EDITORIAL: Focus not on why, but on 4 lives filled with love

There are no words we can offer to somehow provide comfort to family and friends of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. We don’t have any special insight. There is nothing we can say that has not been said.  

We will not try. 

What we will do is turn to the words of Judge Steven Hippler, who delivered his remarks before sentencing Bryan Kohberger to four life sentences without the possibility of parole. 

While the person responsible for the senseless killings will spend the rest of his life behind bars, many still want to know why. Why did he do it? Why did he target those four young people with whom he had no connection? 

Perhaps we will never have an answer to that question. We may have to move on without it. That would be best.

Judge Steven Hippler put it well.

“By continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr. Kohberger relevance,” Hippler said. “We give him agency. We give him power. The need to know what is inherently not understandable makes us dependent on the defendant to provide us with a reason. And that gives him the spotlight, the attention, and the power, he appears to crave.”

And, as the judge noted, even if Kohberger did offer something, why would we believe him?

“Do we really believe after all this he’s capable of speaking the truth or giving up something of himself to help the very people whose lives he destroyed?” the judge asked. 

The answer is no.

Judge Hippler spoke of the strength of courage of the family and friends who attended the hearing in Boise. Like the judge, we hope they are able to move on as best as possible. 

He said the survivors of the attack that morning should be known as “witnesses to the tremendous lives of value and unbounded promise of these four young people.”

We agree.

“These survivors carry the responsibility of ensuring that the voices of these children — Maddie, Kaylee, Xana and Ethan — are never forgotten and that the positive impact they have had on so many lives is never minimized and that the love they shared, the light that they shined onto others, is forever celebrated," Judge Hippler said.

What we do know is this: Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were loved by many people. And they shared that love. We ask only that we all do our best to keep sharing it.