Kaylee Goncalves' Sister Reveals Touching Tribute to Murdered Idaho Victims
Kaylee Goncalves' sister has given her newborn baby girl a name that honors her slain sister and her best friend.
Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21, were found stabbed to death along with their roommate Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, at a rental house in Moscow, Idaho, near the University of Idaho campus on November 13.
Goncalves' sister, Alivea Goncalves, gave birth at 4:21 a.m. on Friday, according to a post on the Goncalves family's Facebook page.
The post said she had named her daughter Theodora MaddieKay Stevensen, giving her a middle name that combines her sister's name with that of her closest friend.
Inicia sesión en Facebook para empezar a compartir y conectar con tus amigos, familiares y las personas que conoces.
Alivea Goncalves also shared a photo of her newborn on Facebook on Sunday, writing: "Sleepy little love this morning #MaddieKay." The family has been contacted for further comment.
Goncalves and Mogen had been close since the sixth grade, Goncalves' father said at a vigil in November. They grew up in northern Idaho before attending the University of Idaho together.
Bryan Kohberger, then a Ph.D. student of criminology at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, has been charged in the killings.
He is facing four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. Kohberger is yet to enter a plea, but a lawyer who previously represented him said he was "eager to be exonerated" of the charges. A preliminary hearing is set to begin on June 26.
Goncalves' sister told NewsNation in January that the family felt relieved that a suspect was in custody in connection with her sister's killing.
She said reading a probable cause affidavit that revealed how DNA evidence, surveillance footage and cell phone records led law enforcement to Kohberger had been difficult.
"I think that that's been the hardest part of this is to sit back and look at the totality of it. When my sister was FaceTiming me about a new egg bites recipe, he was planning his next visit to the home," she said.
"It's really difficult not to wish that you had done more, wish that you had known more. We had no idea, she had no idea, I had no idea that true evil was genuinely watching them."
On Friday, university officials said the house where the students were stabbed to death will be demolished.
The homeowner offered to give it to the university and the school accepted, University President Scott Green said in a memo to students and employees.
"This is a healing step and removes the physical structure where the crime that shook our community was committed," Green wrote.
No timeline has been set for the demolition, but university spokesperson Jodi Walker told the Idaho Statesman that the plan is to have the house knocked down by the end of the spring semester.
"We're just working through the processes that it takes to do such a thing," Walker said. "But from the university standpoint, and in talking with the families, the sooner, the better."
