Prior to news of the plea deal, the Chapin family sat down with GMA. They talk about their memories of Ethan, and how they received the news that he had been murdered:
On the morning of Nov. 13, a friend woke up Hunter at his fraternity to tell him police officers were across the street at Xana's house, where Ethan often spent the night."I got dressed sluggishly," Hunter said. "I wasn't worried. ... Ethan was 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, 230 pounds. ... I was like, 'Oh, he'll be fine,' like, if there was anything. Maybe someone drank too much and, I mean, that stuff does happen in college."
"When I walked over there, I didn't see him outside. So I figured he was inside helping whoever needed to be helped," Hunter said.That's when their friend -- who had gone inside the house at 1122 King Road that morning and made the chilling discovery -- approached Hunter."I was like, 'Where's Ethan and Xana?'" Hunter recalled. "And he's like, 'They're not here anymore.' It's like, 'What do you mean, they're not here anymore?' He's like, 'I think they were murdered last night.'"
"I don't know if those are the exact words," Hunter said. "So I had to call Maizie and then call my mom."Maizie said she arrived at King Road to find her brother and their friends huddled outside. The house that had been their gathering place was now a crime scene. Ambulances had already come and gone, without taking any patients, the siblings said, and soon Maizie was in shock.Stacy Chapin was at the grocery store when her son called."[Hunter] just said, "He's not here,'" she recalled. "And he kept repeating it. ... Your mind does not register that ... so I was like, 'Well, go get him. Go find him.'"
"And he just kept saying it," Stacy Chapin said. "And he goes, 'No, Mom. You don't understand. Ethan and Xana,' I think he said, 'are not on this earth anymore.'"
The University of Idaho killing shook the four families and the small college town of Moscow to the core as police launched a nearly seven-week manhunt for a suspect.
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