It’s been greater than two weeks since 4 University of Idaho college students had been discovered stabbed to demise on Nov. 13 at a house in Moscow, Idaho — however to date, police say a suspect or suspects haven’t been recognized.
Here’s what we all know to date.
What occurred
Police responded to a report of an unconscious person who they acquired round 11:58 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 13. There, members of the Moscow Police Department discovered 4 University of Idaho college students useless on the second and third flooring of the house.
Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle had been roommates who lived within the residence whereas the fourth sufferer, Ethan Chapin, didn’t stay there however was courting Kernodle.
On Saturday evening, police mentioned, Chapin and Kernodle had been at a celebration at a Sigma Chi home on the University of Idaho campus. They returned residence round 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 13.
Mogen and Goncalves had been at a bar known as The Corner Club in downtown Moscow that evening. They left the bar, stopped at a meals truck, after which additionally returned residence at about 1:45 a.m., police mentioned.
The coroner mentioned the victims had been seemingly asleep, some had defensive wounds and every was stabbed a number of occasions, in response to police. There was no proof of sexual assault, police mentioned. The timing of a number of calls to the cellphone of Kaylee Goncalves’ ex-boyfriend locations the murders someday after 3 a.m.
Two different surviving roommates who lived in the home had been out individually in Moscow and returned residence by 1 a.m. on Nov. 13, in response to police. They seem to have slept by means of the stabbings, police mentioned. Neither was injured and police have mentioned they don’t consider the surviving roommates had been concerned within the killings.
Moscow Police Chief James Fry mentioned the 911 name was made utilizing one of many surviving roommates’ telephones, however he wouldn’t affirm the caller’s id.
Who had been the victims?
Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was a senior on the college, majoring in advertising. Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho, was additionally a senior, with a serious on the whole research. The two met as sixth graders and had been finest associates, Kaylee’s father, Steve Goncalves, advised a crowd of lots of who attended a vigil for the slain college students.
“They went to high school together, then they started looking at colleges, they came here together. They eventually got into the same apartment together,” Steve Goncalves mentioned. “And in the end, they died together, in the same room, in the same bed.”
Ben Mogen, Madison’s father, mentioned on the vigil she was his solely little one, so “everything she ever did was such a big deal.” Talking about “Maddie” was his delight, Mogen mentioned, and the 2 beloved attending music concert events collectively.
Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho, was a advertising main and a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. Ethan Chapin, a 20-year-old freshman from Mount Vernon, Washington, was a member of Sigma Chi. He majored in recreation, sport and tourism administration, in response to the college.
LINDSEY WASSON / REUTERS
Ethan Chapin was a part of a set of triplets with a brother and sister, mentioned his mom, Stacy Chapin. The household at all times tried to eat dinner collectively when time allowed, she mentioned, she described spending numerous hours taking the children to numerous sporting occasions once they had been youthful. The triplets selected the University of Idaho as a result of they needed a small city and an attractive campus with a thriving Greek system, she mentioned.
What have authorities realized?
Authorities mentioned that to date they’ve collected “hundreds of pieces of information,” which on Wednesday, Nov. 30, they mentioned included greater than 113 items of bodily proof. Crime scene investigators took “approximately 4,000 photographs” and performed “multiple” 3-D scans of the house. In whole, investigators have processed “over 1,000 total tips and conducted 150 interviews,” police mentioned on Nov. 23.
On Nov. 30, authorities moved 5 automobiles from the crime scene in order that they might proceed processing proof. Earlier within the investigation, they’d seized the contents of three dumpsters, however mentioned no helpful proof was discovered.
On Nov. 16, Fry advised reporters that investigators believed it was “a targeted attack.” In the following days, nonetheless, police didn’t make clear that remark, or clarify how they might make that assertion and not using a suspect.
But in an announcement Nov. 30, the division appeared to stroll that again whereas addressing current conflicting feedback made by Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson, who had mentioned at the least one of many victims was “undoubtedly focused” within the assault. The division Wednesday known as Thompson’s feedback the results of a “miscommunication.” On Thursday, police clarified that they nonetheless believed the assault was focused, “but have not concluded if the target was the residence or its occupants.”
Alivea Goncalves, the sister of sufferer Kaylee Goncalves, advised NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Nov. 28 that police haven’t given the households any extra data.
“Law enforcement is kind of throwing around this word ‘targeted,’ but we don’t know that means, and it almost makes it feel alienating because we don’t have any more information on that,” Goncalves mentioned. “I don’t know who that target was, if it was one of them, if it was all of them. I just don’t know.”
Angela Palermo/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service through Getty Images
Police mentioned they questioned each a person in a white hoodie who was seen in a video of Mogen and Goncalves on the meals truck and the one who drove the 2 residence that evening. Police mentioned they don’t consider both was concerned within the killings.
Police additionally don’t consider Goncalves’ ex-boyfriend is a suspect, regardless of the early-morning telephone calls.
Police Chief James Fry mentioned the 911 name was made utilizing one of many surviving roommates’ telephones, however he wouldn’t affirm the caller’s id. In addition to the 2 surviving roommates, there have been “different associates” on the home on the time the 911 name was made, Fry mentioned. He mentioned throughout a press convention on Nov. 20 — per week after the killings — that police weren’t certain how many individuals had been within the residence when the 911 name was positioned and didn’t make clear when the “other friends” arrived.
Neither the surviving roommates nor the “other friends” have been publicly recognized.
Police later clarified in an announcement that “the surviving roommates summoned friends to the residence” as a result of they thought one of many victims had handed out and wasn’t waking up. Several individuals spoke to the 911 dispatcher, police mentioned. None of the individuals who had been within the residence on the time the decision was made are believed to have been concerned within the killings, police mentioned.
Investigators have “looked extensively” into reviews that Goncalves had a stalker, Moscow police mentioned. “They have pursued hundreds of pieces of information related to this topic and have not been able to verify or identify a stalker,” police mentioned on Nov. 22.
A homicide weapon, which police described as a big fixed-blade knife, has not been discovered. Former FBI agent and retired profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole, who isn’t a part of the investigation, advised CBS News it was extremely seemingly the offender left quite a lot of bodily proof behind and will have even minimize themself as they stabbed the victims.
It was seemingly “a pretty sturdy knife” she mentioned, calling it a “very effective cutting instrument” and one the offender seemingly had expertise utilizing. As a consequence, O’Toole mentioned, the offender most likely wouldn’t eliminate the weapon.
Police mentioned Dec. 1 that investigators realized of a sixth one who was listed on the house’s lease. However, investigators “do not believe that individual was present during the incident,” police mentioned in an announcement. The individual was not recognized.
The division mentioned on Sunday, Nov. 27, that suggestions continued to pour in whereas neighborhood members moreover uploaded greater than 500 digital submissions to the FBI hyperlink in search of data within the case. Dozens of members of the Moscow Police Department, FBI and Idaho State Police have been concerned within the investigation, and Gov. Brad Little directed as much as $1 million in state emergency funds for the continued investigation.
“We understand there is a sense of fear within our community,” Moscow police mentioned.
Although detectives have already used numerous suggestions and surveillance movies to rule out potential suspects, they’re at the moment in search of extra suggestions and surveillance footage of “any unusual behavior” noticed throughout the evening of Nov. 12 — whereas Goncalves and Mogen had been out in downtown Moscow and Kernodle and Chapin had been on the college’s Sigma Chi fraternity home — and into the early hours of Nov. 13.