Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Kaylee Goncalves.Photo: Instagram
During a Wednesday press conference, Idaho authorities walked back earlier claims that the public is not in danger afterfour University of Idaho studentswerestabbed to deathin an off-campus apartment.
“We do not have a suspect at this time, and that individual is still out there,” Moscow Police Chief James Fry said during the news conference. “We cannot say there is no threat to the community.”
He stressed that the community should “remain vigilant.”
The students who were killed early Sunday morning were Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
Two additional roommates were home during the attack but were unharmed, Fry said, but he has declined to label them as witnesses. The two unharmed roommates were also home when police responded to a call about an unconscious person around noon on Sunday, he said. However, he declined to give any further information about the 911 call or disclose who the caller was.
Fry said there was no sign of forced entry at the apartment and nothing was missing from the home. He declined to answer where the victims were found in the home.
Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen.instagram(2)
Chapin did not live at the house, but was sleeping over with his girlfriend Kernodle, Chapin’s mother Stacy Chapin toldKING 5.
Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson toldTODAYthat “it certainly is possible” that there could be more than one suspect.
“The fact of the matter is whoever’s responsible for these murders is still at large,” Thompson toldTODAY. “The investigators do not know who that person is.”
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“To my knowledge, there is nothing to indicate that this has been determined to be a crime of passion,” Thompson toldTODAY. “We know it’s just a horrible crime and four young lives been lost.”
Investigators are piecing together the timeline before the four students were killed. Chapin and Kernodle were at a party on campus while Mogen and Goncalves were at a bar, police said. They all returned home around 1:45 a.m. on Sunday and their bodies were discovered around noon after a call came in about an unconscious person at the residence.
Victims' Families Criticize Police
While many questions remain unanswered, family members of the victims have criticized police for the lack of available information.
“There is a lack of information from the University of Idaho and the local police, which only fuels false rumors and innuendo in the press and social media,” Chapin’s father Jim Chapin said in a public statement. “The silence further compounds our family’s agony after our son’s murder. For Ethan and his three dear friends slain in Moscow, Idaho, and all of our families, I urge officials to speak the truth, share what they know, find the assailant, and protect the greater community.”
“Words cannot express the heartache and devastation our family is experiencing,” Chapin’s mother Stacy said in a public statement. “It breaks my heart to know we will never be able to hug or laugh with Ethan again, but it’s also excruciating to think about the horrific way he was taken from us.”
Goncalves sister, Alivea Goncalves, spoke toKHQand said she and her family disagreed with police’s earlier claim that this was an “isolated” attack.
“Anything can be isolated until it’s not,” Alivea told KHQ. “And until we have someone in custody, there’s no way with any amount of confidence to say this is isolated.”
“Someone did this with a purpose — not once, not twice, not three times, but four,” Goncalves added. “I don’t know of anything scarier than that.”
source: people.com
