University Quadruple Murder Mystery Deepens as Footage from Hours Before Emerges
As Idaho residents grasp at straws to make sense of a brutal murder in a small college town, a video showing two victims has been seized upon as potentially providing a clue.
On Sunday, University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were stabbed to death in an off-campus house where they lived in the 26,000-person town of Moscow, Idaho.
“We do not have a suspect at this time,” Chief James Fry of the Moscow Police Department said Wednesday, according to The New York Times.
The killer, he said, “is still out there.”
Police initially offered little information about the case. They have said the killings were targeted but also have urged vigilance.
Community fear has led many college students to leave early for their upcoming Thanksgiving vacation, while police have been the subject of criticism over a lack of communication.
Fry alluded to that Wednesday during a media briefing, according to The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, about 80 miles from Moscow.
“The reality is I probably should have been standing here a day or so ago,” he said. “But I’m here now. We’re going to continue to be here.”
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said police will review a video that has come to light of Mogen and Goncalves at a food truck, according to The Associated Press.
The video was from a Twitch stream late Saturday. The bodies of the students were found around noon Sunday, but police believe they were killed several hours earlier.
“They’re in the process of identifying the other people who were there,” Thompson said, “and what sort of contact did they have.”
Twitch video from a Moscow food truck shows who appears to be two victims, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, just hours before the slayings. @KHQLocalNews pic.twitter.com/vf4LpWEGeb
— John Webb (@johnwebbtv) November 16, 2022
No connection between the killings and anyone in the food truck video has been asserted by police.
Fry revealed Wednesday that two other students were in the six-bedroom house at the time of the killings, according to the New York Post.
The police chief would not say if one of those students made the 911 call around noon that summoned officers to the house.
The Post said it was told by an Idaho state police representative that the two female students were not considered suspects and were cooperating with authorities.
“We are looking at everyone, every tip we get, every lead we get, there’s no one that we’re not gonna talk to,” Fry said. “There’s no one that we’re not gonna interview, there’s no one that we’re not gonna look into.”
Fry said Chapin and Kernodle were at a party on the University of Idaho campus in Moscow on Saturday night. Mogen and Goncalves were at a downtown bar. He said they all arrived at the house they were renting about 1:45 a.m. Sunday.
No murder weapon has been found, Fry said. There was no sign of forced entry, but it was uncertain if the doors to the house were locked, he said.
The chief also amended the initial police statement saying there was no danger to anyone else.
“We cannot say that there is no threat to the community and as we have stated, please stay vigilant, report any suspicious activity and be aware of your surroundings at all times,” Fry said.
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