The University of Idaho Murders

Early on the afternoon of 13 November 2022, police in Moscow, Idaho responded to a 911 call about an "unconscious individual" at 1122 King Road. Inside the home, located near the University of Idaho campus, officers would find four bodies in total: three young women that lived at the property (Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, and Xana Kernodle) and one young man (Ethan Chapin, Xana's boyfriend). All four victims had been killed in an apparent homicide…

Before we get into anything in this story, let me talk about Moscow, Idaho for just a minute.

Moscow is most notable for being the home of the University of Idaho, one of the largest universities in all of Idaho. For that reason, we can reasonably consider Moscow a "college town," since a significant portion of the population is either enrolled at or employed by the University of Idaho. Its population swells during the school year, and during the summer or holiday months, only a fraction remain behind, with the university population making up roughly one-third of all residents.

However, Moscow does stand out from other college towns for one main reason.

Moscow is located along the northern Idaho border with Washington state. It is located about an hour-and-a-half south of Spokane, Washington, and is roughly 45 minutes north of Lewiston, Idaho. Larger cities, like Seattle or Boise, are many, many hours away.

Moscow is pretty much located in the middle of nowhere... but does share a connection with a similar town approximately ten miles to the west.

Pullman, Washington is located near the southeast corner of Washington state, and is the home of Washington State University... the school I attended. While I never lived in Moscow, I did live in Pullman for about three years, and ended up spending a fair amount of time in Moscow.

Since the two are located, essentially, in the middle of nowhere, there is a lot of crossover between the two towns. Obviously, there's a little bit of a rivalry - which usually plays out whenever the WSU Cougars and Idaho Vandals football teams meet up - but the crossover is almost always friendly. Both teams seem to know that they're alone on an island, and there's a lot of weird pride in that... which is honestly hard to explain.

When I attended WSU, I knew a lot of students from Moscow that would come over to Pullman to hang out. My roommates and I would often drive over to Moscow whenever we craved Taco Bell or just wanted to be somewhere that was... nicer. In full honesty, while both Pullman and Moscow are the definition of "college towns," Moscow is much more of a traditional, small town... there's a cute downtown, there are some decent restaurants, etc. Meanwhile, in Pullman, almost everything is catered to the college population (i.e. cheap). So my girlfriend (now-wife) and I would often go to events in Moscow, especially during the summers when we stayed behind and worked... stuff like Farmer's Markets, which Pullman didn't really have at the time.

Some of the friends that I played music with still live there... Moscow is the town where I auditioned for and played with a couple of metal bands, back when I still had ambitions of becoming a powerhouse vocalist.

All of this to say that I have a strong emotional connection to the area, and that these two towns - Moscow and Pullman - are very much bonded. They also share quite a bit of crossover, since the nearest towns or cities are quite a ways away... especially during the winter, when there are several inches of snow on the ground, and highway travel is treacherous for poor college students.

Those that live on the Palouse - this hilly, geographic region in southeastern Washington and northern Idaho - take a lot of pride in it. While being there can feel very isolating at times, that's perhaps exactly why this strong sense of community can be so compelling, giving those that have lived there - even temporarily, like myself - an emotional attachment to it that never really goes away.

It's probably because of this bond that I feel so compelled to cover this story. While I typically try and refrain from covering cases that are just unfolding, I had many, many good experiences in Moscow and made a lot of friends there, some of whom still live in the region. While I don't have a lot of fond memories for my own college experience, I do have a lot of fond memories about the towns themselves, and especially the people. That's one of the main reasons I'm making this episode.

The other, of course, is that I want to try and cut through a lot of the static surrounding the story, and report what is actually known about the ongoing investigation. There's a lot of rumormongering occuring, not only in the dark corners of the internet but in the mainstream media, and it's clouding this story in a way that I really haven't seen in quite some time.

This is the story of the Moscow Murders.

As of approximately one month ago, in Moscow, five young women lived in an off-campus home near the University of Idaho.

The home itself was a three-story building with nearly 2300 square feet, located along the 1100 block of King Road, just south of the university campus and nearby Greek Row, the neighborhood where most of the fraternities and sororities were located. The house featured six bedrooms, two on each floor, and while there was a sixth roommate listed on the lease, she hadn't lived in the house for at least a few months, since before the start of the school year. The front door was electronically locked with a number code, but there was also a sliding glass door around the back, which entered into the second floor.

One of the young women that lived there was 21-year-old Madison Mogen, an only child from Couer d'Alene, Idaho, a scenic city of about 54,000 people located roughly 35 miles east of Spokane. While I personally have only been to Couer d'Alene a few times, I almost consider it the Moscow to Spokane's Pullman... two cities that share a similar metropolitan area spread out over the Washington-Idaho border. While Spokane is the much larger city, Couer d'Alene is much more scenic.

Having grown up as an only child, Madison - "Maddie," as she was known by her loved ones - was regarded by everyone as kind and thoughtful. Her aunt, Katie Blackshear, shared with the Idaho Press:

"Maddie exuded love. She was kind, gentle, and oh so fun. Maddie was smart and motivated. She often worked multiple jobs, did extremely well in school and somehow always prioritized time with her friends and family first... Maddie was cherished by our family..."

Maddie, a marketing major at the University of Idaho, was in the midst of her senior year as of November 2022. A member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, Maddie spent some of her time each week working at Mad Greek, a local family-owned restaurant in Moscow, where she worked as not only a server, but helped manage the restaurant's social media accounts. She was also dating a young man named Jake Shriger at the time, who later told reporters with the New York Times:

"There's no words that I can really describe her - how amazing she was and how wonderful of a person she was."

