What we know so far about the Idaho college student murders

A suspect or suspects have not been identified in the murders of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in a Moscow, Idaho, home, according to police. But a clearer timeline of the students’ final hours is emerging as police ask for help in solving their deaths. 

Here is what we know about their deaths so far:

Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington, were found dead when members of the Moscow Police Department responded to a report of an unconscious person that they received around 11:58 a.m. on Nov. 13. 

The three women were roommates who lived in the home where the bodies were found. Chapin did not live there, but was dating Kernodle. All four were members of fraternities or sororities. 

According to police, Chapin and Kernodle were at a party at a Sigma Chi house on the University of Idaho campus the night of Nov. 12. They returned home around 1:45 a.m. on Nov. 13.

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

Mogen and Goncalves’ stop at the food truck was captured on video. Police said they questioned a man in a white hoodie who was also seen in the video, along with the person who drove the two home that night. Police said they do not believe either was involved in the killings.   

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.

Police said multiple calls were made to the cellphone of a victim’s ex-boyfriend, ending at 2:52 a.m. Police do not believe the ex-boyfriend is a suspect. The timing of those calls places the murders sometime after 3 a.m.

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.

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. 

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.

When police arrived, they found the four deceased victims on the second and third floors of the home. 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.  

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

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

As of Monday, police said they’ve tracked nearly 700 tips and conducted more than 90 interviews in the case.