Bucolic Idaho college town mourns four slain university students, loss of safety and security
MOSCOW, Idaho — Residents here are boosting their personal security as authorities fail to identify a suspect in the grisly slayings of four University of Idaho students.
More than two weeks have passed the students were stabbed at a rental home near campus. Many in the community are still anxious and don’t comprehend how the perpetrator hasn’t been caught.
The college town of roughly 26,000 people in North Idaho hasn’t seen a homicide since 2015, when a gunman killed three and injured one.
“It’s really a safe community,” Moscow Mayor Art Bettge told the Idaho Statesman in the wake of the attack. “And when these things happen, it’s bad, really bad. We’d like to think of ourselves as being a safe place.”
The four victims in the killings early Nov. 13 were University of Idaho seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’alene, Idaho, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho, who were close friends; and junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls Idaho; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Wash., who were dating. The three women lived in the house, while Chapin was staying overnight with Kernodle.
In a news release Sunday, Moscow police said that since the attack the department had noticed an increase in reports of unusual circumstances and requests to check on the welfare of loved ones.
“We understand there is a sense of fear within our community,” police said.
The agency also reminded residents to call 911 before notifying family or friends in a life-threatening emergency. Several hours after the four students were killed, two surviving roommates who slept through the attack summoned friends to the residence before contacting authorities.
Police said the women believed one of the second-floor victims had passed out and was not waking up.
Students explore options for self-defense
David Scott, a University of Idaho freshman, lives in an apartment off campus. He said he had been looking into various self-defense options since the stabbings.
Scott says it takes him about 30 minutes to walk to campus, which he usually does early in the morning before the sun rises. After attending classes and working a part-time job at the university, he heads back home, often when it’s already dark outside. In November, the sun sets around 4 p.m. in Moscow.
“I’ve always wanted to get a handgun,” Scott said. “But I haven’t really had a reason to get one until now. The main thing I’ve been hearing from people is to keep a firearm or something else for self-defense.”
With proper licensing, students can legally carry concealed firearms on campus, although university administrators and staff members have previously expressed disapproval.
Scott said many residents were now carrying pepper spray. Last week, the local Walmart was sold out of the chemical. The store doesn’t sell handguns but another retailer in town, Tri-state Outfitters, does.
Employees at Tri-state declined to answer questions about increased demand for self-defense weapons and said corporate officials instructed them not to speak with reporters. Walmart employees also forwarded inquiries to a corporate media line. Inquiries submitted to Walmart’s media line and Tri-state’s contact form were not immediately returned.
Since the killings mid-november, police have been canvassing area businesses asking if a fixed-blade knife had recently been purchased.
Scott Jutte, general manager of Moscow Building Supply, told the Statesman previously that police had visited the store more than once to ask whether the retailer sold anyone Ka-bar brand knives, also known as K bar knives. The home improvement store doesn’t carry the blades but Jutte said he was familiar with the brand, which originally designed knives for use by American troops during World War II.
Detectives working the homicide investigation have since said they believed the students were killed with a “fixed-blade knife.”
University offers students remote lectures, flexibility
After the Thanksgiving break, classes resumed Monday on University of Idaho’s campus despite some students choosing to stay away for the remainder of the semester. The university is allowing students to finish the last three weeks in person or remotely.
The school said on its website that it planned to be flexible and accessible to all students.
“As the investigation continues, we will better know how to proceed in the new year,” University President Scott Green said at a Wednesday news conference. “We will endeavor to find the balance among safety concerns, the need to grieve and the long-term needs of all of our students and employees.”
Joan Campbell, a professor in university’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, said in an interview that she taught classes in person and on Zoom the week after the homicides.
She recorded the lectures and uploaded them to Canvas, where grades and assignments are stored, so students could access the content remotely. She said she planned to continue with that format.
Campbell also said she had been advised to give an “incomplete” if a student couldn’t finish any of their coursework.
“My interpretation is that I should continue to meet with students in person who would like to be here, since some of them want to continue to take classes in person,” she said. “But there’s also those students who are very distraught and can’t be here.”
Campbell said she has at least one student who knew the victims. Even those who didn’t have told her they felt afraid and were concerned for their personal safety, she said.
“I am giving anybody who says, ‘I just can’t cope with it’ the opportunity to view the recorded lectures or take an incomplete if they need to,” Campbell said. “I’m still trying to feel my way around what I’m going to do for the final.”
Safety alarms donated to women on campus
Kerry Uhlorn, an alum of the Delta Gamma sorority at the university, started a fundraiser to provide personal safety alarms for active members of the chapter. The campaign quickly took off and raised around $20,000, which Uhlorn has used to purchase She’s Birdie key-chain alarms for every woman involved in Greek life or living in a residence hall on campus.
The alarms, when activated, produce a loud siren and flashing strobe light designed to deter an attack, according to the company’s website.
Uhlorn has been managing the fundraiser in a private Facebook group with 2,000 members called Do good — University of Idaho and accepting donations via Venmo.
Each of the victims in the killings was a member of a Greek organization on campus. Mogen and Kernodle were both members of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. Goncalves was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority and Chapin was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
A Delta Zeta alum and former employee of the university, Shannon Kelly, said she donated to the fundraiser to bring a sense of security to women on campus.
“While I’m proud to play a part, it breaks my heart that this has to be a thing,” Kelly said. “Some people have said, ‘Well, it’s not pepper spray’ and ‘it’s not this or that’ but for a lot of students on campus this is a great start.”
She said her chapter’s alumni organization was discussing whether it could buy the alarms for its new freshman class each year.
While the community mourns the loss of four students, Kelly said it also mourned a sense of safety that was lost in the attacks.
“Moscow felt like the safest place in the world for so many of us and regardless of what threats may or may not still be in the community, there’s going to be a change, including in feelings of safety,” Kelly said. “And that makes me very sad. It’s not going to be the place where people leave their doors unlocked anymore.”
Longtime Moscow resident Sara Beth Pritchett said she hoped people in the community could stay safe without living in fear. Pritchett co-owns One World Café, a coffee shop downtown.
“We are extending our support in any way we can,” Pritchett said.
Another local coffee shop, Café Artista, announced it would close early for the foreseeable future so staff can get home in the daylight.
Rumors and speculation fuel uncertainty
The Moscow Police Department, Idaho State Police and the Latah County Sheriff’s Office have addressed numerous rumors and questions surrounding the stabbings, including a report of a dog being attacked with a knife elsewhere in town, which authorities say is unrelated.
Moscow police also said the stabbings rwee not tied to a 1999 double-stabbing in Pullman, Wash, or a 2021 double-stabbing in Salem, Ore.
In a news release Monday, police said a February 2022 death in Moscow is not related to the quadruple homicide investigation. According to police, the Latah County Coroner’s Office ruled that death to be from an overdose.
Officials also said rumors that a red Mustang parked near the murder scene was being processed as part of the investigation were not true and the vehicle “is not connected to this incident.”
Amoscow Police Capt. Roger Lanier acknowledged detectives have been unable to validate reports of Goncalves having a stalker but said the department would continue to seek information regarding it.
There are also some details police said they simply wouldn’t be providing to the public to “maintain the integrity” of the investigation. Among those details are how the killer may have gained access to the home and why police are confident to continue labeling it a “targeted attack” without elaborating.
“You’re going to have to trust us,” Lanier said.
Police are still asking anyone with information about the incident to contact the tip line at 208-883-7180.
“Your information, whether you believe it is significant or not, might be a piece of the puzzle to help investigators solve these murders,” police said.
Scott said the killings, coupled with the fact that the killer remains at large, have made him feel less safe at home than he once did. The former Boy Scout said many people were wondering how they would’ve fared in the situation, and what they could do to prepare for something similar.
“On campus, a lot of people don’t talk about it and are trying to stay in good moods,” Scott said. “But tensions are high.”