Maddie was also best friends with a young woman named Kaylee Goncalves, whom she attended Lake City High School with and graduated alongside in 2019. The two, in addition to being best friends, had become roommates upon enrolling at the University of Idaho.

Kaylee Goncalves, 21 years old, was also in the midst of her senior year, having majored in general studies.

Kaylee had grown up in Rathdrum, Idaho, a small town approximately fifteen miles northwest of Couer d'Alene. Like Madison Mogen, she had attended Lake City High School, and had graduated alongside Maddie, her best friend, in 2019. The two had been best friends for quite some time, and it seems like being roommates hadn't changed that.

A few weeks before their lives came to an end, Kaylee would post pictures of her and Madison together on social media, along with the caption:

"I wouldn't have wanted anyone else to be the main character in all my childhood stories."

Madison responded in the comments:

"I love you more than life! My best friend forever and more."

Todd Jasmin, English and speech teacher, spoke about their friendship with the Idaho Press:

"Mostly they looked out for one another, and would fiercely defend one another should smack talk come from anyone else."

Kaylee was regarded by her own family as "tough and fair," and they shared about her in a statement:

"Kaylee was, is, and always will be our defender and protector... She did absolutely everything she set her mind to. She didn't hold back on love, fights, or life."

A member of the Alpha Phi sorority, Kaylee had plans on moving to Austin, Texas after graduating. According to one of her longtime friends, who she planned to move with, she had actually already secured a job with a marketing firm months ahead of time.

At the home she shared with her four roommates, Kaylee also had a dog named Murphy, whom she shared with her on-again/off-again ex-boyfriend, Jack DeCouer, whom she had dated for years. The two were still on amicable terms with one another and split time with the dog, but Murphy spent a fair bit of time with Kaylee and her roommates.

Also living at the home was Xana Kernodle, a 20-year-old Junior at the University of Idaho, was was majoring in marketing at the time.

Xana was from Post Falls, Idaho, a suburb of Couer d'Alene, located about ten miles west of the city itself, just east of Spokane. This is an area that's grown in size significantly over the past 20-30 years, jumping from a population of 7300 in 1990 to a community of nearly 40,000 today. In 2020, Xana would graduate from Post Falls High School, but she had spent a decent amount of time in the years beforehand in Avondale, Arizona, where her father lived.

A member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, along with Madison Mogen, Xana also worked at Mad Greek as a server.

Championed by almost everyone that knew her, Xana's big sister Jazzmin would describe her as:

"... so positive, funny and was loved by everyone who met her."

Trevor Drummond, an old classmate, would tell the Idaho Statesman:

"I don't think there's anyone as outgoing, fun or loving as her. Whenever we were hanging out, she would always make sure others around her were having more fun than she was."

Ethan Chapin didn't live at the home in question, but he spent a fair amount of time there. He had been dating Xana since the prior spring semester, and - as he did on many nights this semester - he slept over on the night of the murders.

20 years old as of November 2022, Ethan was a triplet, and was very close with his brother and sister, who were also attending the University of Idaho at the same time. A freshman, Ethan was majoring in recreation, sport, and tourism management, and was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

Ethan was the only victim to have been born outside of the immediate area, having grown up near Conway, Washington, a census-designated place located in southern Skagit County. This is in western Washington, about an hour north of Seattle, not too far away from Anacortes or Bellingham. He attended Mount Vernon High School, graduating in 2021.

Egann Willis, a friend of Ethan's, said to the New York Times:

"Ethan was the kind of kid who would light up a room and always had a smile on his face."

Jacob Perez, another longtime friend from Ethan's childhood, stated in the same article:

"Ethan was truly special. I don't think I have a single video or picture of him where he isn't cheesing ear to ear or doing something goofy."

Two other roommates lived at the home at 1122 King Road, whose names I've chosen to omit, but they would come into play a little while later in the story.

The relationship between the five girls (and Ethan) seemed to be good. According to almost everything I've found, they got along well, and there were no noticeable or known disputes between them. While I'm sure that there were some minor disagreements or some light drama in their lives - roommates not doing dishes, not taking out the garbage, etc. - there wasn't anything major, to the point that their family or friends were concerned in any way.

As far as anyone knew, all five of the roommates and Ethan were social and popular on campus, and got along well with each other. The six had even posted a photo of themselves on social media, taken together on November 12th. This photo, shared countless times online, shows all six of them arm-in-arm and smiling.

All seemed to be well... but hours later, that would change.

On the evening of Saturday, November 12th, 2022, there was a lot of buzz around Moscow. The Vandals were playing their last football game of the season that night, so many students and other residents were out-and-about in downtown Moscow.

That evening, an on-campus party was held at the Sigma Chi fraternity, of which Ethan was a member. Ethan and Xana would attend the party, held at 735 Nez Perce Drive, just half-a-mile away from the home Xana lived in. It has also been reported that they attended another event that evening, a party thrown by Ethan's sister's sorority, where he got to spend time with both his brother and sister, but that remains unconfirmed.

The timeline of Ethan and Xana's evening is not exactly clear as of this recording, such as when they arrived at Ethan's fraternity's party and when they might have left, but we do know that they would return back to Xana's home by approximately 1:45 the following morning.

