Four Idaho College Students Murdered in Shared Home

[almagata]

Four Idaho college students were murdered in the early morning hours of November 13th in Moscow, ID,  The victims were all stabbed to death in the home that they shared.  There was no sign of forced entry and the front door was found open when law enforcement arrived at the crime scene.  The four victims shared the house with two other housemates that were not harmed during the attack and who were not aware of the murders until the following morning.  They apparently were sleeping behind locked doors during the murders. 

Police indicate that they were called to the home to check on a unconscious person around noon on Sunday  and arrived to find four victims who have been identified as Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves.  Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapi,20, were in a relationship together.  Madison Mogen, 21,  and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were best friends. 

Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves both have many pictures posted on Instagram pages.  All four victims were members of fraternal organizations on campus.  Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves had been at the bars in Moscow Saturday night and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapi had been at a private party in a different part of town Saturday night. 

Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves went to a food truck, Grub Truck, for a post bar snack before going home using Uber.  The Grub Truck has a Twitch channel that broadcasts the people at the food truck and they filmed Mogen and Goncalves on the twitch stream. 

There was a man filmed during this Twitch stream that viewers think was acting oddly that night.  He seems to be familiar with the two girls and was monitoring their movements but the girls do not seem to want to engage with him.  So far, his identity has not been made public. 

They come on screen about 3:43 in the video.  www.twitch.tv/videos/1651413498?fbclid=IwAR3DcEXVcDy1ZZKFAzjjtDdz_FIpDwJYiRcUy5JMS9bxUVu-jNzPwTDqfe4

In the press conference 11/17/22, law enforcement indicate that they may have a suspect but he has not been located or named. 

Rumors on-line indicate that one of the girls was being stalked and that the killer entered the home via a window.  There also was a comment that a knife sheath was left at the scene but the knife was removed. 

Police have said that they believe this was a targeted killing and they do not believe that the general public is in danger. 

[vivazapata]

Here is another link that isolates the guy mentioned above. I have seen comments on the sound and what they were saying but I couldnt get any myself.


www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11436305/Chilling-video-shows-murdered-Idaho-students-food-truck-HOURS-stabbed-death.html#reader-comments

[Jay7777]

They restated that to say there is a danger to the public!

[Jay7777]

Looks like the website is going to have a never-ending materials and subjects. I wish everything was from the past but new crimes keep happening.

[almagata]

Nov 18, 2022 0:57:35 GMT vivazapata said:

Here is another link that isolates the guy mentioned above. I have seen comments on the sound and what they were saying but I couldnt get any myself.


www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11436305/Chilling-video-shows-murdered-Idaho-students-food-truck-HOURS-stabbed-death.html#reader-comments

Gray Hughes, the Youtube vlogger, said he called the tip line and asked if this guy has been identified and they said that he has. 

[almagata]

Police were searching for stores that sold KaBar knives.

KaBar knives have not been talked about in a crime that I know of in many years. Danny Rolling used one in his murder of Florida college students and they thought Deangelo might have used one as well.

The similarity to the Danny Rolling murder of two college students is concerning. Rolling killed two petite brunettes who were on two levels of their home and in this case, Kaylee and Maddie were two petite blondes.

Rolling's third murder was of a couple.

Rumors have been posted that the Idaho murderer entered the home via the sliding glass door which would also match the Rolling crimes.

FBi's Behavioral Analysis unit has been called in to give perspective on the Idaho crime scene.

[almagata]

Kaylee's sister said that she confirmed her sister called a man named "Jack" six times between 2:26 AM and 2:44 AM. She also tracked down Ring video from a neighbor to confirm that the Uber driver did drop them off at home.


www.insideedition.com/media/videos/sister-of-slain-idaho-college-student-says-we-are-not-getting-answers-78110

[elir]

A few random thoughts:
From a number of news reports it seems the place had a reputation as party house.

While it could be a stranger killing, it is certainly feasible that the killer had been in the house before which means they might know the layout and have left trace dna there from previous visits.

If the person had been there before , it could make it more challenging to prove that dna found at the scene was left during the course of murders. Let’s hope one of the victims was able to fight back and get the killers dna under their nails to leave no question as to who the killer is and when they were last in the home.

[Jay7777]

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/four-university-of-idaho-students-were-slain-in-their-beds-while-they-slept-what-we-know/ar-AA14hOdl?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=b8b4e94361d9487793e6306af1763d0e

Four University of Idaho students were slain in their beds while they slept: What we know

The murder investigation into four University of Idaho students believed to have been stabbed to death while sleeping in their beds has left residents rattled and authorities trying to unravel a mystery that's getting increasing attention across the country.

Sunday's crime has reverberated through the college town of Moscow, a city of about 26,000 people near the Idaho-Washington State border. Moscow hasn't had a murder in about five years.

The victims were stabbed to death in their beds and likely were asleep, Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt told NewsNation. Mabbutt would later tell CNN that she saw “lots of blood on the wall” when she arrived at the scene.

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“It has to be somebody pretty angry in order to stab four people to death,” Mabbutt told the cable news channel. The victims were stabbed in the chest and upper body, she said.

The coroner added that stab wounds on the hands of at least one victim appear to be defensive wounds and that there were no signs of sexual assault.

"We're looking for additional tips and leads," said Aaron Snell, a spokesman for the Idaho State Police told CNN on Friday. "We believe that releasing information about the locations of the victims throughout the night might generate some information that we can follow up on."

Snell contends that the incident was "targeted" but would not say why as now state and federal authorities are on the hunt for who killed the students.

Here's what we know so far:

Who are the victims?
The four students have been identified as Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho. Each was either in a fraternity or a sorority and Kernodle and Gonclaves were roommates.

