A year after University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, Maddie Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Kaylee Goncalves were senselessly murdered, NonStop Local KHQ continues to tell the stories of the families and Moscow community. We’re also following the legal proceedings for the man suspected of killing them. You can find our full special, Idaho Murders: One Year Later, by clicking here.
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — It’s been exactly one year since four bright souls were taken in the middle of the night.
Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, all University of Idaho students, all beloved by their community and all murdered in the house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho.
The ripple effect changed everything in the small college town. Grief, anger, fright and a lingering sense of community that would unite the Vandal family.
Losing a friend, student, fraternity brother or sorority sister is heartbreaking, but losing a child is indescribable.
NonStop Local’s John Webb spoke with Stacy Chapin, the mother of Ethan Chapin, who is one of the victims of the Idaho murders. Here’s a transcript of the story:
“On a beautiful star-filled October night, triplet children were born and oh what a sight. Three healthy babies what could we say such a joyful, amazing and momentous day,” read Stacy Chapin from here new book The Boy Who Wore Blue.
STACY: He was amazing and he was that way from the very beginning.
“But there was something incredible about that boy who wore blue. His bubbly personality immediately shone through. Day after day the boy who wore blue woke up happy and went to bed happy too.”
STACY: He was a character. I mean, he lit up any room. And that’s what we all miss the most in him. He just had a funny joke to tell. He, you know, he just had this magnanimous personality. He could walk in the room and it just elevated any, you know, any situation. He was amazing. He was an amazing kid. We’re fortunate to have had him in our life for 20 years.
JOHN: Looking hindsight, he really touched a lot of lives.
STACY: Shocking and we had no idea. I mean, it has been a year of people literally coming out of the woodwork that have that we literally had no idea of. Kids that he sat in class with.
Is there one thing that you miss the most about Ethan?
STACY: Oh, yeah, yeah, I miss hugging Ethan. He was definitely a mama’s boy. He always wore this blue Patagonia coat. I’d give anything to go back and be able to have another hug from him. Yeah.
“Day after day, the boy who were blue woke up happy and went to bed happy too.”
How have you been? It’s been about a year, how are you doing right now?
STACY: I think overall we’re doing very well. I mean, all things considered right. Going into a year feels a little bit more emotional, I would say. You know, because the news things are starting and the vigil information for the University of Idaho was just released. It’s like, my god, we’ve been a whole year without our kids. It’s a tough pill to swallow. But we can’t change the outcome. We’ve said it all along. And so we’ve really tried to focus on Mazie and Hunter and the things that we’ve created in Ethan’s memory and that we’re really proud of.
But the kids are good and Jim and I are great, and that’s what we have to spend our time focusing on.
Something that you posted on social media caught my attention. You said that you were told to look for a victory every day, even if it was the tiniest little victory. You say that was excellent advice.
STACY: It was an excellent advice. I’d give it to anybody who is in any kind of tough situation. You have to get up. You have to find something. It might be the taste of your coffee in the morning. It might be a little flower that’s growing in a crack in a sidewalk. You have to find something that you look at that just is like ‘okay that’s the good that I found today.’ And there were days we’ve done that. There are about five months that I call it the depths of hell, but where you just literally have to wake up every morning and think to yourself, oh, no, what the hell happened to my family, right? I mean, legitimately and so you start looking for those things. We came upon the Sigma Chi house. Monday morning, November 14, and it was very early in the morning, and those boys. It’s a profound moment in the journey that we’ve taken over the course of the last year. Those boys were flocking out of that house. Their mothers had called them home, literally, I need to hug you. I need to love you. I need you to come home. They had their pillows underneath their arms and they were just hopping into their cars like they were just driving away. They’d left everything in the fraternity. And it was a very moving moment for us. It was you know another moment that said this kid had touched all these lives and these hearts. We saw it again at the memorial and at the vigil and every time we go to the Sigma Chi house.
“And wherever he went, the friends would all swarm. This tale, the story of the boy who wore blue is the message for everyone including you.”
STACY: “That’s what I have left of Ethan – is to be his voice and memory of him.
“Life is short, so give it your best. Be happy. Smile. And encourage the rest.”