That same evening, lifelong friends Madison and Kaylee had gone out to the Corner Club, a downtown sports bar located along Main and A streets. They had arrived at approximately 10:00 PM, and wouldn't leave until roughly 1:30 AM. They then wandered down the street to a food truck located four blocks away, called Grub Wandering Kitchen, known by locals as the "Grub Truck."

Located on the corners of Main and Fourth, also known as Moscow's Friendship Square, the Grub Truck happened to be streaming on Twitch that evening. The footage would capture Maddie and Kaylee arriving at the food truck approximately ten minutes after leaving the bar, at 1:41 AM. As they waited for their food, the stream captures them chatting and goofing around with one another as others do the same nearby.

From here, they'd leave and return home, approximately one mile away. At first, police said that Maddie and Kaylee had taken an Uber back to their home, but would later amend their statement to say that the ride had been provided by a "private party." More on that later.

Regardless, they arrived home at around 1:56 AM, just after Ethan and Xana, who had returned home approximately ten minutes beforehand (1:45 AM). Their other roommates, whose names I've omitted, had spent their own evenings out in Moscow, separate from any of the home's other occupants. They are believed to have gotten home at around 1:00 AM, at least 45 minutes before the rest, and were reportedly asleep on the ground floor by the time the others made it home.

While we don't know whether there was any crossover between the other four occupants - whether or not Ethan and Xana hung out with Madison or Kaylee at all before going to bed - we do know that there was some activity in the house over the next hour or so.

Between 2:26 and 2:52, a series of phone calls went out from Kaylee Goncalves to her ex-boyfriend, Jack DuCouer. She tried calling him seven times in that span, and all of the calls went unanswered, as Jack was reportedly asleep at the time. Maddie, her best friend, also made three similar calls between 2:44 and 2:52, but they also went unanswered.

After this, we cannot be sure what happened.

While the specific circumstances of the following morning have not been made public, we do know that the two downstairs roommates - Bethany and Dylan - slept in that Sunday and wouldn't go upstairs until later in the morning. When they did, they reportedly discovered one of the deceased, but again, the exact circumstances are unknown.

They would, at this point, call over some friends, likely panicking and unsure of what to do. At 11:58 AM, a call was made to 911 to report an unconscious person. While it does remain unknown who exactly made the call to 911, police have disclosed that the call was made with one of the surviving roommate's phones. The only other tidbit police have released thus far is that they reported an "unconscious individual" during the call.

Police arrived at the crime scene just after noon, showing up before members of the fire or EMS departments could arrive, and went inside before anyone else. When they arrived, both of the surviving roommates were still there, along with the unnamed "friends" they had called over a short time prior.

While the exact details of the crime scene have still not been released - and likely won't for some time - we do know that the scene itself was incredibly gruesome. The rooms that the four victims were found in were reportedly covered in blood, and a photograph from the exterior of the home later that day captured a rather grim sight: blood seeping out of the side of the home.

Like I said, police have refused to release much information about their investigation thus far, so details are rather scarce. However, we do know that they arrived at the crime scene early in the afternoon, and discovered all four bodies inside: two on the second floor of the home, and the other two on the third floor. According to reporters, the bodies of Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen were found on the third floor, and the bodies of Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were found on the second. Each pair were reportedly found in the same bed together.

There was no sign of forced entry, but officers have noted that the front door was found unlocked when they arrived. It's also possible that the back door may have provided the offender(s) with a source of entry, as it entered into the second floor (making the property itself something of a split-level home). Maybe they hadn't tried or needed to go downstairs, or maybe they just didn't know where the staircase was to get there.

Surprisingly, Kaylee's dog Murphy was still at the crime scene, reportedly unharmed. Police noted that Murphy was found in a room separate from where the crimes had taken place, yet they would note that they did not know where the dog had been when the murders took place; indicating to me that maybe the dog had been moved by the offender(s) and then sequestered. Definitely strange, but I'm not sure what to make of it, personally.

Murphy was later turned over to Animal Services, and then to a "responsible person," as noted in the police statements. This was maybe Kaylee's ex-boyfriend, whom it's been reported she shared the dog with, but it remains publicly unknown.

Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt claimed that the deaths of the four youngsters were some of the most traumatic deaths she's ever seen, later telling reporters with CNN that she saw "lots of blood on the wall" when she arrived to look at the crime scene. She also added, to news station KXLY:

"There's quite a bit of blood in the apartment and it was a pretty traumatic scene to find four dead college students in a residence."

Mabbutt was scheduled to handle the victims' autopsies later that week, adding:

"There could be some evidence of the suspect that we get during the autopsies which would be helpful."

Later, the autopsies would reveal that each victim had been stabbed numerous times, likely while sleeping. All stab wounds likely came from the same weapon, but authorities would not reveal where the wounds were located, or how many there were in total for each victim.

The investigation into this crime has been overseen by the Moscow Police Department, which - as you'd expect from its namesake - is a rather small department. So much so that Moscow P.D. hadn't needed to investigate a murder case since 2015, and only had four detectives on its staff as of November 2022 (along with 24 patrol officers). In the weeks to come, they would be joined by members of the Idaho State Police, the Latah County Sheriff's Office, and the FBI, who would begin to contribute a noticeable amount of personnel and resources for the investigation.

Detectives quickly surmised that the victims had likely been killed between 3:00 and 4:00 AM, and were discovered later that morning by their roommates. Police arrived a short time later, and the media circus picked up almost immediately thereafter.