Jeffrey Kernodle, the distraught father of Xana Kernodle, told Phoenix TV station KTVK/KPHO that he spoke to his daughter by phone before she was killed.

"I think midnight was the last time we heard from her, and she was fine," Jeffrey Kernoldle told the station. The victim's father said that he doesn’t understand why his daughter and her roommates were killed.

"They were just hanging out at home. Xana was just hanging out at home with her boyfriend," Kernodle said. The father said his daughter and Chapin had a really strong bond.

Adding that the killings "doesn’t make sense," Kernodle told the station that the door of their daughter's off-campus residence opened with a number code.

“So, they either knew that, or they just kind of went around and found the slider [sliding door] open,” Kernodle said.

The father said the autopsy shows that his daughter likely fought with her killer, sharing a similar description made by the coroner.

“Bruises, torn by the knife. She’s a tough kid," Kernodle said. "Whatever she wanted to do, she could do it."

olice release new details
Authorities have not identified a suspect or found a blade that was used to stab the students, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said Wednesday. But the Idaho Statesman reported this week that police are searching for a military-style knife in connection with the killings.

That's similar to Mabbutt, the county coroner, telling NewsNation that the killer likely used a "pretty large knife."

Authorities on Friday released a map and timeline of the victims’ whereabouts last Saturday. The map shows the four students spent most of the night apart before meeting at home.

Chapin and Kernodle attended a party at Chapin's fraternity house from around 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Goncalves and Mogen were at a sports bar between 10 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. They picked up food at a food truck at 1:40 a.m. before heading home.

Authorities say the four victims were back at the house by 1:45 a.m. Sunday, according to multiple reports.

Fry, who initially said there was no threat to the community, had a different tone later in the week.

"As we have stated, please stay vigilant, report any suspicious activity and be aware of your surroundings at all times.”

Was anyone else home at the time?
Two other female roommates were found unharmed in the house, authorities said. Moscow Police Chief Fry declined to say Wednesday if they were able to provide an account of the killings, say who called 911.

When a reporter described the surviving roommates as witnesses, Fry clarified: “I don’t think I ever said they were witnesses. I said they were there.”

Fry added there was no sign of forced entry at the home and a door was found open when officers first arrived at the scene.

Snell, the Idaho Police spokesman, later told ABC News on Thursday that the two other people inside the house may be vital to the investigation. Snell said the roommates have been cooperative with investigators and can help with the timeline.

"Potentially they are witnesses, potentially they are victims," Snell said. "Potentially they’re the key to this whole thing."

Fry has said that authorities can't say if there is no further threat to the community.

"We still believe it’s a targeted attack," Fry said. "But the reality is there still is a person out there who committed four very horrible, horrible crimes."

Contributing: Associated Press, CNN, ABC, Idaho Statesman, KTVB and KTVK/KPHO

[vivazapata]

Press conference link:

Not sure of time zone but will give a time til count down.

www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1TtR4Mf8aTA

[vivazapata]

Nov 18, 2022 21:57:27 GMT JayB130 said:

This is a great subreddit dedicated to this case:

www.reddit.com/r/MoscowMurders?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Thanks for the link, way better than the other forum I was checking (which I hate but didnt know of an alt).

[cluso]

I believe this is going to be solved soon, they must have a lot of forensic evidences to be processed, plus the perpetrator(s) must be somewhat injured and people can't not notice it, i believe he is familiar to the victims

[zebra]

I imagine that a major question will be method of entry. I saw one report that the front door had a coded lock. So, if there were no other indications of a forced entry, maybe the intruder knew the code from a previous visit?

Saw another rumor that there was a broken window, but I haven't seen anything more about that.

The thing that immediately jumped out at me, though, was the 2d floor balcony/deck at the back. This is a very common entry point for burglars, since people often leave the doors or sliding doors to balconies unlocked. Years ago, I lived in an area where a rapist/burglar committed over a dozen attacks using that same means of entry every time. People tend to be off-guard, but it's just not that hard for a reasonably athletic person to get up to a 2d floor balcony.

[cluso]

Even though i think the perpetrator is familiar to at least one of them, i wonder also if there were any "handyman" working in houses around there or someone outside of their circle who could have been stalking one of the girls, the person surely has injuries,it would jump to the eyes if it was a person in their circle it could not be missed, someone must have suspicions about a friend or relative that happens to have injuries the morning of the murders. Or could it be a Daniel Rolling or a Ted Bundy style attack

[almagata]

Nov 21, 2022 4:36:50 GMT cluso said:

I believe this is going to be solved soon, they must have a lot of forensic evidences to be processed, plus the perpetrator(s) must be somewhat injured and people can't not notice it, i believe he is familiar to the victims

I hope so.  That house sounds like it was a gathering place so DNA and fingerprints of many people are probably complicating the investigation. 

From the press conference on Sunday, they said that there was no sexual assault which if it was a obsessed stranger attack, I think that is odd.  I also think that no sexual assault would tend to indicate it was not some random rapist or felon that targeted the girls. 

Nothing of value was stolen so burglary seems not to be a  motive. 

Kaylee, apparently, had moved out recently and was back visiting for the day.  She had broken up with her long time boyfriend but she was still friendly with him and he was the one that Kaylee and Maddie had called shortly before they were killed after they got home from the food truck.  Reports are that he did not answer his phone because he was asleep.

Maddie and Kaylee got a ride home from the food truck from a friend and bolted from the food truck to that car so it is unlikely that some random guy that had seen them at the bar or the food truck would have been able to follow them, unless they knew their names and where they lived, which is possible. 

The combination of circumstance in this case is making it very odd.  I hope that they are just methodically going through all those blood samples and other evidence and will id the killer soon.