Idaho Murder Victim’s Mom Doesn’t Care About Bryan Kohberger’s Motive: Nothing Will ‘Bring Ethan Back’

When Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to brutally murdering four University of Idaho students — Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20 and Madison Mogen, 21 — he refused to reveal his motive, frustrating some of the victims’ loved ones.

But Chapin’s mom wasn’t one of them.

“Everybody has the right to feel how they want to feel, but I don’t know how knowing the motive changes anything,” Stacy Chapin told the Daily Mail in an interview published on Sunday, October 5. “It doesn’t change the outcome.”

Even if Kohberger had gone to trial, she pointed out, there would have been no guarantee that he would have explained why he stabbed the students to death in the home the young women shared in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.

“You can burn up so much energy and time on it,” the grieving mother added, “but it doesn’t bring Ethan back.”

Instead, the Chapins are simply relieved that Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences and will never get out of prison. He is currently serving at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.

“This way he is just put away,” the former teacher told the Daily Mail. “We do not have to hear from him ever again. For our family, that was the better option.”

The family — which includes Ethan’s dad, Jim, and triplet siblings, Maizie and Hunter — didn’t even attend Kohberger’s sentencing.

“There was nothing left to say,” Stacy told the Daily Mail. “In our family’s opinion, it’s over.”