The father of a freshman athlete who was strangled to death last month in a dormitory at a Christian college in Kentucky has asked his son’s classmates to choose forgiveness because “it is central to who Jesus is.”
Josiah Kilman (18) found dead He died just before 1 a.m. on February 24th in his dormitory at Campbellsville University. The man died of manual strangulation, according to a preliminary autopsy report by the state medical examiner.
Charles “Zeke” Escalera, 21, a sophomore engineering student and member of the school’s wrestling team, is charged with murder.
The victim’s father, Joe Kilman, asked students gathered in the school’s chapel last Wednesday to shout out their emotions after the loss of a “wonderful young man.”
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Josiah Kilman, 18, was found dead in his dorm room at Campbellsville University in the early hours of February 24th. Charles “Zeke” Escalera, a colleague on the Christian University wrestling team, faces murder charges in his death. (Courtesy of O’Brien Bird)
Among the reactions of the students who were shouted out by the crowd were anger, sadness, madness, confusion, frustration, guilt, devastation, emptiness, There were things like “I can’t forgive.”
Elder Kilman told the students, “Since that moment, I have felt every emotion at the same time.” [he] I received a phone call. ”
“Emotions are one thing,” Kilman said during the service, which was recorded and posted on the school’s YouTube account. “There are choices in life. Forgiveness didn’t sound like the word to me, because it’s not a feeling, it’s a choice.”
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Joe Kilman (left), father of slain college wrestler Josiah Kilman, asked his son’s grieving classmates at Campbellsville University to “choose forgiveness.” On the right is sports admissions counselor Travis McIntosh. (Campbellsville University Chapel/Youtube)
“I invite you to choose forgiveness, because in that forgiveness we become the light of Jesus,” the father continued. “If Josiah were standing here right now and had a chance to speak to you, he would speak to you about forgiveness.”
“Unforgiveness is a curse. It comes with things you don’t want and don’t need. Josiah would have sat here and challenged you. For Josiah’s life, I challenge you. ” said the boy’s father.
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Travis McIntosh, the school’s athletics admissions counselor, spoke to the assembled students about the young Kilman’s personality and impact on campus.
“When I first met him on my second day of school, I was immediately intrigued,” McIntosh said. “Even in the brightest room, he was the brightest light. The young man taught me that nothing in this world is more important than spreading the gospel and leading people to Jesus Christ. .He touched so many people in this room, in this place.”
Kilman majored in Biblical studies in college. His cousin Sarah Cook previously told Fox News Digital that he had a “dream of leading others to follow the Lord through Christian principles.”
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Tyler Gilfrey, 19, Kilman’s childhood best friend from his hometown. columbia falls, montana, He characterized the slain student as thoughtful, humble, polite and kind. He wrestled with what might have prompted the suspect to commit the “unthinkable” act.
“He wasn’t a guy who started fights, but he was a guy that everyone liked. I could see people being jealous of him for who he was,” Gilfrey told Fox News Digital about Killman. “Somebody who was struggling with themselves to see someone so talented, so outgoing, just such a great human being. That’s all I can think of. No one would want to do that to Josiah. ”
Charles Escalera, 21, was found hiding in a barn by Kentucky State Police after a warrant was issued for his arrest in the death of Josiah Kilman, 18. (Taylor County Jail)
Escalera is currently being held in the Taylor County Detention Center on $2 million bail, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Fox News Digital. Campbellsville police have not yet released a motive for Killman’s alleged murder.
Kilman’s death was one of four homicides on college campuses across the country in a 10-day period. Students Samuel Knopp, 24, and Celie Lane Montgomery, 26, murdered in a dorm room Augusta University nursing students at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs Campus on February 16th. Laken Riley, 22, was killed. On February 22nd, I was jogging down a path on the University of Georgia campus in Athens.
O’Brien Byrd was Josiah Kilman’s soccer coach at Columbia Falls High School starting in the eighth grade, and made him team captain in his senior year. Bird said Kilman was a formidable athlete, but he “always knew how to show strength by being gentle and gentle with people who were smaller than him.” (Courtesy of O’Brien Bird)
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Killman’s parents, Jessica and Joe, raised more than $65,000 on GoFundMe to transport the undergraduate’s body home and cover funeral costs. Members of the teen wrestling team are scheduled to fly to Montana to join Kilman’s family for his funeral this week.