As soon as word got out that four students had been murdered just a stone's throw away from the University of Idaho campus, the media picked up this story and ran away with it. Shortly after, the University of Idaho sent out a notice to all of the students to shelter in place, lifting this about 45 minutes later with a Tweet that read:

"Vandal Alert: Investigation continues. Suspect unknown. MPD does not believe there is an active threat. Shelter in place lifted. Remain vigilant."

Washington State University, in nearby Pullman, would issue an alert of their own, but stated that they had not been indicated about any threat to the Pullman area or campus.

It seems like the early word of the quadruple murder had begun to spread fear through the region that a killer was on the loose, and might have been targeting students. However, this fear - which was understandable for the time, especially for a college town where events like this are not only rare, but unheard of - was almost immediately downplayed by public officials, who insisted that this was an isolated incident.

Moscow Mayor Art Bettge would tell reporters:

"The police got there at noon, nothing happened in the interim and nothing happened afterward, so it seemed to be a unique occurrence that was not apt to be repeated."

The evening that the bodies were discovered, November 13th, Moscow Police would issue a press release which gave out some basic information about the case, and asked for anyone with information to reach out to them. However, this written statement was later amended to add one tidbit, which has been widely-criticized in the weeks since:

"Details are limited in this investigation. Currently, there is no one in custody. The Moscow Police does not believe there is an ongoing community risk based on information gathered during the preliminary investigation."

From the jump, this story attracted a lot of media attention. Not just from the local press in Idaho and Washington, but national attention... hell, the story would end up gaining an international audience, considering the wide mass of true crime fans that have been following it astutely. It's a fair bet that you've probably seen dozens of outlets, podcasts, and social media outlets covering it... let's be honest, that's why you're probably listening to this right now.

The news of this tragic story broke the same day as another traumatic crime on a university campus, the University of Virginia shooting that left three members of the football team dead and two other students wounded. The culprit was a former student-athlete, who had played on the football team the year before, but the motive for the shooting hasn't been disclosed as of this recording.

While the incidents were not connected in any way, this led to a lot of the nation's attention turning to these two universities on opposite ends of the country. And while one of the crimes received a quick arrest - the incident in Virginia - the spotlight continued to shine on Moscow, where police released information in the faintest of trickles and answers remained elusive.

The following day - Monday, November 14th - the University of Idaho cancelled classes, announcing that security staffers were available to anyone who needed them to walk across campus. The University would also allow students to finish out the semester off-campus if they felt unsafe.

The upcoming Fall Break, which correlated with the Thanksgiving holiday, was scheduled to begin just days later, following the end of the week on November 18th. However, many students in Moscow decided to get an early start on the break and headed home immediately, leaving many classrooms empty throughout the week. Because so many students had left the area quickly - in both Moscow and Pullman - a candlelight vigil organized by the school for later that week was rescheduled for November 30th, more than two weeks later, after the scheduled Fall Break.

This is actually pretty significant, because as I mentioned earlier, these two cities are pretty closely entwined with one another, and both are made up of a predominantly-university-focused population. They are also located a fair distance away from any other notable towns or cities, so the early departure of students before Fall Break meant a significant portion of potential witnesses or suspects left the area. And they had done so at a pretty significant time, as the investigation into the four murdered victims was just getting started.

Police also faced another pretty significant problem at the onset of their investigation: criticism aimed at their original press release, which claimed that there was no suspect in custody but that "Moscow Police does not believe there is an ongoing comunity risk based on information gathered during the preliminary investigation."

Before we continue, let me just break it down: if police announced that four of your neighbors had just been murdered, but they had not made any arrests and didn't have a suspect, would you feel comfortable? Obviously not.

While I do understand that there is some nuance in that statement, many people just found it ironic that investigators were telling the public that they had nothing to worry about, while at the same time announcing that the killer of four people was still out-and-about, either unconfined or unidentified.

Bailey Briggs, a neighbor to the crime scene, told reporters with the New York Times:

"They say it's a homicide - they're 100 percent sure it's a homicide. But there's 'no threat.' Like, what's that mean?"

Attempting to calm the public, Moscow Mayor Art Bettge told the same publication that this was a 'targeted, one-off situation' that was 'not likely to be repeated.' However, he refrained from disclosing how exactly police had come to that determination, explaining:

"With a crime of this magnitude, it's very difficult to work through. The overall assessment is that it's a crime of passion."

When asked by the Spokesman-Review how he and other officials had made that determination, Mayor Bettge was unable to really clarify what made it a 'crime of passion,' saying that:

"It seems to have some of the hallmarks thereof."

Then, later:

"We don't really know what it was."

Days later, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson would tell reporters:

"Obviously, there's no way police can say that there's no risk, but what they're seeing indicates that there's not a risk that this person will randomly attack people... I don't think they're going to foreclose the possibility that it could be one or more people, but right now they don't know who is responsible."

In the days after the four victims were discovered in the King Street home, the investigation into their tragic deaths continued, with police scouring the area around the crime scene.

The following day, November 14th, county prosecutor Bill Thompson arrived to tour the scene, and multiple officers spread out throughout the surrounding neighborhoods to look through garbage cans and yards, even bringing out a dog to search the hill behind the home.

The next day, November 15th, saw Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabburt tell reporters with the Spokane-based news station KXLY that her preliminary investigation revealed the four students had been stabbed to death. This confirmed the earlier, unconfirmed reports of homicide, and seemed to refute many of the allegations from online speculators, who believed that drugs had played some part in the death. None were found in the victim's systems, and all four were clear victims of homicide. No signs of a murder-suicide were present.

