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'Nothing prepared me': Idaho victim Madison Mogen's dad Ben recalls moment he learned of her murder

Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in an off-campus three-story rented home

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MOSCOW, IDAHO: Idaho victim Madison Mogen's father has opened up about the time he learned about his daughter's murder. On November 13, he recalled that he was out to watch a movie when Madison's mother Karen Laramie called him and said, "Just come over."

“I just had a feeling it had to do with Maddie,” Ben Mogen said, according to The Spokesman-Review. “On that drive over, I was thinking of all these terrible things that I was preparing for, and none of them prepared me for what they actually told me,” he added.

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Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in an off-campus three-story rented home in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022. Authorities have said that the gory scene where the students were killed was the “worst they’ve ever seen." The killer has yet to be caught.

Ben said he then called Laramie. “We didn’t even know what to say to each other, we just both were sobbing,” he said, adding, “We just cried together on the phone, I guess. There’s just no words for any of that.” Ben and Laramie were together for five years but eventually split. They maintained a good relationship as Madison grew up.

“She was smart and funny,” Ben said of Madison, adding she was “a real go-getter.” “Everyone loved Maddie,” Ben added. “If she was in the room, she would just shine,” she said.

Ben celebrated his first Christmas without his daughter. “I am so proud to be able to say that she was my daughter and what she was doing with her life and where she was headed,” he said, adding, “She was living the life that she deserved.”

The FBI reportedly recently added 30 extra agents to the case. It has also been revealed that the lead investigator in the case is reportedly 32-year-old US Army veteran Brett Payne, who joined the Moscow Police Department in 2020, just two years ago.