The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare

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I thought I heard something fall, and then, um, Murphy bark.

Dylan, she said she thinks she saw someone.

And I saw this guy in all black and, like, this mask.

I didn't know what to do.

I jumped up and locked my door because I was so scared.

After that, I didn't hear anything.

Moscow Police Department. If you're in here, announce yourself.

Moscow Police Department.

Breaking news about a murder mystery.

Four college students were killed early Sunday morning,

their bodies found in an off-campus house near the University of Idaho.

What happened?

What could've happened?

This was something that someone thought about doing, planned on doing.

Have any of your roommates complained about anyone stalking them?

She could see a man's silhouette staring at her.

This person snuck into their house

after circling it like a shark!

The three girls were beautiful and popular.

Was this a crime against women?

She said, "Someone's here," and she screamed and ran downstairs.

The killer is still loose. How do I know he's not gonna target someone else?

I call him Demon. That's my name for him.

Demon.

["Moscow Drinking Team" by Colby Acuff playing]

Moscow, Idaho. Under the blankets.

University of Idaho was always kind of on my radar for college.

First time I visited,

I kind of got this sense of just family and closeness,

and I think that's where I stem from.

I knew I wanted to go there the first time I visited.

University of Idaho was probably some of the best years of my life.

I think college is a very special little bubble

of this time where you have a lot of freedom.

Xana and I sure had a lot of fun.

Hi, my name is Xana Kernodle.

I'm a Marketing major here at the University of Idaho.

Xana was a junior when she moved into King Street

with Maddie, Kaylee, Dylan, and Bethany.

["Remember (Acoustic)" by Becky Hill playing]

They were all Pi Phis, and Kaylee was in a different sorority.

Hi, everyone. My name is Kaylee Goncalves, and I'm a General Studies major.

Maddie and Kaylee, you know, grew up best friends.

Their relationship was so fun to watch because they were like sisters.

They fought like sisters, they did everything like sisters.

I love you!

If you're in Greek life, everyone knows everyone,

and so we would do mixers

with fraternities and sororities or date dashes.

One day, Ethan kind of appeared

and it was an instant kind of connection you could see.

Xana and Ethan were the life of the party, so them together just made a lot of sense.

- Aw, that's kinda cute. -

They're so cute it's gross.

You know, I'm tired of seeing you guys just be so adorable.

My name is Ethan Chapin. I'm from Mount Vernon, Washington.

I was in the Sigma Chi fraternity with Ethan and his brother, Hunter.

Ethan was like a big teddy bear.

You could never be upset around him.

He had this love for country music and that's my thing.

I loved country music.

He knew the songs, so I was like, "Hell, this guy's cool."

"I want to hang out with him."

That was the best time in my life.

Man, I just wish we could go back in a heartbeat because it's so much fun.

Cut.

In your 20s, the world is really at your fingertips,

brimming with endless possibilities and every dream is kind of in reach.

And you're just so excited for what's to come next,

and you feel a little bit like an adult.

I was never worried about anything, um, happening.

And it's just the time of your life.

And looking back, I wish that I could go back to those times,

before, you know, before this had all happened.

911, location of your emergency?

Something's happened in our house

and we don't know what.

What is the address of the emergency?

1122 King Road.

I'll talk to you guys. We're, um…

We live at the Whites, so we're next to them.

And tell me exactly what's going on.

Um… One of our… one of the roommates has passed out,

and she was drunk last night and she's not waking up.

- This-- - Are you with the patient?

I need someone to keep the phone. Stop passing it around.

Is she breathing?

She's knocked out! What's wrong?

She's not waking up.

Xana!

Okay, one moment. I'm getting help started that way.

Dispatching Moscow law, ambulance for unconsciousness,

1122 King Road.

Units responding.

RPs advising the patient is not conscious, not breathing.

I'm in service en route to King Road. I'm out at King Road.

Copy.

Where's she at?

- Here. - Yep. Where's she at?

- She's at the close one. - Yes. She's right there.

- Where at? Up here? - We got a call… Up here.

We got a call from one of the roommates that there was someone here…

And I came and checked in here…

And I didn't check there yet, but…

Okay. Stay back there, please.

Fuck!

Thirteen, I think we have a homicide.

Two college-aged people appearing both to be deceased. Lots of blood.

I copy.

Units responding, per the radio traffic between officers,

there appears to be two college-age people appearing both deceased, lots of blood.

Slow down.

There's a… Just come here. It's…

There's two…

Looks like fatalities.

Okay.

Nobody's allowed to leave, for now, okay?

Um… Just stay here for me, please.

Okay. Here.

Can you guys go over to the dumpster for me, please?

Find them?

Yeah, the roommates called me this morning

to come check because they thought they saw someone in here last night

and they went into their rooms.

I came over when they called, and I opened the door and I saw that.

Okay. Let's go and step downstairs. Anybody else upstairs?

- I don't know. - Don't touch anything.

I grabbed that knife because when I went in,

I didn't know if there was someone in there, but…

Okay.

-I grabbed it to make sure-- - Got your ID with you?

- No. I can tell you my name. - Okay. Just stand right here.

Why don't you go and have a seat over here? Outside.

One second, please. Okay, you have to step outside. Let's go outside.

House isn't clear yet.

Moscow Police Department. If you're in here, announce yourself.

Moscow Police Department.

Fuck.

- Police Department. - On the third floor, going up.

Hey, puppy.

Oh, man…

-Fuck, dude. - Yeah.

Forty-Six, Thirteen. Let me know when 1-0-2 arrives.

Thirteen, we have two additional deceased on the third floor.

I copy.

- Careful, it's, uh… - Yeah, we're gonna need…

everybody, I think. We got four deceased.

Would you be open to taking a dog to the impound for me?

Oh, boy.

Justin Olson's gonna come pick this dog up and take him to the pound for us.

Come on. Do you mind holding on to him a second?

Moscow 120. Same traffic.

I copy, and just to keep you updated, per radio traffic,

it sounds like they found two additional deceased in the house.

That day, I was at home. It was my day off.

I got the phone call. I was not the on-call commander,

so I knew that phone call was probably not a good thing.

I definitely did not expect to hear

that we had not only a homicide, but a quadruple homicide.

Without going into too much detail, it was absolutely horrific.

It was immediately apparent that all four had succumbed to stab wounds

as a likely cause of death.

That's something that nobody expects to ever see

and something you can never unsee once you see it.

I know not only myself,

but every officer that was involved that day,

has had a hard time with that.

I walked all the way around

and didn't see any blood anywhere, or anything like that.

Our detective sergeant, when he arrived on scene,

he recognized that this was a major event.

He immediately called our partners at the Idaho State Police

and asked them to come up and assist.

I'm guessing you're…

This was so outside anything that we had dealt with

at the Police Department.

Here, I came around back when we first got here

and there's a back door that was open with one track of footprints in the snow.

The officers, when they first went through the scene,

the back door was ajar, it was slightly open.

And we knew that none of our officers had come and gone from that door.

So I got about a size 13-and-a-half shoe here,

coming and going, rounds that log, goes back down that way.

No, uh… No weapon we've been able to locate?