Netflix is stepping back into true crime with The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare, a new docuseries that its filmmakers say is designed to keep the focus on the four University of Idaho students whose deaths became a national obsession.
The series centers on Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were killed in 2022. It arrives after other streamers have already revisited the case, including Peacock and Amazon Prime Video projects released in 2025.
Director Skye Borgman said the Netflix series became personal because of how much attention has surrounded the case itself. “Making this series became deeply personal to me because I felt a responsibility to keep Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin at the center of every decision we made,” Borgman said.
She added that the goal was to show “who they were, the lives they lived, and the love that still surrounds them.”
The trailer presents the students’ college lives before the killings and points to Bryan Kohberger, who pleaded guilty to the murders. The series also appears to lean into a familiar but difficult true-crime challenge: how to cover a heavily publicized case without turning the perpetrator into the main character.
Borgman previously made Unknown Number: The High School Catfish for Netflix. Executive producer Joe Berlinger, who has also worked on a JonBenét Ramsey documentary for the streamer, said the Idaho case affected him differently. “As a father of two daughters who had great college experiences, this case struck a nerve with me unlike many stories I’ve covered,” Berlinger said.
The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare is set to stream on Netflix on July 29.
