Idaho victim Xana Kernodle's mother Cara Northington arrested, for drug possession, says daughter's death triggered relapse
MOSCOW, IDAHO: Drug abuse has tormented Cara Northington for the majority of her adult life, even driving her away from family members as she was frequently arrested. But, Northington, the mother of slain Idaho University student Xana Kernodle, was managing to stay clean.
Before the killings, Northington was working as a waitress and attempting to start over with her three children, including Xana. Northington is divorced since 2005. She was married to Xana's father Jeff Kernodle. The 43-year-old is being held at Kootenai County Jail in Coeur d'Alene.
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'I relapsed after my daughter's killing'
In the wee hours of November 13, 2020, Xana, her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, and her roommates Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, were massacred in their off-campus rented home. When Brian Kohberger, a PhD candidate in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, was detained on December 30, it astounded Northington because her elder daughter Jazzmin, a senior studying marketing, is a student there.
"She was a light in this world, you know?" Northington told the Daily Mail from the prison in a telephonic interview. "She was just so funny. She could make everybody laugh." Northington was apprehensive that the children in schools are safe and "you can never think they're going to be murdered."
She said, "I relapsed after my daughter's killing. Then four days after that, I got picked up on new charges." The police on November 19 charged Northington with two counts of felony drug possession. Although authorities allowed her to attend the memorial of her daughter out of mercy, she wasn't able to appear in court on the next date for "still being high."
'I was still getting high'
"They let me out because of what happened so I could attend her funeral and everything. And then I didn't go to my next court date because I was still getting high." Following the warrant for her arrest, she went off-grid, however, unable to escape the news as it became a national obsession with nonstop coverage.
Northington shares a bunk with 3 convicts and underwent brutal withdrawal as her daughter's massacre barely lets her sleep
Northington is currently confined to a cell at the jail where she shares a bunk bed with three other convicts and only has access to a TV during the day, which frequently broadcasts news about the brutal deaths while she goes through drug withdrawal.
'It's a f******* nightmare, It's a living nightmare'
"It's a f******* nightmare, It's a living nightmare," Northington cried over the phone as per the report. She is barely able to sleep as the massacre keeps replaying in her mind while also struggling with persona demons. She has had to endure a painful withdrawal in prison and the only things the officials have given her to get through it are ibuprofen and Gatorade. "That's all they gave me," she said. "It was awful, absolutely awful, absolutely terrible, on top of everything else."