Other roommates home when 4 Idaho college students were stabbed to death

(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Police in Moscow, Idaho, are pleading with the public to help them find the unknown suspect who stabbed four University of Idaho students to death in a house near campus.

“That individual is still out there,” Moscow Police Chief James Fry said during a news conference Wednesday. “We cannot say there is no threat to the community.”

The victims were killed with a knife in “an isolated, targeted attack”, Fry said.

The students, who were killed early Sunday morning and found hours later, were identified as Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho.

Two other roommates were home at the time of the crime, and they were not hurt, Fry said. It was not a hostage situation, he added.

Those roommates were home when police responded to a call for an unconscious individual at about noon on Sunday, Fry said.

Police said they are working to determine the victims’ timeline Saturday night.

Chapin and Kernodle were at a party on campus while Goncalves and Mogen were at a downtown bar that night, Fry said.

Chapin didn’t live in the house but was sleeping over with his girlfriend, Kernodle, according to his mother, Stacy Chapin.

Goncalves and Mogen had been best friends since childhood and “did everything together,” Goncalves’ sister, Alivia Goncalves, told ABC News.

She said she finds some solace that the friends were together in their final moments.

Autopsies are taking place Wednesday, Fry said.

He urged anyone with information about the victims’ whereabouts to call the tip line at 208-883-7180.

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