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Denver – Kristen Mittelman, senior director of forensic company Othram, met with Crimecon in Orlando two years ago.
“Honestly, I don’t know why I’m there. I mean, I was invited to go there, but we’ve only been 10 months since we lost Ethan,” Chap said at the Crimecan conference this year in Denver, Colorado.
She said she barely went to Crimichen that year. She was then invited to a group meeting with other families whose children were victims of high-profile crimes.
“What the hell am I doing in this room?” Chabin asked himself.
Stacy Chapin, mother of Idaho murder victim Ethan Chapin, sits on the stage at Crimecon, discusses a chance encounter with Kristen Mittelman, a senior executive of forensic company Othram. (Fox News figures)
The family told their stories separately. Mittelman surprised her in the end. Although she was a stranger at the time, she left, hugged her, and whispered in her ear.
“I had to go to Stacey and say everything would be fine, I did it.”
Chap recalled: “I had to step back and say what did you just say to me? She said to me, ‘You don’t have to worry.’
She said Chap had to go to Google Kristen Mittelman, but the conversation was “deeply” in keeping in touch with her.
Idaho victim’s family asks judge to permanently block crime scene images
Bryan Kohberger appeared in Ada County Courthouse, where he held a sentencing hearing in Boise, Idaho on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, to brutally stab four Idaho students to die nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, Swimming Pool)
She told Fox News Digital that Mittelman stopped talking about it after being constrained by the gag order. But she gave Chabin a hug and told her: “She hopes everyone can have a hug.”
“Being able to see Stacey’s reaction made her tell me that chances came across the next two and a half years…. It meant the world to me, knowing that I could change her life quickly.”
Judge Steven Hippler raised his attention to gag Bryan Kohberger’s guilty plea Mittelman immediately answered the phone in the murder of Chapin’s son Ethan and his three friends.
Idaho murder victim’s mother discovers unexpected peace in killer debate agreement
Ethan Chapin’s family poses for selfies. (Handout)
She called Chapin to explain the overwhelming DNA evidence of police recovery and her confidence in her genetic material almost immediately Resolve the case.
“We can finally talk to people who are our ‘why’,” Mitelman said of the phone.
She said families like Chapin are why she and her husband built Othram.
“Once the order for gag was lifted, my first call was Stacey’s family. After a few months of investigation, I had the opportunity to meet her and I could see the pain in her eyes. I could see the extent to which she needed to be sure.”
“The phone is the greatest thing,” Chap recalled Saturday.
Ethan Chapin’s family arrived at the Ida County Courthouse on Wednesday, July 2, 2025 in Boise, Idaho, including Stacy Chapin and father Jim Chapin. (Derek Shakes Fox News Numbers)
She said she and Ethan’s father, her husband Jim, flew to Houston immediately to meet with Ostrom’s team.
She said they also wanted to use the high-profile advocacy efforts of their son’s case to connect other victims’ families with Oslam and bring more criminals to justice.
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Although Kohberger’s defense portrays DNA as controversial and tries to throw it away, his attorney loses that argument. Then he pleaded guilty, avoiding Potential death penalty In the trial.
Chapin and her family turned to victim advocacy after the crime and created student scholarships in Ethan’s honors through Ethan’s Smile Foundation.
