Idaho college murders update: 911 call hours after university student stabbings came from roommate phone

The Moscow Police Department has confirmed that the 911 call which led to the discovery of four slain students was made from the phone of one of their roommates.

Authorities had previously refused to give any details about who placed the call about an “unconscious person” at the home on 13 November.

The call came in at 11.58am – hours after the killings were thought to have taken place between 3am and 4am.

Victims Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle – who was dating the fourth victim Ethan Chapin – shared the home with two roommates who police said were there at the time of the stabbings but apparently were unaware of the violence.

In an update on Friday night, police said that the 911 call came from the phone of one of the roommates but emphasised: “Due to the ongoing investigation, the identity of the caller has not been released.”

Investigators have previously said that the surviving roommates – who have not been publicly named – have been ruled out as suspects but could “hold the key” to solving the case.

Ethan Chapin’s last day was spent with his siblings, dressed up and dancing.

Chapin — one of four University of Idaho students stabbed to death last weekend, the police still searching for a killer — was a triplet. His brother and sister also attend the scenic state school tucked away in the rolling hills of north-central Idaho.

“He was our our daughter Maizie’s date, and his brother was Maizie’s roommates date,” Chapin’s mother, Stacy Chapin, said in an interview Wednesday. The group was attending a dance hosted by Maizie’s sorority. “They all spent their last day together, all dressed up, and had a great time. We’re all thankful that they spent that time together.”

Ethan Chapin captured photos of the event on his phone, but the family has yet to see them. The device is being held by law enforcement as potential evidence in the homicide investigation.

Kaylee Goncalves’s sister Aubrie Goncalves issued an impassioned plea on her Instagram page, warning students in the small town of Moscow, Idaho, that they are not safe while her sibling’s “sicko” killer remains at large.

“To the students of the University of Idaho that are still staying around campus, leave,” she wrote.

“Your grades are severely less important than your lives. I wish all the students of U of I safety and peace. You guys are not safe until this sicko is found.

Rachel Sharp has the details.

Autopsy findings, released on Thursday, revealed that Xana Kernodle, 20, Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were all stabbed multiple times with a large knife – sustaining injuries that caused them to bleed out inside their home.

The deaths have been ruled homicides with the killer or killers still at large five days on from the slayings that sent shockwaves throughout the small college town of Moscow, Idaho, and caused students to abandon the campus before the Thanksgiving break.

Kernodle’s devastated father Jeffrey Kernodle said that his daughter’s injuries showed how she desperately tried to fight off the person who killed her, her boyfriend and two friends in the horror attack.

“Bruises, torn by the knife. She’s a tough kid,” he told CBS5.

Read Rachel Sharp’s full story.

The four University of Idaho students murdered in a horror attack in an off-campus home suffered “multiple” stab wounds from a “large knife”, according to the local coroner – as she revealed that DNA samples have been collected from the crime scene.

Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt confirmed that each victim was stabbed multiple times, describing their wounds as “pretty extensive” and revealing that they bled out inside their student home.

“It’s pretty traumatic when there’s four dead college students … who’ve been stabbed to death in one location,” she said.

“One lucky girl to be surrounded by these ppl everyday,” Kaylee Goncalves wrote on social media on Saturday.

In her Instagram post, the 21-year-old University of Idahostudent shared photos of her group of friends arm-in-arm, grinning carefree at the camera in a show of typical college fun.

The bodies of Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Goncalves, 21, were found inside a home close to the university campus at around midday on Sunday (13 November).

For three days, local officials insisted that there was no ongoing threat to the community and that the murders were both “isolated” and “targeted”.

Rachel Sharp gets to the bottom of what happened.

The boyfriend of one of the murdered University of Idaho students has had his world “turned upside down” by her brutal slaying – which came just days before the young couple planned to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday together.

Madison Mogen, 21, had been in a relationship with fellow Idaho university student Jake Schriger for around a year.

His mother, Stacy Schriger, described the young couple as being like “peanut butter and jelly” and the pair often posted loving photos of each other on their social media accounts.

Last Sunday, Mogen was brutally stabbed to death along with three friends inside her college home, in an attack that officials are describing as “personal”.

The boyfriend of one of the murdered University of Idaho students has had his world “turned upside down” by her brutal slaying – which came just days before the young couple planned to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday together.

Madison Mogen, 21, had been in a relationship with fellow Idaho university student Jake Schriger for around a year.

His mother, Stacy Schriger, described the young couple as being like “peanut butter and jelly” and the pair often posted loving photos of each other on their social media accounts.

On Sunday, Mogen was brutally stabbed to death along with three friends inside her college home, in an attack that officials are describing as “personal”.

Four University of Idaho students who were found dead in a rental house last Sunday were stabbed to death in their beds and likely were asleep when the attacks occurred, the Latah County coroner told a cable news channel on Friday.

Cathy Mabbutt also told NewsNation that each victim suffered multiple stab wounds from a “pretty large knife.”

“It has to be somebody pretty angry in order to stab four people to death,” Mabbutt told NewsNation.

Mabbutt’s comments expanded on the autopsy reports released on Thursday, which concluded the four students were murdered by being stabbed to death.

Jeffrey Kernodle, the father of one of four students at the University of Idaho found stabbed to death at the home three of them shared, has told The Independent he is growing frustrated with speculation around the mysterious murder of his daughter, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle.

Moscow Police initially said there was no threat before backtracking from the remarks and asking the community in the college town to remain vigilant. Chief James Fry said during a press conference on Wednesday that more than 25 investigators from the FBI, the Latah County Sheriff’s Office and the Idaho State Police have joined the case.

Mr Kornodle said that the FBI was “not saying anything,” as of Thursday and called the tragedy his “worst nightmare.”

Andrea Blanco has the story.

Ethan Chapin, 20, was among four students found stabbed to death at their rental home near the university’s campus over the weekend.

The murders have rocked the town of Moscow, Idaho, and grieving Stacy and Jim Chapin say they have been overwhelmed at the national attention it has brought and the online theories about what happened.

“The things that are being said are 100 per cent not true,” Ms Chapin told King5. Graeme Massie has more.