The couple’s wedding day included a special tribute to their late best friends, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle

NEED TO KNOW

• University of Idaho alums Hunter Johnson and Emily Alandt just got married and celebrated with loved ones in Boise, Idaho
• Their celebration included a memorial honoring their late best friends, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle, who were among four students killed on Nov. 13, 2022
• Ethan’s mother, Stacy Chapin, shared photos of the wedding

University of Idaho alums Hunter Johnson and Emily Alandt have tied the knot — and their nuptials included a special tribute to their late best friends.

On Sunday, Oct. 11, Stacy Chapin — the mother of Ethan Chapin, 20, who was killed in the 2022 college campus murders along with Xana Kernodle, 20, Maddie Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21 — shared a post on Instagram featuring photos from Johnson and Alandt’s wedding day in Boise, Idaho.

“What an incredibly special weekend in Boise! Congrats to Hunter [and] Emily!! ❤️❤️” she captioned her post, alongside photos of herself, the newlyweds, Ethan’s dad Jim, and their children Maizie and Hunter, Ethan’s triplet siblings.

The group could be seen smiling together as they posed with a pond and greenery in the background. Stacy also shared an image of a small tribute to Ethan, Xana and another late friend that sat on a table at the wedding celebration.

“In Loving Memory,” the sign read. “Ethan Chapin. Xana Kernodle. Katie Marshall. You are forever with us today and every day.”

Alandt and Johnson were close friends with several of the University of Idaho murder victims, who were murdered on Nov. 13, 2022. Bryan Kohberger confessed to the killings and entered a guilty plea in 2025.

The morning after the stabbing, Dylan Mortensen, one of two roommates in the house who survived the ordeal, asked the couple to come check out the house at their because of strange goings-on the night before. Johnson became one of the first people to enter the crime scene, where he found the four slain bodies.

“That was our last day living as kids,” Johnson told PEOPLE in a July 2026 interview of the fateful morning.

“Our innocence was gone,” added Alandt.

On July 23, 2025, Kohberger, 30, was sentenced to four lifetimes in prison without parole in an Idaho courtroom for the murders of Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle, and Ethan — plus 10 years for a burglary charge and $270,000 in fines and civil penalties.

More than a year later, Kohberger filed a handwritten petition to withdraw his guilty plea and obtain a trial, claiming his innocence and ineffective assistance of counsel. The state has opposed the petition, which remains pending.

Speaking to ABC News in June 2025, shortly before Kohberger’s sentencing, Alandt and Johnson opened up about how they’ve relied on each other in the wake of the tragedy.

“We just want happiness for the [victims’] families, and we want them to come to a point where they can, you know, wake up and have a good day,” Alandt said at the time.

The couple shared at the time that they had graduated from the University of Idaho and moved in together.

This experience “sticks with you forever, but you get the option to get up and choose to live a happy life,” Alandt said.

“Hopefully the next part of life is building our own family together,” Johnson added.

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