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Moscow, Idaho

I t’s the Friday before graduation and the eve of the six-month anniversary of the murders.

Deedle, as Maddie called her paternal grandmother, Kim Cheeley, is proud of her daughters for coming up with the idea. And she’s excited to go to Moscow that evening with the Laramies and her son Ben Mogen and other family members to spread the word about Maddie May Day.

She’s got cookies and a note about the new holiday for the Moscow police officers and the university staff.

“We wanted to thank the police department,” she said. “I feel they’ve done an amazing job keeping their cards close [to] their chest and going about their business and doing what they had to do. I know that you’re not supposed to say this out loud, but I feel they have their man.”

When she arrives at the police station, gifts in hand, various officers come in and out of the room as she shares the cookies.

Deedle is gratified. Until, that is, nearly two weeks later, on May 25, Maddie’s actual birthday.

On that day, she reads in the Idaho Statesman that “the families” of Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves have filed tort claims notices with the city of Moscow, the University of Idaho, the Idaho State Police, and possibly—it’s suggested but not confirmed—WSU.

The paper quotes the Goncalveses’ lawyer, Shanon Gray, explaining that the families have filed, as legally required within six months of the original incident, to reserve their right to sue.

They haven’t sued yet, but they might in the future.

“Filing a tort claims notice is really just a safeguard,” Gray tells ABC News. “It’s a safeguard to protect the interests of the families, the victims, and really the whole community around, because if something goes wrong or was done improperly, then someone is held accountable for that.”

In May, Steve phones Stacy Chapin to tell her ahead of time that he is filing the tort against the cops and university.

He explains, “This is nothing against you.” And he means it.

It isn’t even against the police, in his mind.

He’s creating a layer of protection for Kaylee and Maddie. It isn’t personal.

Stacy doesn’t take it personally, but she is quietly upset on behalf of the police and the university.

Deedle is devastated. “It broke my heart,” she later said.

She is mortified as she reads on and discovers that the Goncalves family filed theirs on May 2 and 3, but the “Mogen family” filed on May 11—the day before she showed up at the Moscow police station with her basket of cookies.

The “Mogen family” designation wrongly insinuates she had a part in this. She wants to set the record straight. She would never consider suing the police or the university.

“That is not us,” she said. “We’ve been so thankful to the university, to the police department, and have been treated like royalty through this whole thing.”

But Kim doesn’t want to alienate Karen and Scott Laramie.

During Maddie’s short life, Deedle had consistent, unfettered access to Maddie because Karen and Scott allowed it.

Ben was also made to feel welcome in their home.

Even though he still had paternal rights, things could have been a lot less easy had Karen and Scott not been so generous and welcoming.

“I love Karen,” she said. “We stayed really close for Maddie’s sake. And Scott too. I really, really love both of them.”

Nervously, she phones Bill Thompson’s office and asks if she is bound by the gag order.

She is not.

Then she calls the Statesman .

She speaks to an editor and tries to explain she’d like to be separated from the Mogen family in future reporting. But she doesn’t want to create a story about a fracture in the family, so when the editor asks her if there is an issue, Deedle treads carefully.

“Well, going forward, could we just make clear who you’re talking about? That’s all.”

She hangs up and wishes it were all much less complicated. Maddie was such an angel of a person. Deedle has added an angel wing, in her memory, to the necklace Maddie ordered for her on Etsy that had both of their names.

She doesn’t get why the Goncalves family seems to be making so many decisions for Maddie’s family. She’s puzzled about why Maddie’s ashes are on their mantelpiece alongside Kaylee’s. But she also knows that it’s what Karen wants.

Deedle thinks, If that’s the case, then so be it.

Karen has lost her only child. And poor Karen had also lost her mother in a car accident when she herself was barely an adult.

So whatever Karen wants, Deedle will roll with it.