Despite being grilled for their earlier comments - that there was no threat to the community - Moscow Police would refuse to comment on whether or not they had any active suspects. They would maintain that the killings were:

"... an isolated, targeted attack and there is no imminent threat to the community at large."

If we ignore the vague double-speak in that response - that there was no threat but no one had been arrested - we can surmise at least one notable thing from this statement (and others). Most likely, police had discovered something that pointed to at least one of the victims being specificall y targeted, but at the risk of this information becoming public knowledge, don't want to reveal any information about it. Hence, the speaking in platitudes to avoid giving away the game, so to speak.

That same day, November 15th, it was revealed through the autopsies that all four of the victims had likely been killed with a knife of some kind. Later, a General Manager of Moscow Building Supply, a local hardware store, said that police had visited their location more than once to ask whether or not the retailer had sold any KA-BAR brand knives to anyone recently. So, through that tidbit, we can at least glean what kind of weapon was used in the crime.

As I've mentioned, at this point in the story, it had gone viral and was being covered almost everywhere, from local, regional news stations to CNN and Good Morning America. Personally, I was incredibly surprised to see Moscow, Idaho in the news; a small town that I was so familiar with, suddenly everywhere for all of the wrong reasons.

But at this point, online forums had begun sprouting up about the case. On Reddit, dedicated subreddits ballooned up past 100,000 members, and countless Twitter threads and pages on Websleuths contributed their own rumor and innuendo to the ongoing story. It seems like almost everyone with a vague interest in true crime was speculating wildly about it.

Of course, this meant that everyone was parsing through the available information, trying to find suspects where there might not be any.

Kaylee's ex-boyfriend, who she and Maddie had been attempting to call in the hours before their deaths, was speculated by many to have been involved. As was the person that had given them a ride home about an hour beforehand (which police had initially referred to as an Uber driver, but then amended to a "private party"). Online speculators watching the Twitch stream of them at the food truck even began suspecting some of the young men seen standing nearby the two girls; including one man in a white hoodie, who commenters tried to describe as "lurid" and "creepy" for possibly checking out the victims when they were near him.

In every case, police would have to come out and clarify that these men had been identified and/or questioned, and were not believed to be suspects in the case.

Commenters on these sites and social media platforms also tried to find a connection between the four murders and a separate alcohol-related offense that had been reported at around the same time, approximately 3:00 AM, near Taylor Avenue and Band Field. However, police would have to publicly clarify that there was no known link between the two events.

Websleuths also discovered an incident from weeks prior involving a skinned dog in a more rural part of Latah County, but police looked into the incident and found it to be wildlife activity, not police-related. Again, no connection.

This online speculation has become one of the more toxic parts of this case - and true crime stories in general - but this is something we'll touch upon throughout the episode; especially as it relates to rumors about a potential stalker reported by Kaylee Goncalves in the weeks before her death. Again, this is something we'll touch upon later, but is seemingly little more than a rumor -or exaggeration, perhaps - as determined by investigators.

Another major aspect of this story, which I've hinted at more than explicitly said thus far, is the police response to it... or, rather, what the police have said about the case, both publicly and privately, and the Moscow population's frustration with their statements.

In their public comments, Moscow P.D. and the other officials working on the case have tried to put on a brave face, saying that they are pretty confident about certain factors. Namely, in that they believe at least one of the victims was targeted and that there is no ongoing threat to public safety. Many have found this rather-disconcerting, as - again, I must reiterate - investigators have announced that they have no suspects in-custody and no arrests have been made as of yet. So this idea that they know one of the victims was targeted - ascribing a motive to the unknown offender - seems a bit silly to me, personally.

As someone who has covered literally hundreds of stories on this podcast, I get that there is certain information that cannot be released to the public. This is almost assuredly the case here, and goes for almost any case in which there is seemingly very little for investigators to work with; in that case, every clue matters even more. But for investigators to withhold almost all information and then presume that there is no threat to the public just seems... I dunno, dangerously presumptive? Because until an arrest is made and the offender(s) convicted, nothing is assured.

Nonetheless, this double-speak has left many in the region frustrated and scared. And I can't blame them. This is a scary crime, which is unfolding in a small town where something like this feels so extremely foreign. They are coming face-to-face with the reality that their police force was probably ill-equipped to handle a high-profile case like this, and that's no fault to them - I'd wager most police agencies would struggle with a case like this - but the police claim that this is a one-off, targeted attack will continue to fall on deaf ears without the disclosure of how or why they came to that conclusion.

But another main factor in this public frustration comes from the loved ones of the victims, who feel similar frustrated as the citizens of the region. They feel as though they have been left out of the investigation, and know just as much as everyone else (i.e. not much).

Which, again, I really do understand from the police perspective; in a case like this, they can't afford slipping details of the crime scene to say, a parent and then have that information come out in an interview with CNN. But at the same time, it seems like many grieving family members feel like they should be kept in the loop much more than they have been so far... and they haven't been shy in saying as much to press outlets.

Jazzmin Kernodle, Xana's older sister, told reporters with the New York Times that the family was "confused and anxiously waiting" for updates, saying:

"They haven't told us much, other than it was a homicide."

Jim Chapin, Ethan's father, told the Seattle Times that the lack of information "only fuels false rumors and innuendo in the press and social media," adding:

"The silence further compounds our family's agony after our son's murder."

