‘COMBAT’ KNIFE TWIST IN RAMPAGE
Cops hunt for ‘Rambo blade’ in vicious Idaho college-kid murders
Police are hunting for a “Rambo”-style knife which may have been used in the University of Idaho slayings — as the search for a suspect in the murders intensifies.
Moscow Building Supply general manager Scott Jutte told the Idaho Statesman a police officer stopped by the retailer more than once this week to inquire about the possible sale of a KA-BAR brand combat blade in the wake of the bloody homicide of four students which has rocked the small town on the Idaho-Washington border.
“They were specifically asking whether or not we carry KABAR-style knives, which we do not,” Jutte said. “If we did, we could’ve reviewed surveillance footage. But it wasn’t something I could help them with.”
He said the tactical knives used by US Marines in the 1940s are “similar to the knife Rambo has,” referring to the Vietnam vet played by Sylvester Stallone.
“[KA-BAR] is more of a combat knife. It’s not really something that we specialize in,” added Jutte, who said his store sells mostly hunting knives.
Police have not officially said what murder weapon was used in the slayings, only that they are looking for an “edged weapon such as a knife.”
The bodies of students Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were found on Monday morning.
The four close friends were killed in the early hours of Sunday morning after partying at separate locations away from their off-campus house.
There were no signs of forced entry to the house and the killer left a bloody scene, but no motive has been released at this time.
“There was blood everywhere. We have investigators who have been on the job for 20, even 30 years and they say they have never seen anything like this,” a police source told DailyPictures Mail.co.uk. taken Tuesday even showed blood seeping out of the walls of the house and dripping down its outside (above).
Two roommates of the victims, Bethany Funke and Dylan Martensen, were both in the house at the time. A spokesperson for Idaho State police has said the pair are not suspects, were uninjured and are cooperating with investigators.
Authorities were only alerted to the scene by a 911 call which came hours later. They have not said why the call took so long to come, or who made the call.
Moscow Police Chief James Fry has said the FBI joined the Latah County Sheriff’s Office and the Idaho State Police to investigate the gruesome murders. “Currently, we have 25-plus investigators working this case,” he said.
Initially the local police said they believed the attack was “targeted” and there was no immediate threat to the local community — but then backtracked.
The murderer is “still out here,” Fry noted, adding, “We cannot say that there is no threat to the community and as we have stated, please stay vigilant.”
‘Turned upside down’
Meanwhile the mother of Madison’s boyfriend, Jake Schriger, told The Post she had been making plans to see her next week.
Stacy Schriger, of Post Falls, Idaho, said, “Madison was part of the family. Whenever we talked on the phone, she always said, ‘I love you.’ We were expecting her for Thanksgiving.”
She added her son — an avid sportsman who enrolled at the University of Idaho in 2017 — had left town following the tragedy and was completely distraught.
“His world has been turned upside
down,” Stacy Schriger said. “Her and Jake were like peanut butter and jelly. She was the most beautiful person, inside and out. She was motivated and made things look easy. She was a beautiful young lady.”
Neighbors told The Post on Thursday that the students who live in the murder house were quieter than their rowdy collegiate neighbors.
They would have small parties, but they were usually done by 10, Heather Tetwiler, 22, said. She described to The Post how the students would sit on the patio around a fire, drink beer and listen to music.
Nothing looked amiss
Tetwiler said she and her boyfriend, Dakota Sparks, saw nothing out of the ordinary the night of the murder.
“For us it was shock. We wondered if we had just turned our heads and looked, could we have helped?” she said.
Sparks, 21, added, “I didn’t go to bed until 2 or 3 and I didn’t hear anything,” and said that when he left the house at 11:34 a.m. the next morning, nothing appeared out of the ordinary.
Shortly after, the alarm was raised and police started to swarm the area.
On Wednesday the coroner announced autopsies for all four murder victims had been completed, with each cause of death recorded as being homicide by stabbing, and the time they were pronounced dead as midday Monday, when they were found.
Security footage from a local business showed a mystery man lingering near Madison and Kaylee by a food truck hours before the murders. Police said they wanted to identify him.