The four University of Idaho students stabbed to death in their off-campus home are awarded posthumous degrees and certificates.
Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, will be honored at the university’s graduation ceremony on May 13, according to the AP.
Mogen and Goncalves were a few months away from completing their degrees when they were brutally stabbed to death along with Chapin and Kernodle in the early hours of November 13.
Both Mogen and Goncalves, seniors, receive degrees in general studies and marketing. Kernodle, who was a junior, gets a marketing certificate. Meanwhile, Chapin, a college freshman, gets a Recreation, Sports, and Tourism Management certificate.
The ceremony comes ahead of the preliminary hearing of suspected killer Bryan Kohberger on June 26.
The four University of Idaho students stabbed to death in their off-campus home are awarded posthumous degrees and certificates. Kaylee Goncalvez, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, were months away from graduating. They get a general studies and a marketing degree
Xana Kernodle (right), who was a junior, gets a marketing certificate. Meanwhile, Ethan Chapin (left), a college freshman, receives a Recreation, Sports, and Tourism Management Certificate
Kohberger’s connection to the students remains unclear as investigators investigate whether there was any contact between him and the three female victims leading up to the murders.
Authorities have issued several search warrants to social media companies, including TikTok and Google, dating back to January 2021.
Another Facebook and Twitter search warrant has also been issued with a search start date of June 2022.
The search warrant requested messages, records, files and logs for their accounts, as well as those that were removed. Information about who followed, unfollowed and blocked the victims will also be revealed.
Authorities have since made an effort to keep the findings sealed until a future court date, but former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer has questioned whether Kohberger could have run into his alleged victims at a much earlier date.
“Did Bryan Kohberger somehow meet Kaylee or Maddie during a possible school visit in the beginning?
Why did Kohberger choose WSU? Did Kohberger bond with his victims earlier than we thought?’
The criminal justice major attended Washington State University, less than a 10-minute drive from the University of Idaho.
Authorities have issued several search warrants to social media companies, including TikTok and Google, dating back to January 2021 — more than a year before the brutal killings
Maddie Mogen (above) Kaylee Goncalves (second from left) Xana Kernodle (second from right) and Ethan Chapin (center) – all students at the University of Idaho – were stabbed to death on November 13 in the quiet college town of Moscow
The university where he worked was only eight miles from the murder scene
Kohberger is accused of leaving Maddie and Kaylee with “devastating injuries” and of having multiple images of one of his alleged female victims on his phone when it was searched by police.
However, they have not determined which of the girls was in the photos and Moscow police have not yet revealed a motive for the brutal crime.
It is not clear whether the images found on the device are those taken by Kohberger herself or downloaded from her social media, and whether they were taken before or after the quadruple murder.
Investigators were tight-lipped about the possible motive for the killings, but revealed in an affidavit that he had visited the vicinity of the Moscow home “several times.”
Roommates Bethany Funke, 21, and Dylan Mortensen were home when the murders happened.
Mortensen came face-to-face with the alleged killer and said he had seen a “tall man” who was “dressed in black clothing and a mask,” according to documents.
Funke’s re-report of the night of the murders has not been released.
Kohberger, 28, is charged with the murders of Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle, 20, at their home on Kings Road, in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2023
This is the murder house where four students were stabbed to death. The house has since been boarded up and is slated to be demolished
Meanwhile, the grieving families of the victims try to find a way to move forward during the start of the process.
Stacy and Jim Chapin, Ethan’s parents, spoke out for the first time last month to announce that they have created a foundation in honor of their murdered son as they work to heal from their pain.
Ethan’s parents said his younger siblings – Maizie and Hunter – are now coping with the loss of their older brother. The three siblings were triplets.
“When you’re triplets,” Stacy said, “you’ve spent your whole life with other people.”
The Chapin family said Hunter, Ethan’s younger brother, is now facing a life without his “wingman.”
Speaking to ABC, Stacy and Jim said they’re not fully recovered yet, but are finding new ways to remember and honor Ethan.
One way is Ethan’s Smile, a foundation founded by the family that offers scholarships to graduates from Conway, Washington and to students at the University of Idaho.
They also created a white and yellow tulip bulb mix called ‘Ethan’s Smile’ on a farm where their late son used to work. The sale goes to supporting the foundation.
The farm also currently sells a tulip bulb mix called ‘Forever Sisters’ in honor of Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen.