What we know so far about the investigation into the Idaho college student murders

It’s been more than two weeks since four University of Idaho students were found stabbed to death on Nov. 13 at a home in Moscow, Idaho — but so far, police say a suspect or suspects have not been identified. 

Here’s what we know so far.

What happened

Police responded to a report of an unconscious person that they received around 11:58 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 13. There, members of the Moscow Police Department found four University of Idaho students dead on the second and third floors of the home. 

Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle were roommates who lived in the home while the fourth victim, Ethan Chapin, did not live there but was dating Kernodle.

On Saturday night, police said, Chapin and Kernodle were at a party at a Sigma Chi house on the University of Idaho campus. They returned home around 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 13.

Mogen and Goncalves were at a bar called The Corner Club in downtown Moscow that night. They left the bar, stopped at a food truck, and then also returned home at about 1:45 a.m., police said. 

The coroner said the victims were likely asleep, some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times, according to police. There was no evidence of sexual assault, police said. The timing of multiple calls to the cellphone of Kaylee Goncalves’ ex-boyfriend places the murders sometime after 3 a.m.

Two other surviving roommates who lived in the house were out separately in Moscow and returned home by 1 a.m. on Nov. 13, according to police. They appear to have slept through the stabbings, police said. Neither was injured and police have said they do not believe the surviving roommates were involved in the killings.

Moscow Police Chief James Fry said the 911 call was made using one of the surviving roommates’ phones, but he would not confirm the caller’s identity.

Who were the victims?

Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was a senior at the university, majoring in marketing. Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho, was also a senior, with a major in general studies.

Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho, was a marketing major and a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. Ethan Chapin, a 20-year-old freshman from Mount Vernon, Washington, was a member of Sigma Chi. He majored in recreation, sport and tourism management, according to the school.

On the night of Nov. 30, hundreds of people attended a vigil for the slain students on the school’s campus, where family members of the victims spoke.

“The only cure to pain is love — it’s the only thing that’s going to heal us; it’s the only thing that’s going to heal you,” Steve Goncalves, father of Kaylee Goncalves, told the crowd. Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen met as sixth graders and were best friends, Steve Goncalves said.

“They went to high school together, then they started looking at colleges, they came here together. They eventually got into the same apartment together,” Steve Goncalves said. “And in the end, they died together, in the same room, in the same bed.”     

Ben Mogen, Madison’s father, said she was his only child, so “everything she ever did was such a big deal.” Talking about “Maddie,” was his pride, Mogen said, and the two loved attending music concerts together.

Ethan Chapin had a brother and sister, and the three were triplets, his mother, Stacy Chapin, said. The family always tried to eat dinner together when time allowed, she said, and Stacy Chapin and her husband spent countless hours taking the kids to various sporting events when they were younger. The triplets chose the University of Idaho because they wanted a small town and a beautiful campus with a thriving Greek system, she said.

What have authorities learned?

Authorities said that so far they have collected “hundreds of pieces of information,” which on Wednesday, Nov. 30, they said included more than 113 pieces of physical evidence. Crime scene investigators took “approximately 4,000 photographs” and conducted “multiple” 3-D scans of the home. In total, investigators have processed “over 1,000 total tips and conducted 150 interviews,” police said on Nov. 23.

On Nov. 30, authorities moved five cars from the crime scene so that they could continue processing evidence. Earlier in the investigation, they had seized the contents of three dumpsters, but said no useful evidence was found.

On Nov. 16, Fry told reporters that investigators believed it was “a targeted attack.” In the ensuing days, however, police did not clarify that comment, or explain how they could make that statement without a suspect.

But in a statement Nov. 30, the department appeared to walk that back while addressing recent conflicting comments made by Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson, who had said at least one of the victims was “undoubtedly targeted” in the attack. The department Wednesday called Thompson’s comments the result of a “miscommunication.” On Thursday, police clarified that they still believed the attack was targeted, “but have not concluded if the target was the residence or its occupants.”

Alivea Goncalves, the sister of victim Kaylee Goncalves, told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Nov. 28 that police have not given the families any more information. 

“Law enforcement is kind of throwing around this word ‘targeted,’ but we don’t know that means, and it almost makes it feel alienating because we don’t have any more information on that,” Goncalves said. “I don’t know who that target was, if it was one of them, if it was all of them. I just don’t know.”

Police said they questioned both a man in a white hoodie who was seen in a video of Mogen and Goncalves at the food truck and the person who drove the two home that night. Police said they do not believe either was involved in the killings.

Police also do not believe Goncalves’ ex-boyfriend is a suspect, despite the early-morning phone calls. 

Police Chief James Fry said the 911 call was made using one of the surviving roommates’ phones, but he would not confirm the caller’s identity. In addition to the two surviving roommates, there were “other friends” at the house at the time the 911 call was made, Fry said. He said during a press conference on Nov. 20 — a week after the killings — that police were not sure how many people were in the home when the 911 call was placed and did not clarify when the “other friends” arrived. 

Neither the surviving roommates nor the “other friends” have been publicly identified.

Police later clarified in a statement that “the surviving roommates summoned friends to the residence” because they thought one of the victims had passed out and wasn’t waking up. Several people spoke to the 911 dispatcher, police said. None of the people who were in the home at the time the call was made are believed to have been involved in the killings, police said.

Investigators have “looked extensively” into reports that Goncalves had a stalker, Moscow police said. “They have pursued hundreds of pieces of information related to this topic and have not been able to verify or identify a stalker,” police said on Nov. 22. 

A murder weapon, which police described as a large fix-blade knife, has not been found. 

Police said Dec. 1 that investigators learned of a sixth person who was listed on the home’s lease. However, investigators “do not believe that individual was present during the incident,” police said in a statement. The person was not identified.  

The department said on Sunday, Nov. 27, that tips continued to pour in while community members additionally uploaded more than 500 digital submissions to the FBI link seeking information in the case. Dozens of members of the Moscow Police Department, FBI and Idaho State Police have been involved in the investigation, and Gov. Brad Little directed up to $1 million in state emergency funds for the ongoing investigation.

“We understand there is a sense of fear within our community,” Moscow police said.

Although detectives have already used various tips and surveillance videos to rule out potential suspects, they are currently seeking additional tips and surveillance footage of “any unusual behavior” observed during the night of Nov. 12 — while Goncalves and Mogen were out in downtown Moscow and Kernodle and Chapin were at the university’s Sigma Chi fraternity house — and into the early hours of Nov. 13.