Degrees and certificates will be awarded posthumously to the four University of Idaho students who were stabbed to death in their off-campus home.
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 just months away from graduating when they were brutally stabbed along with Chapin and Kernodle in the early hours of November 13.
Both Mogen and Goncalves, seniors, receive degrees in general science and marketing. Kernodle, who was a junior, receives a marketing certificate. Meanwhile, Chapin, a freshman, will receive a certificate in Leisure, Sports and Tourism Management.
The ceremony will take place ahead of suspected killer Bryan Kohberger’s June 26 trial.
Degrees and certificates will be awarded posthumously to the four University of Idaho students who were stabbed to death in their off-campus home. Kaylee Goncalvez, 21, and Madison Mogen, 21, were months away from graduating. You will receive a degree in General Studies and Marketing
Xana Kernodle (right), a junior, receives a marketing certificate. Meanwhile, Ethan Chapin (left), a freshman, receives a certificate in Leisure, Sports and Tourism Management
Kohberger’s connection to the students remains unclear as investigators are investigating whether there was any contact between him and the three female victims leading up to the murders.
Authorities have filed multiple search warrants against social media companies, including TikTok and Google, dating back to January 2021.
Another search warrant was also issued for Facebook and Twitter 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 deleted. It also reveals information about who the victims followed, unfollowed, and blocked.
Authorities have since tried to keep the findings under wraps until a later court date, but former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer has questioned whether Kohberger could have stumbled upon his alleged victims much earlier.
“Did Bryan Kohberger meet Kaylee or Maddie early on in a possible school visit?”
“What made Kohberger decide to join WSU?” Did Kohberger have a connection to his victims sooner than we thought?’
The criminal justice student studied at Washington State University, which is less than ten minutes’ drive from the University of Idaho.
Authorities have filed multiple search warrants against 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 University of Idaho students – were stabbed to death on November 13 in the quiet college town of Moscow
The university where he worked was just over eight miles from the crime scene
Kohberger is accused of leaving Maddie and Kaylee with “devastating injuries” and having multiple images of one of his alleged female victims on his phone when it was searched by police.
However, they did not identify which of the girls was in the pictures, and Moscow police have not yet revealed a motive for the brutal crime.
It’s not clear whether the images found on the device were photos Kohberger took herself or whether they were downloaded from her social media and whether they were taken before or after the quadruple homicide.
Investigators remained silent about the possible motive for the killings, but revealed in an affidavit that he had visited the area of the house in Moscow “several times.”
Roommates Bethany Funke, 21, and Dylan Mortensen were at home when the murders happened.
Mortensen confronted the alleged killer in person and reported seeing a “tall man” who was “dressed in black and wearing a mask,” the documents say.
Funke’s retelling of the night of the murder was not published.
Kohberger, 28, is accused of murdering 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. The house is now boarded up and slated for demolition
Meanwhile, the grieving families of the victims are trying to find a way to move forward as the trial begins.
Stacy and Jim Chapin, parents of Ethan, spoke out for the first time last month to announce they have set up a foundation to honor their murdered son as they work to heal from his pain.
Ethan’s parents said his younger siblings – Maizie and Hunter – are now coming to terms with the loss of their older brother. The three siblings were triplets.
“When you’re a triplet,” Stacy said, “you’ve been around other people your whole life.”
The Chapin family said Hunter, Ethan’s younger brother, now faces life without his “wingman”.
Speaking to ABC, Stacy and Jim said they haven’t fully recovered yet but are finding new ways to remember and honor Ethan.
One option is Ethan’s Smile, a family-run foundation that provides scholarships to Conway, Washington, graduate students and University of Idaho undergraduates.
They also made a mixture of white and yellow tulip bulbs called “Ethan’s Smile” on a farm where their late son used to work. The sale benefits the foundation.
The farm also currently sells a tulip bulb mix named ‘Forever Sisters’ in honor of Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen.