Ethan Chapin’s mother might never know why Bryan Kohberger murdered her son.
And she doesn’t need to. ‘It doesn’t change the outcome,’ Stacy Chapin told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.
‘You can burn up so much energy and time on it, but it doesn’t bring Ethan back.’
Despite admitting guilt and receiving a life sentence, the reasons behind Kohberger’s decision to invade a house in Moscow, Idaho, and murder Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves in November 2022 remain a baffling conundrum.
Investigators found no motive nor any connection between the killer and his victims.
And Kohberger himself has offered no explanation – refusing the opportunity to speak at his sentencing.
Some relatives of the victims have expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the plea agreement did not require the killer to disclose his motivations.
Even former President Donald Trump commented on this, expressing hope that Judge Steven Hippler would demand the explanation for these heinous acts during the sentencing.
But, for the mother of 20-year-old Ethan, she is not going to waste time searching for answers to questions that will never make sense.
Maizie, Ethan, Stacy, Jim and Hunter Chapin pictured together at Priest Lake in northern Idaho in July 2022
Ethan Chapin and his girlfriend Xana Kernodle were murdered on November 13, 2022. Pictured with Ethan’s brother Hunter (right)
‘We always go back to the beginning: it doesn’t bring Ethan back,’ Stacy said.
‘So we just have to spend time doing what’s good for our family.’
While she respects the feelings of the other families, for Ethan’s father Jim and his triplet siblings Maizie and Hunter, understanding Kohberger’s motive would not alleviate the deep grief of their loss.
‘Everybody has the right to feel how they want to feel, but I don’t know how knowing the motive changes anything,’ she said.
‘Even if there had been a three-month trial, we wouldn’t have uncovered that. Kohberger was unlikely to testify and clarify his motives,’ she noted.
For the best part of three years, 30-year-old Kohberger fought the charges over the November 13, 2022, murders.
A few weeks before the trial was set to begin, he confessed and negotiated a plea with prosecutors, thus avoiding the death sentence.
The Chapin family supported the deal, which ensured Kohberger would never be able to walk free from prison.
Had the case gone to trial, Stacy said there would always have been a risk that one juror might not have found the evidence substantial enough and Kohberger would have been acquitted.
Hunter, Jim, Stacy, Ethan and Maizie Chapin together in Moscow, Idaho, the weekend before the murders
‘And even if he had gotten the death penalty at trial, he would not have died in my husband and my lifetimes. So he would have been left for our kids to have to handle. And he would have had opportunities to appeal it,’ Stacy said.
‘This way he is just put away. We do not have to hear from him ever again. For our family, that was the better option.’
Stacy, Jim, Maizie and Hunter all attended Kohberger’s change of plea hearing at Ada County Courthouse in Boise on July 2 in support of the agreement.
It marked the first and only time the Chapins came face-to-face with Ethan’s killer, as they watched him finally admit to his brutal crimes.
Three weeks later, on July 23, Judge Hippler sentenced Kohberger to four life sentences with no possibility of parole for each count of first-degree murder and an additional 10 years for burglary.
Under the terms of the deal, Kohberger also waived his right to ever appeal. He is now being held in the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna where he will live out his dying days.
Stacy said the Chapins decided not to attend the sentencing hearing to give victim impact statements because they had nothing to say to her son’s killer.
‘There was nothing left to say, I guess,’ she said, adding: ‘That was just us.’
Left to right: Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee’s shoulders) Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke. Mortensen and Funke were the only survivors of Bryan Kohberger’s killing rampage
The home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, on November 20, 2022 – one week on from the murders
Instead, the family spent the day together at their home in Priest Lake, Idaho, honoring the athletic, outgoing 20-year-old.
When asked how she wants her son to be remembered, Stacy said: ‘He was just an amazing kid. Going all the way back to them as three babies bouncing in their seats, he was always the easiest child.’
She added: ‘There’s nothing of those 20 years with Ethan that I would go back and change. He was that great of a kid. He was amazing.
‘I’m thankful to have had him for those 20 years.’
Ethan had been in his freshman year at the University of Idaho, where he majored in sports management and was part of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He was in a relationship with Kernodle and was staying at her student home on the edge of the college campus on the night of Kohberger’s attack.
For the Chapin family, knowing Kohberger is now behind bars for life has brought some closure and has finally drawn a line under three years of agony.
‘He’s put away. He’s where he belongs,’ Stacy said.
‘In our family’s opinion, it’s over.
Bryan Kohberger at his sentencing where he refused to speak or reveal his motive for the murders
‘We’ve been doing this now for almost three years. It will be three years in November, and it’s time for us to do something different. It’s time to move on.’
While life will always look different for the Chapin family to before Ethan’s murder, with the court proceedings now behind them, Stacy feels they can finally move forward and focus on the future.
Stacy beams with pride when she speaks of the strength she has seen in Maizie and Hunter and their plans for adult life.
‘My kids are amazing. They’re great. They are more resilient than we are,’ she said.
‘We put them through counseling and the mental health pieces – whatever they needed to get through this.
‘Now they’re like: “Okay, let’s move forward from this event.”‘
Maizie and Hunter both attended UI with Ethan. They returned to their studies and college life in Moscow for the 2023 spring semester – mere weeks after Kohberger’s arrest.
This May, they both graduated.
Othram’s Kristen Mittelman (left) and Stacy Chapin (right) now want to work together to advocate for greater access to forensic genetic genealogy so that more victims’ families can get answers
Stacy proudly revealed that Hunter is now planning to become a firefighter while Maizie has started working at a hospital.
‘They’re doing amazing,’ she said. ‘It feels like we are finally moving forward.’
Part of moving forward also includes using the family’s tragic experience to be a voice for other families who will find themselves in similar situations in future.
After the plea deal was struck and the gag order lifted in the case, Stacy connected with Othram – the forensic genetic genealogy lab which identified Kohberger as the source of the DNA found on the knife sheath left at the scene.
The Texas-based lab’s advanced technology meant that the killer was identified and arrested within six weeks of the murders, bringing some answers to the victims’ families and preventing Kohberger from tearing apart any other families.
Stacy, Jim and Maizie have since all visited Othram’s lab and met with the team, led by David and Kristen Mittelman.
Now, they hope to work together to advocate for greater access to the lab’s capabilities so that more families can get answers about their loved ones’ cases quickly.
The Chapin family also runs the Ethan’s Smile Foundation which they launched in 2023 to provide scholarships in Ethan’s honor.
Ethan, Maizie and Hunter pictured together. The Chapin family now runs the Ethan’s Smile Foundation to provide scholarships in Ethan’s honor
For the Chapin family, knowing Kohberger is now behind bars for life has brought some closure. ‘He’s where he belongs. In our family’s opinion, it’s over,’ Stacy said
As of May 2025, the foundation has awarded $105,750 in scholarships to 83 students. Stacy, Jim, Maizie and Hunter all sit on the board.
The Chapins have other plans for the future too.
For Stacy and Jim, Ethan’s murder derailed the next chapter in their lives – a time when their kids were off at college, entering adult life, so as parents they were looking at the own next steps.
‘Jim and I had just started – before this whole thing – trying to live a life that was without our kids and doing a little traveling and figuring out what’s next,’ she said.
Now, it’s finally time to get those plans back on track.
‘We’re there right now. We’re just in the process of getting our kids where they need to be and settled into their next lives – where we all feel like we’re moving forward,’ she said.
Stacy hasn’t decided where exactly those travel plans will take her and Jim yet – but there’s one thing top of the list.
‘I’m just going to go sit on a beach somewhere,’ she laughed. ‘I don’t even know where. I’m like, “I’m out.”‘
