MOSCOW (Idaho, US), Nov 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nearly a week after four University of Idaho students were found dead in their rental home, a coroner has revealed they were stabbed in their beds.
The three young women and young man were probably sleeping when they were attacked on Sunday Nov 13, said Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt.
They were stabbed multiple times with a “pretty large knife”, she added.
No arrests have been made and police in the college town of Moscow have warned the killer may still pose a threat.
More than 25 investigators are working on the investigation with assistance from the FBI and Idaho State Police.
The female victims were named as roommates Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; and Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho. Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington, was Kernodle’s boyfriend.
After police were alerted by a call to emergency services, the victims were discovered dead on Sunday afternoon. Two other people in the house were found unharmed.
Moscow Police Chief James Fry said: “We believe it’s a targeted attack. But the reality is there still is a person out there who committed four very horrible, horrible crimes. It has to be somebody pretty angry in order to stab four people to death.”
Moscow Police Department said some of the victims had defensive wounds, adding that there were no signs of sexual assault, the Associated Press reports.
Police, who have appealed to the public for help with the investigation, say all four victims had gone out for the night on Saturday – the couple to a party, and the other two women to a bar in town – but were back by 01:45 (09:45 GMT) on Sunday.
CCTV footage from a takeaway truck on Moscow’s Main Street shows Goncalves and Mogen taking photos on their phones and chatting with friends, before they hailed a ride back.
Moscow, a leafy Panhandle town of 25,000 residents about 130km south of Spokane, Washington, had not seen a murder for five years.
The university is to hold a candlelit vigil for the four victims on Nov 30. — NNN-AGENCIES
