Subscriber OnlyUS

US college town in fear as police continue hunt for killer of four students

Three women and a man stabbed to death in their beds as two others slept nearby

A candlelight vigil for the victims of the homicide at the University of Idaho at Independence Point in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Three of the students who were killed, Madison Mogen (21), Xana Kernodle (20) and Kaylee Goncalves (21), lived in Coeur d’ Alene or nearby towns. Photograph: Rajah Bose/The New York Times

Martin Wall's face
Martin Wall Washington Correspondent
Fri Nov 25 2022 - 16:00

In the college town of Moscow, Idaho, many of the thousands of students living in the area left this week for the Thanksgiving break. Some were going home to family but others wanted to get away from the fear that has been in the air for the past week or so.

At police headquarters, however, there was no holiday season. Nearly a fortnight after four students were found stabbed to death in a gruesome and mysterious attack, investigators have not identified any suspect, are still searching for a murder weapon and are asking locals for tips and surveillance video.

At a press conference this week authorities gave no indication that they were close to making an arrest but said they were continuing to examine forensic evidence.

Around the town of 26,000 people and at the university campus makeshift memorials have sprung up. The university is stepping up security and may offer classes online when the term resumes to help students fearful in the wake of the murders.

READ MORE

Moscow had not had a homicide for seven years. Now it is dealing with a murderous attack that could have come from the script of a horror film. Initially police played down fears that there was a killer on the loose but subsequently appeared to row back on those assurances, stating “we cannot say that there is no threat to the community”.

What is known is that a group of students returned to their rented home after a Saturday night out on November 12th. On the Sunday four were found to have been brutally stabbed to death during the night, while others slept in the same house.

Phone logs indicate that two of the victims made several unanswered calls to a friend in the early hours.

Three of the victims – Madison Mogen (21), Kaylee Goncalves (21) and Xana Kernodle (20) – lived at the house. The fourth, Ethan Chapin (20), was there visiting Kernodle, his girlfriend.

Taking part in a candlelight vigil for those murdered at the University of Idaho. Photograph: Rajah Bose/The New York Times

Investigators said the four were killed early on Sunday, November 13th.

Latah county coroner Cathy Mabbutt said all four were probably asleep when they were attacked. She said all seemed to have been stabbed multiple times with a large knife and some probably tried to fight off their attacker. None of the victims showed signs of sexual assault.

“It’s such a horrific crime,” Mabbutt said. “It’s hard to think that somebody, whether they live here [in Moscow] or they were here, commits something like that and is at large.”

The rented house in Moscow has six bedrooms, two on each of its three floors. The victims were found on the second and third floors.

Police said that while the four victims were being murdered, probably in their beds, two other women, asleep on the first floor, were not attacked. They declined to say whether there was evidence of an attacker being present on the first floor.

The two other women had been out separately from the other four and had returned home earlier.

On the Sunday morning they called friends as they believed one of the women living upstairs had passed out and was not waking up. After these friends arrived someone called emergency services just before noon and police arrived soon afterwards to discover the bodies.

The victims of the attack had also been out in separate groups on the Saturday night. Chapin and Kernodle had attended a party for an hour or so and got back before 2am.

At about 11pm, Mogen and Goncalves went to a bar where, according to police, they remained until about 1.30am. About 10 minutes later a video camera captured them stopping at a food truck and chatting with others on the footpath. They then received a lift home and security footage from a neighbouring property showed them arriving at their rented house just before 2am.

An older sister of one of the victims, Alivea Goncalves, has said between 2.26am and 2.52am phone logs showed there were a series of calls made from the phones of both Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. She said these calls had been made to a fellow student who had been previously in a relationship with Kaylee Goncalves, but the former boyfriend had missed the calls as he was asleep.

Her sister, she added, frequently called people late at night, and often kept calling until they picked up, even if to ask a mundane question like what she ought to have for a meal.

Police have yet to identify a suspect but have on a preliminary basis ruled out several people including the victims themselves, the two female survivors, the former boyfriend of Kaylee Goncalves, a man seen with the two women at the food truck and the individual who gave them a lift home.

Police also ruled out any connection with reports of animal killings in the area recently, and also said they could not corroborate accounts that Kaylee Goncalves had made comments about being stalked by someone.