Cara Northington, the mother of murdered University of Idaho student Xana Kernodle, says she is preparing to face her daughter’s accused killer Bryan Kohberger in court on July 23—but this time, as a changed woman.
The 45-year-old Idaho mother, whose decades-long struggle with drug addiction has been well-documented both before and after her daughter’s brutal death, revealed that she is finally sober—and plans to stand tall and clear-headed at the sentencing of the man accused of taking her daughter’s life.
“I wasn’t the best mom during the last years of Xana’s life,” Northington confessed in an emotional interview with the Daily Mail, sitting quietly on a picnic bench outside a local diner. “But I know all she ever wanted was for me to stop. And now I finally have.”
Northington says she has spent more than 30 years battling addiction, slipping in and out of jail, rehab, and relapse. The chaos of her life was a source of pain and tension in her relationship with Xana, a vibrant 20-year-old university student who was one of four victims in the shocking 2022 stabbings that rocked the college town of Moscow, Idaho.
For Northington, the trauma of losing her daughter wasn’t just heartbreaking—it was life-altering. She says the pain of Xana’s death, coupled with pleas from her other two children, forced her to take a hard look at her life and finally make the change her daughter always begged for.
“Losing Xana broke me. But it also saved me,” she said. “I knew if I didn’t change, I’d never survive the grief. And I couldn’t put my other kids through more pain.”
Now, for the first time in years, Northington says she’s fully present—and she intends to bring that strength into the courtroom on July 23. Kohberger, the former criminology PhD student charged with the brutal killings of Xana, her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, and her two roommates Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, is expected to face victims’ families during the sentencing phase.
Northington says she doesn’t know yet if she’ll speak directly to Kohberger in court—but if she does, it will be with the clarity and conviction her daughter always wanted to see in her.
“I’m not who I was when Xana died,” she said. “The world will see an entirely new person walk into that courtroom.”
Her recovery is still fresh, still frag