MOSCOW, Idaho — Authorities have received more than 645 tips as they continue to investigate the deaths of four University of Idaho students found stabbed in a home off-campus on Nov. 13.
Officials said 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, 21-year-old Madison Mogen and 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves died after being stabbed multiple times in the early morning hours of Nov. 13. Investigators said Kernodle, Mogen and Goncalves lived in the home with two other roommates who were home and asleep at the time of the attack.
Neither of the unidentified roommates were injured. Police said Sunday that they were among several people ruled out as suspects.
“It’s a complex and terrible crime and it will take some time to resolve,” Chief James Fry said at a news conference.
Officials said the two uninjured roommates called friends to the home on Nov. 13 after finding one of the victims on the second floor of the house. At the time, detectives said they believed the person had passed out and was not waking up.
It was not immediately clear how the surviving roommates did not hear the attack, which police believe happened as the victims slept.
“I cannot disclose any of that information,” Fry said. “I don’t even know that information at this point of time.”
The unidentified roommates arrived at the home around 1 a.m. on Nov. 13 after being out separately, officials said. At the time, Kernodle, Mogen and Goncalves were not home.
Mogen and Goncalves spent the night of Nov. 12 at a bar called The Corner Club. They were later spotted on video at the Grub Truck food truck, according to police. Another person drove them home at 1:45 a.m.
Chapin and Kernodle were on campus at the Sigma Chi house before their deaths. Earlier, university officials said Chapin was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
The couple went to Kernodle’s home around 1:45 a.m., investigators said.
Authorities said Mogen and Goncalves called a man after returning to the home on King Road. Goncalves’s older sister, Alivea Goncalves, told The New York Times that her sister had called her former longtime boyfriend several times before her death. She said that the calls went unanswered.
On Sunday, Fry said that the former boyfriend was among the people ruled out as suspects in the stabbings.
“Everything that we have taken from those calls, we have followed up on, we have cleared, and we believe that there’s no connection there,” he said.
Authorities have also ruled out a man seen on video near Mogen and Goncalves while they were at Grub Truck and a driver who took the pair home.
Fry said Sunday that authorities have interviewed more than 90 people as part of their investigation. They have not identified any suspects or found the weapon used in the attack.
“We are looking everywhere that evidence would lead us,” he said. “I can’t say if (the suspect’s) here. I can’t say what community the person’s in. We’re utilizing every resource we can to make that location for that individual.”
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