Episode Details

im and Stacy Chapin had broken their silence about the murder of their 20-year-old son, Ethan, five months after he was killed alongside Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves in Moscow, Idaho. The Chapins recalled that they had visited their triplets at the University of Idaho during parents’ weekend just one week before the murders and had left feeling proud and reassured that Ethan, Hunter and Maizie were thriving on their own. Jim remembered saying goodbye to Ethan outside the Sigma Chi fraternity house, where he hugged his son and told him to be safe, never imagining it would be the last time they spoke. Seven days later, Ethan was killed at the off-campus King Road home. The Chapins described the months that followed as an unimaginably painful period in which the family largely withdrew from the outside world, spending weeks together talking, crying and trying to process what had happened.

Rather than allowing anger to consume them, Jim and Stacy said they had tried to focus their energy on Ethan’s memory and the surviving members of their family. They created the Ethan’s Smile foundation, which grew out of a special tulip mix developed in Ethan’s honor by Tulip Valley Farms, where he had previously worked, and planned to use the foundation to provide scholarships for students from Washington’s Skagit Valley attending the University of Idaho. The Chapins said they had no regrets about the amount of time they had spent with Ethan while he was alive, remembering family vacations, childhood activities and traditions that had kept the family close. Stacy also recalled Ethan sending her Morgan Wallen’s “Thought You Should Know” before his death because he believed the song reflected their relationship, turning it into an especially meaningful reminder of her son. As the family moved forward, they said they were trying to find small victories and preserve Ethan’s legacy rather than allow the brutality of his death to define his life.

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