Fighting back tears, parents of slain University of Idaho students shared moments of laughter and sorrow Wednesday as students and faculty gathered for a vigil for the four lives lost.
The four students — Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Kaylee Goncalves — were found stabbed to death on their off-campus home on Nov. 13 and no suspect or suspects have been identified.
“We’re going to get our justice, we’re going to figure this stuff out,” Steven Goncalves, the father of Kaylee, said at the ceremony at the university in Moscow, Idaho. “This community deserves that.”
“It’s hard that we are without these four beautiful kids with us tonight,” said Stacy Chapin, Ethan's mother.
Near the end of the vigil, the lights darkened and the crowd held up their phones showing candles, or turned on their flashlights, as they observed a moment of silence.The unsolved killings have put some students at the university, located in a city of around 25,000, and the community on edge. Police say the coroner determined the four victims were likely asleep when they were killed but some had defensive wounds.Madison Mogen's father, Ben Mogen, said he talked about his daughter, an only child, to anyone he met. “The first thing I’d say is, ‘I have this daughter, and here’s a picture of her. She’s on the dean’s list at college,’” Mogen said.
Mogen recalled when his daughter, who like himself loved live music, was upset that musician Mac Miller was coming to the area — but the tickets were sold out. He entered every radio station contest he could.
“And like the night before it happened, I won four tickets and got to bring her and her friends, and they were meet-and-greet tickets. We got to go and meet him after the show,” Mogen said. “That was the happiest memory I could think of, that we shared together, was that.”