As police continue to investigate the murders of four students at the University of Idaho, more grisly details come to light.
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt told NewsNation on Thursday night that 20-year-olds Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle and 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were murdered in their beds, presumably by someone using a “large knife.”
“It was late at night or early in the morning, so it seems likely maybe they were sleeping,” Mabbutt said to NewsNation host Ashleigh Banfield.
Mabbutt did not confirm whether the students were found in separate areas. She said stabbing marks were found in the chest and upper bodies of the victims.
“It was a pretty large knife, so it’s really hard to call them puncture wounds. … It has to be somebody that’s pretty angry in order to stab four people to death,” she said.
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What we know about the Idaho murders
Moscow Police found Chapin, Kernodle, Mogen, and Goncalves dead in a home at noon on Sunday after receiving a call about an unconscious person at a home south of the University of Idaho campus, per the Washington Post.
Community members were placed under a 40-minute shelter-in-place order, but it was removed after officers determined that the deaths were an “isolated, targeted attack.” However, a suspect has not yet been found or even identified.
“We cannot say that there is no threat to the community,” Moscow Police Chief James Fry said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Chapin and Kernodle had been at a party on campus, and Mogen and Goncalves had been at a downtown bar before they all returned to the women’s home sometime after 1:45 a.m., according to Fry. Police determined they had been stabbed with a knife but were not certain if the same knife was used on all four victims. The weapon has not been found.
Two of the women’s roommates were at home at the time of the attack but were not injured or held hostage, Fry said. The roommates have not been ruled in or out as suspects at this time. Idaho State Police spokesman Aaron Snell told ABC News on Thursday that the roommates could be witnesses or victims and have been in conversation with detectives.
Autopsies of the victims ruled the deaths as homicides and confirmed all four died by stabbing, according to a report released Thursday by Moscow Police in coordination with Mabbutt’s assessment.
Fry admitted on Wednesday that he should have been more communicative about updates surrounding the case after being asked why details had been so limited up until the conference.
“The reality is, I probably should have been standing here a day or so ago,” Fry said. “But I’m here now.”
Remembering the victims
Chapin, a freshman from Conway, Washington, was studying recreation, sport, and tourism management, and Goncalves was a senior from Rathdrum, Idaho, pursuing a major in general studies. Both Kernodle, a junior from Avondale, Arizona, and Mogen, a senior from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, were majoring in marketing, per the Washington Post. All four were members of a fraternity or sorority.
Jazzmin Kernodle wrote in a tribute to her sister, who was dating Chapin, on Instagram that it is hard to get caught up in the media during a time like this, but she wanted people to know what kind of “amazing person” her sister was and that all Xana wanted to do was “live life to the fullest.”
“I know Xana never let an opportunity pass her by, and she was so happy whenever I saw her,” Jazzmin wrote. “Xana was the type of person that always lit up a room.”
Xana Kernodle’s father, Jeffery, told Arizona’s KTVK/KPHO that the autopsy showed Xana had tried to fight her killer before she died.
“Bruises, torn by the knife. She’s a tough kid,” he said.
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In a statement shared with Spokane-based station KXLY, Goncalves’s family said that “no amount of words” could describe Goncalves and Mogen. Goncalves’s family said she was “a fighter through & through” and will always be their defender and protector.
“She didn’t hold back on love, fights, or life,” her family wrote.
Mogen was their “bonus child,” the Goncalves family said, and one of the most genuine humans on earth, stating that both women deserved their lives.
“Yes, we are all heartbroken. Yes, we are all grasping,” Goncalves’s family said in the statement. “But more strong than any of these feelings is anger. We are angry. You should be angry. And to whomever is responsible, we will find you.”
