Families of University of Idaho victims mark 1 year since murders: Where the case stands

One year after four University of Idaho students were killed in the early morning hours in the quiet town of Moscow, Idaho, their families are still searching for answers — as the suspected killer awaits trial for four counts of murder.

Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were found stabbed to death in an off-campus home on Nov. 13, 2022.

Six weeks after the slayings, police arrested Bryan Kohberger more than 2,500 miles away from the crime scene and charged him with four counts of murder and one count of burglary. In May, a judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf on all of the charges.

In the months since Kohberger's arrest, the families of the victims have fought for justice in honor of their loved ones.

“It’s been rough, it’s been really rough, and you just miss them,” Kaylee Goncalves’ mother, Kristi Goncalves, told TODAY. “The longer they’re gone the more they miss and the more you miss them, and realize how badly you have been robbed.”

Stacy Chapin, Ethan Chapin's mother, established the Ethan's Smile Foundation in honor of her son, and wrote a children's book to keep his memory alive.

“I miss hugging Ethan. He was a mama’s boy,” she told TODAY. “I’d give anything to go back and be able to have another hug from him.”

Read on for a summary of what to know about this case, one year later.

What to know about suspect Bryan Kohberger

After Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle and Chapin were found dead with multiple stab wounds on Nov. 13, 2022, investigators began an intense manhunt to find a suspect.

Investigators received thousands of tips from the Moscow community, and police arrested Kohberger, 28, on Dec. 30, 2022, at his parents' home in Pennsylvania, more than six weeks after the slayings.

According to a probable cause affidavit unsealed in January, the evidence authorities laid out allegedly linking Kohberger to the crime included DNA samples, cell phone records and the movements of a white Hyundai Elantra.

Investigators said Kohberger's DNA samples matched that of the DNA left on a knife sheath found at the crime scene, and a white Hyundai Elantra was spotted multiple times in the area of the crime scene the morning of the killings.

Kohberger’s cell phone records show he had visited the area of the slayings more than 10 times before the incident, according to the affidavit.

The night of the four students’ deaths, Kohberger’s phone was shut off at his Pullman, Washington, apartment just before 3 a.m. — just as security cameras captured his car pulling out of the parking lot. The phone came back online two hours later, south of Moscow as it traveled back toward Pullman, investigators said.

Kohberger was a graduate student in criminal justice at nearby Washington State University, just across the state line in Pullman, at the time of the slayings.

The murder weapon itself, believed to be a fixed-blade knife, has not been recovered, according to police.

Investigators have not revealed what Kohberger’s connection was to the victims, if any, though police have said the attack appeared to be “targeted.”

Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson previously said an interview with NewsNation on Nov. 29, 2022, that “investigators believe that whoever is responsible was specifically looking at this particular residence.”

A Latah County grand jury returned an indictment against Kohberger on the murder charges on May 16, and Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial in late August.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against Kohberger if he is convicted.

As of Nov. 13, no trial date has been set.

The students' house in Moscow

On the night of the slayings, six people were inside the home where the bodies of Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle and Chapin were found. Two roommates, Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen, were unharmed.

Mortensen told police she’d opened her door several times on Nov. 13, 2022, according to the probable cause affadavit.

The first time was a little after 4 a.m., after she said she heard who she thought was Goncalves say something to the effect of “there’s someone here,” according to the affidavit.

She didn’t see anything that time, but opened her bedroom door again after hearing what she thought was crying coming from Kernodle’s room.

The affidavit said she heard a man's voice say something to the effect of, “It’s OK, I’m going to help you.”

Around 4:17 a.m., security camera from a residence northwest of the students’ home “picked up distorted audio of what sounded like voices or a whimper followed by a loud thud.”

Mortensen said she opened her door a third time to see a man in black clothing and wearing a mask that covered his nose and mouth. She described the person as male, around 5 feet 10 inches and “not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” according to the affidavit.

Court records showed she told investigators that the man had walked past her toward a sliding glass door as she stood in a “frozen shock phase.” Afterward, she locked herself inside her room, she told authorities.

Both Mortensen and Funke released letters saying they were struggling to accept why the lives of “four beautiful people” were taken so brutally.

What the victims’ families have said

At a vigil for the victims soon after their deaths, Stacy Chapin encouraged people to spend time with the ones they love.

“Make sure you spend as much time as possible with those people because time is precious and it’s something you can’t get back,” she said at the time.

Chapin would go on to pen a children's book about her son titled “The Boy Who Wore Blue.”

The Chapin family also started a foundation, Ethan’s Smile, that will provide scholarships to University of Idaho students.

There is also a Xana Kernodle Scholarship Endowment set up at the University of Idaho. Jazzmin Kernodle, Xana's sister, spoke to CBS News in September.

“I don’t know why it happened,” she told CBS. "I wish we knew. They were, all four of them were, just such great people and made such an impact on the lives around them.”

Steve Goncalves, the father Kaylee Goncalves, also spoke at a 2022 vigil for the victims, saying the community lost “four beautiful souls.”

“They came here together ... and in the end, they died together, in the same room and the same bed,” he said of his daughter and Mogen’s final moments. “It’s a shame and that hurts.”

The Moscow Police Department said in a Nov. 13, 2023 statement its officers were thinking of and praying for the victims' families and loved ones.

“A year ago, our community was rocked to its very core with the shocking loss of four young and vibrant University of Idaho students,” Moscow Police said. “Today is a hard day and there will certainly be hard days to come, but the Moscow Police Department will continue to send strength and peace.”

The department added it created a commemorative medallion coin to honor Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle and Chapin. The coins will be given to the families of the victims and the officers who worked on the case.

On the evening of Nov. 13, the University of Idaho will come together to honor the late students with a vigil. Four students, each a representative of the Greek chapters the victims were members of, will speak in their memories.

The university is also encouraging people “across the state and beyond” to turn on their porch lights from 6 to 7 p.m. PT “in solidarity.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com