Students ‘too scared’ to return to university with killer at large
LECTURE halls at the University of Idaho are half empty after the Thanksgiving break because students are too scared to return after the unexplained murder of four of their classmates.
Those who have returned are taking extra precautions by carrying pepper spray and ramping up their home security as police appear to be no nearer to finding a suspect.
At about noon on Nov 13, police in Moscow, Idaho, found the bloodstained bodies of four students on the second and third floors of an off-campus house.
The victims – Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21 – were probably sleeping when they were first attacked.
Two flatmates, who were asleep elsewhere in the house, heard nothing.
Ms Goncalves and Ms Mogen spent the previous evening at a bar returning to their house shortly before 2am. Mr Chapin and Ms Kernodle spent the evening at a party at a fraternity house, returning at around the same time.
The following day police were called by another student at the house who thought one of their roommates had passed out.
According to the coroner, the victims were stabbed several times. There was no sign of a forced entry, nor was the murder weapon – believed to be a large fixed blade knife – found at the scene.
Unable to provide a motive for the attack, police have tried to reassure students and the town that there is no “community risk”.
The investigation has been mired in confusion. On Nov 16, James Fry, Moscow’s police chief, said it was a “targeted attack” without providing further details.
Then Bill Thompson, the local prosecuting attorney, said at least one of the victims was targeted. His remarks were then “clarified” by police who said they had not concluded “if the target was the residence or its occupants”.
Alivea Goncalves, the sister of one of the victims, said families had been given no further information.
“Law enforcement is kind of throwing around this word ‘targeted’ but we don’t know what that means, and it almost makes it feel alienating because we don’t have any more information on that,” she told CNN.
Yesterday police said they had sifted through more than 2,645 emails sent to their tip-off line and taken nearly 2,800 calls on the matter.
The lack of information from official sources has prompted “internet sleuths” to float an array of theories on social media, much to the annoyance of the police.
“There is speculation, without factual backing, stoking fears and spreading false information,” the police department said.
Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, two other students who were sleeping on another floor of the house at the time of the murders, spoke for the first time yesterday.
“I wish every day that I could give them all one last hug and say how much I love them,” Ms Funke wrote.
“You always told me that everything happens for a reason.”