The four students at the University of Idaho who were killed over the weekend in what police are now calling a “isolated, targeted incident” probably died from stab wounds, as reported by officials.
On Sunday about noon, police in Moscow, Idaho, went to reports of an unconscious individual on King Road, where they discovered the four dead students.
The Moscow Police Department (MPD) stated in a statement released Tuesday morning that their deaths were considered murders and that, although “no weapons have been recovered, based on preliminary evidence, detectives think that an edged weapon such as a knife was used” in the assault.
No suspects have been taken into custody by the police as of Tuesday morning.
All four victims are in their early twenties: Ethan Chapin, 20, from Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, from Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee GonCalves, 21, from Rathdrum, Idaho.
According to Green, Chapin was a first-year student from the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Washington. He was a senior in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences at the University of Idaho, where he was majoring in leisure, sport, and tourist management and participating in the Sigma Chi fraternity.
Kernodle was a junior at the university’s College of Business and Economics, where he was studying marketing. The institution claims that she belonged to the Pi Beta Phi sorority. Green said that Kernodle was really from Post Falls, Idaho, although the police maintained he was originally from Avondale, Arizona.
The Idaho city of Coeur d’Alene produced Mogen, a senior. She, like Kernodle, was a marketing major at the College of Business and Economics. The Pi Beta Phi sorority welcomed her as a sister as well.
GonCalves was a graduating senior in the School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences with a concentration on general studies. She was a fellow Alpha Phi and a native of Rathdrum, Idaho.
Just hours before the incident, the four victims and two additional pals shared a group picture to Instagram.
Police “hopefully offer more conclusive information on the actual cause of the fatalities” after the autopsies are finished later this week, MPD added.
Authorities also noted that there was “no immediate danger to the community at large,” citing material from the preliminary investigation as evidence.
The King Road residence was searched on Sunday and Monday by investigators.
Moscow police may be reached at 208-883-7054, and they’ve enlisted the help of their counterparts at the state and federal levels in their investigation.
