The mother of University of Idaho massacre victim Madison Mogen spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday Quadruple murder in 2022.
Mogen, 21, and three other students, including her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, 21; her roommate, 20-year-old Zanna Kernodle; And Kernodle’s 20-year-old boyfriend was Ethan Chapin. Stabbed to death in his home on November 13, 2022, just steps away from the U of I campus.
“It’s surreal, but I know where girls are, and trust is really the foundation of how you wake up every morning when you’re in such deep loss,” Mogen’s mother, Karen Laramie, told “Today” on Wednesday. ” said when asked on the show. If the gravity of her daughter’s death two years ago seemed “real.”
She described the 21-year-old as “a delight” in her youth and a genuinely kind person as she grew into adulthood.
“The doors were never closed in our house. …When she was eight, there was once a fight over string cheese because she wouldn’t eat dinner. She would have breakfast, breakfast, breakfast,” Laramie recalled. “And I said, ‘Honey, no, you can’t eat the string cheese because I’m making dinner.’ And she threw it on the counter and walked up to her room, and my husband Scott and I looked at each other like, ‘What just happened in there?’ It was very out of character.”
She remembered another time when Mogen called her cousin on Veterans Day to thank him for his service.
Two years after the tragedy at U of I, Mogen’s family, Goncalves’ family and Cernodal’s family came together to create the Made with Kindness Foundation, described on its website as “a nonprofit organization that “Stands as a broad beacon of hope.” In memory and honor of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle.”
Its mission is to “partner with colleges and universities to provide scholarship funds, bereavement wellness seminars, and comprehensive on-campus safety awareness.”
“We’re missing our kids, and I don’t have the words to express how positively they’ve felt about something,” Laramie told “TODAY” about the nonprofit.
Chapin’s family also started a charitable foundation called the Ethan Smile, which will provide scholarships for students from Washington’s Skagit Valley to the University of Idaho.
The murder suspect is Brian Kohbegger, a 30-year-old former Ph.D. student who was studying criminology at Washington State University in nearby Pullman Four students accused of fatal knife attack Early morning on November 13, 2022. Two other roommates survived the massacre.
Kohbarger’s alleged motive is unknown, and he has pleaded not guilty to this gruesome crime. His trial is scheduled for August the following year after several delays due to legal challenges.
“I think the legal system is not about the victims, and I’ll leave it at that,” Laramie said when asked her feelings about the lengthy justice process so far.
Kohbarger faces the death penalty If convicted, in Idaho.
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