Alivea Goncalves, sister of Kaylee, told NBC affiliate KHQ that there was "no way" police could say with "any amount of confidence" that the crime was an isolated, one-off event until a suspect was identified and arrested. She stated:

"Someone did this with a purpose of doing this. Not once, not twice, not three times but four. I don't know anything scarier than that."

She would later add in a conversation with the New York Times, referring to the investigators handling the case:

"So frustrating. No info at all. They have done nothing to gain any of our trust."

On November 16th, just a few days after the murder, the public learned that the two surviving roommates - who had discovered at least one of the victims' bodies and called 911 - had actually been home at the time the murders took place. If you recall, they had gotten home at around 1:00 AM that morning, and were believed to have been asleep when their other roommates were killed.

As you can imagine, this news led to a lot of online speculation about the two, with commenters claiming that they should have seen or heard something suspicious, or else they would have been targeted alongside the other victims. This wasn't helped by some of the media's framing of this news, such as this leading paragraph from a Fox News article:

"Two roommates were at the Moscow, Idaho home while four University of Idaho students were killed on early Sunday morning, but didn't call 911 to report the incident until around noon, according to Moscow Police Department Chief James Fry."

This type of rhetoric has been used pretty frequently to report this news, seeming to cast blame on the two roommates without any of the facts being known.

Sadly, this is something that often skeeves me out about true crime in general... it seems like a lot of people that follow these stories use their own life experiences or moral barometer when thinking critically about these stories, but fail to realize that not everyone is like them. I'm sorry to step up on my soapbox again, but I grew up in a large family and got used to sleeping through loud noises pretty quickly. When I went away to college (in Pullman, actually), I lived with upstairs roommates that would stay awake all night and make a fair bit amount of noise. If I didn't learn to sleep through that, I would have gone crazier than I did back in those days.

Also, that's not even getting into the obvious fact here, that these were all young adults in their early twenties. It's very possible that alcohol may have been used, in which case, waking up the two surviving roommates early that morning might have been rather-difficult.

[Full disclosure: I'm not alleging that the two were drunk or anything like that. For all I know, they've both never touched the stuff. I'm just merely pointing out that it wouldn't surprise me if they had, and I'm not judging anyone.]

But this notion that the two surviving roommates would have had to have seen or heard something if they weren't involved in the murders is just... misguided at best. It seems to be preemptively blaming them for their roommates getting killed, which is pretty close to some Amanda Knox shit. For all we know, the noise from the murders itself was pretty minimal and they just slept through it, as former tenants of the home have claimed that when they were downstairs - on the same floor the surviving roommates were sleeping - they rarely heard the upstairs tenants.

There are also so many unknown variables in this crime because they lived on a separate floor. For all we know, based on the layout of the home, the offender(s) entered in through the back sliding glass door, not realizing that there was a downstairs. I don't know exactly where the staircases were located, but I personally find it likely that the offender didn't know how to get downstairs, or was possibly targeting at least one of the victims on an upper floor and hadn't felt the need to go down there. Like I said, there's so much we don't know, so ascribing blame to the surviving roommates just seems so ghoulish to me.

To put a pin on this, police have revealed that the victims were "likely asleep" at the time of their murders, so it's probable that the noise from the crime was rather minimal. In which case, the downstairs roommates would have been unlikely to have heard anything.

During a press conference, Moscow Police Department Chief James Fry would confirm that the two roommates were home at the time of the murders and were "unhurt," but revealed little else about them. He never claimed that they knew about the attack beforehand, nor that they had witnessed anything suspicious, for that matter. Yet many online took their mere presence inside the home to assume that they were responsible... or at the least, partially culpable.

In this press conference, however, police officials would finally withdraw their claim that there was no threat to the community.

On November 18th, partial results from the four autopsies were made public for the first time. This didn't reveal any of the specific crimes that had taken place - such as how many times each victim had been stabbed or where the wounds had been located - but revealed some of the circumstances therein.

Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt would reveal to the press that all four victims had been stabbed to death, telling reporters with the Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

"It would have had to been a large knife."

She also told reporters that the attack seemed to be "personal," and revealed that each victim had been stabbed more than once. Speaking to NewsNation's "Banfield," she stated:

"There were multiple stab wounds on them and most of them had just one that was the lethal stab wound. The fatal ones were to the chest area, the upper body area... It was a pretty large knife so it's really hard to call them puncture wounds. They were definitely stabbings and it has to be somebody that's pretty angry in order to stab four people to death."

Mabbutt would also reveal that some of the victims' wounds appeared to be defensive in nature, indicating that they had attempted to fight for their lives, but the circumstances behind those remain unknown. If they had been attacked in their sleep, they might have instinctively lashed out unknowingly, in the dark, in an effort to save themselves. But it's also possible that they might have physically fought against their attacker. That's something we won't know until the details of the crime scene get released to the public, if ever.

Latah County's Coroner would also confirm that there were no signs of sexual assault on any of the four victims, so that appears to have not been a motive in the crime.

At a press conference held a short time later, police officials would reveal some new information, but mainly just reiterated what they had already discussed and attempted to address some of the unanswered questions from the first press conference.

In a statement released on November 25th, Moscow Police stated:

"There have been numerous media inquiries about a 1999 double stabbing in Pullman, Washington, and the 2021 double stabbing (with one death) in Salem, Oregon. While these cases share similarities with the King Street homicides, there does not appear to be any evidence to support the cases are related."

Now, sadly, we need to return to a major recurring theme in this story, which I've already touched on quite a bit thus far... online speculation.

