MISSOULA, Montana — In light of Wednesday’s planned vigil for the four students who were fatally stabbed earlier this month at the University of Idaho, the Idaho State Police have increased their presence on campus by four patrols and in the surrounding neighbourhood by fourteen.
The campus was noticeably emptier than normal after Thanksgiving break, and the uncertainty and lack of information surrounding the unsolved homicides may have contributed to that.
Provost and Executive Vice President Torrey Lawrence told CNN that while there is no official estimate on how many students returned, educators are saying that approximately two-thirds to three-quarters of their students are attending class in person.
It’s a tough circumstance, but we’re doing everything we can to help our kids, educators, and staff cope with it, as Lawrence put it. Because a murderer is still at large, one kid told CNN that classmates and friends are “sketched out.”
Hayden Rich, a student, noted, “It feels a little bit different.” “It’s a gloomy place, it seems. It’s pretty quiet here.” Communications Director for the Idaho State Police, Aaron Snell, told CNN on Tuesday that there has been an increase in 911 calls since the crimes have not been solved.
The bulk of these inquiries are related to “suspicious person” or “welfare check” reports. Officers are responding to calls and dealing with them as they come up, because “we are cognizant that there is heightened apprehension in the community,” Snell said.
Last Monday, President Scott Green of the University of Idaho admitted that some students were unwilling to return until a suspect was in custody. For the remaining two weeks of the semester, he said, “staff have been instructed to create in-person teaching and remote learning choices so that each student can choose their manner of involvement.”
On Wednesday, the university will hold a vigil in memory of the victims, twenty-year-olds Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, twenty-year-old Xana Kernodle, and twenty-one-year-old Madison Mogen.
How we got here
Dozens of police officers from different levels of government are still looking into the violent assault. Investigators have gone through over a thousand tips and conducted at least 150 interviews, but they still haven’t found the perpetrator or the weapon, which is thought to be a fixed-blade knife.
On November 13, their bodies were discovered in a Moscow apartment outside of the university. When one of the murders occurred on campus, it shook the entire town of 25,000, which had been relatively peaceful since 2015.
Police have said they had reason to believe these deaths were “targeted” and “isolated,” although they have not provided evidence to support this claim. They also assured the public there was no danger, only to recant afterward.
We cannot say there is no threat to the community,” Police Chief James Fry stated a few days after the murders. The authorities have not ruled out the likelihood that more than one person was responsible for the stabbings.
So far, authorities have been able to cobble together a rough timetable and a map of the group’s final hours using evidence found at the scene and the goldmine of information and interviews. Goncalves and Mogen were at a pub the night of the murders, while Chapin and Kernodle were at a fraternity party.
Police think that by 2 a.m. on the night of the stabbings, all four victims had returned to the house. According to the authorities, two of the housemates who made it back home that night had also been out in Moscow.
In an updated chronology released on Friday, police said that digital evidence indicated that Goncalves and Mogen returned to the residence around 1:56 a.m. after having eaten at a food truck and been brought home by a “private person.”
Two of the survivors “summoned friends to the apartment the following morning when they became concerned that one of the second-floor victims had fainted and was not regaining consciousness,” according to a press release from the police.
At 11:58 a.m. one of the surviving housemates used one of the other phones to make a 911 call from inside the house. The cops arrived and discovered two more bodies on the third floor. According to the police, there was no evidence of a break-in or damage.
The two remaining roommates have been ruled out as suspects in the deaths by investigators. The four victims were each stabbed numerous times, and the coroner concluded they were all asleep during the attacks. The coroner in Latah County said that some of the students had self-defense injuries.
Ava Forsyth, a college student, said that her roommate stays in because she does not feel secure. During the day, Forsyth uses a free campus strolling security service and feels “moderately” protected, but at night, she feels “not so comfortable.”
Rich, the student who previously claimed, “People are sketched out,” indicated he will be returning for the multiple exams he has scheduled for this week. CNN spoke with student Lexi Way, who said she feels safer on campus and “tends to learn better in class” as a result of the increased security measures.
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