Bodycam Footage Shows Student Who Found Idaho Victims — Then Searched for Killer Before Leading Cops Through Home

Body camera footage obtained by Law & Crime shows Moscow Police Department officers arriving at the home where Bryan Kohberger murdered four University of Idaho students on November 13, 2022. The footage captures the initial setup of the crime scene and perimeter, as well as the actions of Hunter Johnson, the young man who discovered the victims.

The first officer on the scene learns that Johnson had already searched and cleared the house and is then guided by him to the victims’ bodies. The footage also shows Johnson explaining to a second officer that he grabbed a knife after discovering Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin to ensure there were no remaining threats in the home.

Critically, Johnson immediately instructed the two surviving roommates to return downstairs, shielding them from the traumatic sight of their friends.

Johnson previously shared his account of that day with PEOPLE, saying he had received a call from roommate Dylan Mortensen asking if he could check the house. Johnson arrived at 1122 King Road just before noon, where Mortensen and Bethany Funke told him they were too afraid to go upstairs and had spent the morning in Funke’s first-floor room.

As the three went upstairs, Johnson saw the bodies and immediately instructed the women not to look, sending them back downstairs to wait outside. He then began searching the house, as he explains in the body camera footage, and called 911 alongside Mortensen, waiting for police to arrive.

“I was like, ‘What is going on?’” Johnson recalled in June. “Then you realize the gravity of what you just walked into. At that moment, you don’t really realize what you walked into until you really look at it and process it.”

Johnson’s quick thinking and composure meant investigators arrived at a crime scene that had been left largely untouched. The remainder of the body camera footage captures interviews with hysterical friends and roommates of the victims.

Johnson appears again when one of the Chapin triplets arrives. Because police could not immediately comment on the crime scene or confirm the deaths, it was Johnson who walked over and informed the young man that his brother had been murdered.