One of the issues that investigators have struggled with thus far was online speculation, which focused in on minute parts of the investigation and amplified them to a large, international audience. Early on, this seemed to be aimed at anyone tangentially-related to the victims on the night of the murder - in particular, anyone that had been in downtown Moscow near Maddie and Kaylee - but in the weeks to come, would begin to expand into the weeks before the deaths.

Well, this would begin to express itself pretty significantly in the claim that one or more of the female victims had a stalker of sorts, which... honestly, seems pretty credible on its face. Many women have to endure a lot of heinous or toxic behavior from men, and it sadly doesn't surprise me anymore to hear of young women having to endure their fair share or creeps or stalkers. However, in this case specifically, it doesn't seem to have been an ongoing issue.

In October, weeks before this violent crime took place, one of the victims, Kaylee Goncalves, had reported a strange incident at a local business. Apparently, a young man that had been hanging out inside the business with a friend had split off from the friend, and then began following Kaylee inside. He then reportedly followed Kaylee outside as she walked back to her car. There, the man seemingly turned away, and that seemed to be that. Afterward, Kaylee told some of her friends and family about the incident, saying that it skeeved her out, because... honestly, why wouldn't it?

However, while this toxic behavior made Kaylee feel unsafe - I don't want to downplay that - many online have taken this report and seemingly blown it out of proportion, in that they've tried to make it seem like Kaylee had an ongoing stalker.

Investigators were reportedly able to track down the two men that Kaylee had reported seeing inside the business - both the man that followed her out to her car and his friend - and interviewed them. Afterward, they claimed that both were not involved in the case, and in that specific incident, were attempting to find girls to talk to... probably not in the best way, though. I don't claim to know the inner workings of the female mind, but one thing I've learned is that they don't like to feel unsafe, so any desperate guys out there, please take note: don't do this.

Anyhow, this entire incident is pretty indicative of the online sleuthing that police officials have calmly railed against during their press conferences, which seems to be making mountains out of molehills and has led to certain individuals being doxxed and harassed (including some of the victim's ex-boyfriends, who - for all we know - have been grieving alongside their other loved ones).

Sadly, I do understand where this is coming from... people are understandably frustrated with the perceived lack of progress in the case and want to help out in any small way, but this usually ends up being more counter-productive than actually helpful. And more often than not, it just ends up poisoning the wells of information, burying the actual information that needs to be released to the public under mountains of, frankly, bullshit.

To me, it seems like some of the people that follow this case online think that stories like this unfold like they do in Law & Order, and that every case has an easy-to-follow three-act structure... that there is someone you can easily point to from earlier in the story and peg as the killer. However, as someone who's covered a fair amount of stories thus far - and gotten to report numerous updates - I can say that answers almost always come from unexpected places. In almost every single case I've covered that's been solved (or is in the process of reaching a conclusion), the killer is not someone that anyone publicly suspected.

For longtime listeners of Unresolved, I want you to think of the Golden State Killer, the Delphi Murders, the Daytona Beach Killer, the I-65 Killer... in all of those cases, the killer was someone that no one had publicly connected to the crime beforehand. It wasn't another well-known serial killer, it wasn't anyone who had a documented history with the victims, it was a random killer that had simply gotten away with it for one reason or another.

Circling back to the theme of online speculation tainting this case... is it possible that one of the victims had a stalker that no one was aware of? Absolutely. But is it possible that speculators on social media are going to uncover some obscure lead that investigators haven't already thought of? I don't think so, no. I'd like to be proven wrong, but I haven't yet so far, and I've been making this podcast for over seven years now. The reality is that police have access to much more information and many more resources than the rest of us, and are able to use that to create or eliminate leads that the public is wholly unaware of.

That being said, I do think it's important to provide these stories with oxygen to keep them alive in the press. I've covered dozens of stories in which coverage died out rather-quickly, and as a result, the police lost interest and the case went cold. I desperately hope that doesn't happen here. I also hope that if anyone is listening to this podcast for the first time and wants to help out, maybe just refrain from participating in the gossip-mongering, especially as it pertains to the victims and possible suspects... it's rarely helpful, and more often than not, is usually harmful.

In the month since this crime occurred, many outlets have reported that the crime scene was no stranger to parties. Seeing how it was the home of five college students, I wouldn't have expected anything less. However, as a result, there might have been people who came to the house, who maybe had access to it that shouldn't have. Perhaps someone had come to visit or attend a party that was given the code for the front door, which would have given them unfettered access to the home in the early morning hours of November 13th. If so, they would have been able to gain entry without making much noise, and would have left behind no evidence of forced entry.

However, since the sliding back door entered into the second floor, I find it extremely likely that it was the main source of entry for the killer(s). Since they would have entered into the second floor, they could have killed the victims there before moving upstairs to the other two victims. The surviving roommates downstairs might have been spared by the killer(s) not knowing the layout of the home, perhaps unaware that there was a downstairs. Maybe they had only ever entered into the home through the back door, and didn't know how to get downstairs... or had no reason to, if their target was found on the second or third floors.

One thing that many behavioralists and profilers have struggled to determine, though, is whether this crime might have been the offender's first crime... or just their most recent.

Famed FBI profiler Jim Clemente would tell the New York Post:

"This is an extremely risky crime for the offender - unless he knows one or more of the victims, or he's been stalking one of them... Going into an occupied dwelling with six young adults, any of whom could have a knife or a gun or a cellphone to call the police is extremely risky unless you know the circumstances inside."

