SPOKANE — Lake Coeur d’Alene in northern Idaho was a popular summer spot for Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle.
Now, two benches overlooking the lake are dedicated to the three University of Idaho students who were killed nearly two years ago in their off-campus Moscow, Idaho, home. UI student Ethan Chapin, of Mount Vernon, Washington, was the fourth victim in the homicides.
About 40 family members and friends, huddled in coats and standing under umbrellas, honored the three women in a rain-drenched dedication ceremony Saturday on the edge of Coeur d’Alene City Park.
“We loved Maddie, Kaylee and Xana, and I believe that these benches will be a positive space for all of us to go,” said Angela Navejas, founder of Made with Kindness Foundation, a nonprofit established this year that honors the three women.
Navejas told The Spokesman-Review that Mogen was her daughter’s best friend, and they formed close relationships with Goncalves and Kernodle as well. The foundation provides scholarships and promotes female empowerment by teaching women how to be safe on and off college campuses, Navejas said.
Navejas said the foundation, which partnered with Panhandle Parks Foundation and Coeur d’Alene Parks Department on the project, wanted a place where family, friends and community members could remember the three women.
“That’s when we thought, ‘They all three loved the water,’ “ Navejas said.
Kris Jamtaas, a Panhandle Parks Foundation board member, said Made with Kindness started talking with Panhandle Parks earlier this year about dedicating benches to the women. He said it was meaningful to work with Made with Kindness on a project that meant so much to the new nonprofit.
Jamtaas, who attended Saturday’s dedication, said area residents and Coeur d’Alene visitors from around the world will be able to sit on the benches, read the plaques and enjoy the view of the lake the women did.
The benches, with newly installed black and gold-colored plaques next to them, are located along the seawall between the beach and City Park.
A plaque next to Kernodle’s bench includes a quote that says, “One of the most important things you can do in life, enjoy the ride, not the destination.”
The other bench, dubbed “Bestie Bench,” honors best friends Mogen and Goncalves. The plaque includes “#Itsaforeverthing,” symbolizing their friendship as they grew up and died together, Navejas said.
Family and friends gathered in a circle Saturday on the City Park lawn, just steps away from the benches, for a rose petal ceremony honoring the three women. A few people at a time walked to the center of the circle to place a rose among the colorful petals on the grass.
Some also placed roses on the benches and on the ground next to the plaques after the brief ceremony. A white tag attached to those roses had quotes and hashtags that symbolized the women.
Shayla Anderson, community engagement coordinator and board member of Made with Kindness, said Goncalves and Mogen were her friends and classmates at Lake City High School.
Anderson graduated in 2018 and Mogen and Goncalves followed the year after. Kernodle graduated from Post Falls High School in 2020.
She said the flowers were a great representation of the women.
“They’re all beautiful,” Anderson said. “They all look a little bit different. They’re all unique.”
She said the benches offer a place for people to share stories, memories and grief.
“It’s kind of the only way that we can think of to heal without current justice is to share their memories and to share their stories that we each had,” Anderson said.
She said she spent plenty of time with Mogen and Goncalves during the summer at the lake. Navejas recalled spending a whole day with Mogen and Goncalves on Lake Coeur d’Alene the summer before they died.
Although Nov. 13 marks the two-year anniversary of the deaths of the four students, the same feelings remain from shortly after the killings, Anderson said.
“It feels like two months after the whole tragedy all over again,” she said. “Nothing’s really changed. We’re all still grieving.”
She said she admires the victims’ families for their strength in a difficult time.
“Their strength through this, it’s so empowering,” Anderson said.
Navejas called Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle “shining lights.”
“They just had different personalities, but they were all just beautiful inside and out,” she said. “Anybody who knew them just knew that they were just amazing.”
