurely. There were four of them and he never hesitated. He did what he had to do and must be feeling exhilarated. He continues walking back to the sliding door in the kitchen. He is completely absorbed in himself.

He doesn’t notice Dylan standing in the doorway, the bedroom door open. And she’s staring right at him, as if in a trance. She sees a man dressed all in black, with a black mask stretching well over his face. As she processes the moment, she comes to the conclusion that he’s about 6’2″, maybe taller. Not muscular, but well built like an athlete.

For some reason, her eyes linger on his bushy eyebrows. She stares at him. A visitor? An intruder? She doesn’t understand what’s happened. And she’s extremely tired. She closes the door to her room and goes to bed, pulling up the covers. Did the killer see Dylan? Is he sparing her in a sudden act of kindness? Or is he unable to see anything in this wild moment?

It remains a mystery.

He goes back the same way, up the hill. He is changed. He has become what he had to become. In little more than eight, ten minutes at most, he has killed four people. He gets back into the white car and drives off as the faint light of the new day begins to filter through the leaden sky and the blood runs in thin red rivulets through the house on King Road.

From the forthcoming book “WHEN THE NIGHT COMES FALLING” by Howard Blum. Copyright © 2024 Howard Blum. Released June 25^th2024 by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Excerpts with permission.

When night falls will be released on June 25th and can now be pre-ordered wherever books are sold.