In a vigil for the murdered victims held in Moscow, their parents and other loved ones spoke for them, remembering them for the people they were and the unfinished stories they left behind.

Maddie's father, Ben Mogen, said about his only child:

"When I would meet people ever since she was first born, and they would say, 'Tell me about yourself,' the first thing I would say is, 'I have this daughter - here's a picture of her, she's on the dean's list at college, she works hard, she has all these friends at her sorority."

Stacy Chapin, Ethan's mother, would tell everyone in attendance to cherish what time they had with their loved ones, stating:

"That's the most important message we have for you and your families, it's make sure that you spend as much time as possible with those people, because time is precious and it's something you can't get back."

Steve Goncalves, the father of Kaylee, had previously announced that he had hired his own set of PIs to work on the case because he feared local authorities were too "inexperienced." In the weeks since the case began, Goncalves had been one of the most vocal critics of the police, lambasting their inexperience in handling cases of this magnitude in multiple interviews.

Yet, during this memorial, Goncalves managed to not only memorialize both his daughter and her best friend, Maddie - who many considered sisters because of their close bond - but also managed to drop a little tidbit that hadn't been made public knowledge yet. He stated:

"These girls were absolutely beautiful. They've been friends since sixth grade... Every day they did homework together, they came to our house together, they shared everything... They went to high school together, then they started looking at colleges and they came here together, they eventually get into the same apartment together... And in the end, they died together, in the same room, in the same bed. And it's a shame, and it hurts. But the beauty of the two always being together is something that will - it comforts us, lets us know that they were with their best friends in the whole world."

He then shared, rather poignantly:

"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. That will make a difference, and that's something they can see where they're at right now. That you changed your life a little bit, that you're a little bit nicer, a little bit kinder."

In a letter penned by the two surviving roommates, shared during a memorial service just this past week, one of them wrote:

"My life was greatly impacted to have known these four beautiful people. My people who changed my life in so many ways and made me so happy. I know it will be hard to not have the four of them in our lives, but I know Xana, Ethan, Maddie, and Kaylee would want us to live life and be happy and they would want us to celebrate our lives."

In the weeks since this crime unfolded, the area around it has changed drastically.

While I haven't been to Pullman or Moscow in almost a decade now, I do know that this time of year is remarkable for at least one reason: finals for the Fall Semester are quickly approaching. They might have already passed by the time you're hearing this. And what I remember from my experience out there is that the vast majority of the population is giddy... not only because of the holiday season, but because classes are nearly over for at least a few weeks, and the pent-up stress of a semester is fading away.

This year, though, that is not the case. The stress that comes from a handful of tough exams has been replaced with an unsolved quadruple murder, which has been hanging over residents like an immoveable fog since mid-November.

Speaking to NewsNation, U of I student Megan Stanley stated:

"There's so much tension, there's so much fear. With a couple of weeks left in the semester and finals approaching, campus should be full of students and really lively. And I feel like I'm only seeing a handful of students walking around."

While many of the friends and acquaintances I met during my time at WSU have since moved on, some are still there. When I asked them to describe the mood of the region - in particular, around Moscow - they confirmed what I've read and heard elsewhere. The story hangs at the end of every sentence, just waiting for its turn. One of my old friends and coworkers that works in Moscow tells me that the community is on-edge, and that the story of the murders "dominates almost every conversation."

When classes picked up again following the Fall Break, just about a week ago as of this recording, roughly one third of all students living in dorms chose not to return to campus. Many classrooms are now emptier than before, with the entire dynamic of the school - of the region - changed. That likely won't change until this crime is solved.

Moscow Police continue to oversee the investigation, along with the assistance of the Latah County Sheriff's Office, the Idaho State Police, and the FBI. They are still in the process of analyzing hundreds of pieces of evidence, and we can only hope that science provides us with the answers we so desperately crave.

Authorities continue to face criticism over their initial handling of the case, but have remained committed to their belief that this crime was a specific, targeted attack. In a statement last week, they stated:

"We remain consistent in our belief that this was indeed a targeted attack but have not concluded if the target was the residence or its occupants."

Investigators are continuing to ask for any help or assistance from the public, hoping to use all of the available tips or leads to piece together the series of events that led to this crime taking place in the early morning hours of November 13th, 2022. They are continuing to work through the victims' movements throughout that early morning and the evening before, November 12th. They seem particularly interested in the timeline of Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle, whose evening isn't as well-documented as the other two. In an interview with ABC News, Idaho State Police Spokesman Aaron Snell said just this week, in early December, that the timeline of these two:

"... seems to be one of the larger areas that we don't have a lot of information in... So, being able to locate what they did that night, and maybe who they contacted, maybe any routes that they took home, that would be important for the investigation."

Authorities also announced this week, on December 7th, that they were looking for the owner of a 2011 - 2013 Hyundai Elantra, which may have been in the immediate vicinity of the King Street residence early on the morning of November 13th. If you know anything, please reach out. Even if you think it's a relatively small thing that may not be pertinent... please, investigators encourage you to try them.

In a statement from December 5th, authorities echoed this:

"We believe someone has information that will add context to the pictures investigators are creating of what occurred... Your information, whether you believe it is significant or not, might be one of the puzzle pieces that help solve these murders."

If you know anything - or think you may know anything - please reach out to authorities at the following:

- Telephone: (208) 883-7180

- Email: tipline@ci.moscow.id.us

- Website: fbi.gov/moscowidaho

As of this episode's recording, the stories of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin remain unresolved.