Four Lives, Ended Much Too Soon

Dr. Victor Hugo Limpias Ortiz, mi gran amigo boliviano, once made an interesting comment about Americans. He said that we pay too much attention to people who commit horrible crimes and not enough to their victims. It’s cultural oddity that I cannot deny. With Dr. Limpias’s perspicacious admonition in mind, I will focus on the four University of Idaho students whom a creepy-looking 28-year-old man stabbed to death in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022. I will not say the perp’s name.

The three-level house at 1122 King Road in Moscow where the killings occurred was razed (it took all of two hours) in December 2023. Ghoulish people were traveling from all over the country to take a look. Furthermore, its resale value was negligible in light of what had taken place there.

The perp pleaded guilty on Wednesday to four counts of first-degree murder and one of felony burglary (he took the ID card of one of his victims as a souvenir of sorts) in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table. Judge Steven Hippler will give him four life sentences in a hearing on July 23, but only after family members are allowed to make victim impact statements. The perp will then be escorted to his new home, Idaho Maximum Security Institution, in Kuna; it was named one of the 15 worst prisons in America by Security Journal Americas in 2024. Due to his notoriety, this quadruple murderer will probably be kept in solitary confinement for a few years before being released into “GP” (general population). If a little jailhouse justice is administered—hey, that’s his problem.

I will take the fondly remembered four in alphabetical order.

Ethan Chapin was born at Swedish Hospital in Seattle on October 29, 2002 at 4:43 p.m. I note the time only because his sister Maizie arrived at 4:44 p.m., followed by their brother Hunter at 4:45 p.m. The Chapin family became 150 percent bigger on that day. The triplets grew up mostly in Conway, Washington. Chapin, who stood 6′ 4″, was on the varsity basketball team at Mount Vernon High School. He also played volleyball and ran cross country.

He and his siblings matriculated at the University of Idaho in 2021. The boys joined Sigma Chi fraternity, while Maizie became a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. Not too big on academics, he was majoring in recreation, sport and tourism management. Chapin was a freshman when he met Xana Kernodle, a junior. He spent a lot of time with her family and—who knows?—they might have married had the perp not intervened. On Saturday night, November 12, he and Kernodle attended a Sigma Chi party together. They went back to Kernodle’s rental house on King Road at about 1:45 a.m. His decision to spend the night there was a fateful one.

Kaylee Goncalves, whose best friend from grade school days was Madison Mogen, was the third of five kids. A native of Rathdrum, Idaho, she was majoring in general studies at UI and belonged to Alpha Phi. Goncalves had recently purchased a silver Range Rover, planned a trip to Europe after graduation and had a job lined up in Austin, Texas after that. She was to be a marketing specialist for an IT firm and would have been just 100 miles away from her younger sister, who was to enroll at Baylor University in 2023.

Her father, Steve, was rather outspoken during the investigation that led to the arrest, and now, conviction of the perp. Nor did Goncalves agree with the prosecution and judge letting him escape the death penalty; he called it “a deal with the devil.” We can expect this man to put the blast on his daughter’s killer on July 23.

Xana Kernodle, whom we have already met, was born in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho but moved with her parents, sister and brother to Post Falls. A medal-winning gymnast as a young girl, she participated in volleyball, track and soccer in high school. Like her boyfriend, she chose to become a UI Vandal. During her years in Moscow, Kernodle majored in marketing, listened to electronic dance music, worked as a waitress at the since-closed Mad Greek restaurant and joined Pi Beta Phi.

Some of the others at 1122 King Road that awful night were asleep when the perp walked in, equipped with a sharp Ka-Bar knife. But Kernodle, who had ordered a delivery of food at 4 a.m., was awake. Crime scene investigators think she put up quite a fight.

Madison “Maddie” Mogen was born on May 25, 2001 in Eugene, Oregon and died, same as the other three, on November 13, 2022 in Moscow, Idaho. She was an only child. As indicated earlier, she and Goncalves were besties. A senior at UI, Mogen was a superb student, making the Dean’s List every semester. Like Kernodle, she was a marketing major, belonged to Pi Beta Phi and worked at Mad Greek.

Mogen had a boyfriend named Jake Schriger whom she had dated for two years. After her graduation in the spring of 2023, she planned to move to Boise.

As we might expect, obituaries for Chapin, Goncalves, Kernodle and Mogen—20, 21, 20 and 21, respectively—said that each was kind, loving and sweet, with a vibrant personality. From what I can tell, it seems to be largely true. They were very good people with bright futures.

An angry Steve Goncalves faces the media…