By
As I write this note, 37 days have passed since the quadruple crime that has the city of Moscow, Idaho, United States, paralyzed by terror. Four young women from the University of Idaho (Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20 and Ethan Chapin, 20) were brutally murdered inside the house they shared a block from the student campus.
Three police forces are investigating without any obvious results, while the inhabitants despair and the Students flee to their home states due to lack of detainees or suspects in a city where there has not been a single homicide for seven years. Everyone believes that the killer is mixed up among them and that he might even be feigning fear.
Let's go back to the bloody dawn of last Sunday, November 13th.
And… it wasn’t just another night
The house at 1122 King Street is made of grey wood, has 213 square metres of covered space and consists of three floors with six rooms distributed two per floor. Through the windows, some media have been able to spy on the remnants of life that have been trapped in time: a half-empty plastic cup with a straw; bowls of cereal; an open and turned on notebook; a bag of popcorn; a plant struggling to survive without water; a black pasta spoon; two knives; a stack of red cardboard cups; an almost empty bag of potato chips; Christmas lights blinking oblivious to the drama and an ironic white neon sign on a wall of artificial green leaves that reads: Good Vibes (good vibes).
This house that was once filled with music and laughter is now sealed with yellow tape and in absolute silence. The Christmas wreath that adorns its front door has been transformed into a sinister grimace of fate.
When The five students chose to rent this house because they thought it would be convenient to be close to the classrooms where they studied. They imagined sunshine, joy and parties with new friends and companions.
The other, the sinister thing that took place within those walls, they could never have imagined. Not even in their worst nightmare.
Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, the survivors in this police story, shared the ground floor or first floor. Xana Kernodle was on the middle or second floor and, although her boyfriend lived two blocks away, she often stayed overnight. Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, inseparable friends since elementary school, occupied the top floor or the so-called third floor.
On the weekend of Friday, November 11 and Saturday, November 12, 2022, each of them put together their program.
Dylan and Bethany were out and about and arrived back home in the early hours of Sunday the 13th, separately, around 1 a.m. Ethan and Xana, the couple had been dating since March, arrived a little later, after having attended a party for the Sigma Chi fraternity to which he belonged. After the party, they only had to walk five minutes along a shortcut to the house. King Street, But they spent several hours in a destination that is still unknown. Finally, Ethan accompanied his girlfriend to the house, where they arrived at 1:45. It was late and Ethan decided to stay overnight. The die was cast for him too.
For their part, friends Madison and Kaylee had gone to a bar in the city center called Corner ClubThey were with friends and looked happy. They left the place around 1.30 and eleven minutes later they were caught by street video cameras in a food truck area. They wanted to buy something to eat. They ordered pasta carbonara at the Grub Truck and waited about ten minutes for their order to be delivered. In the images, it can be seen that they crossed paths on the sidewalk with other students and chatted. At one point, Madison is seen arguing with a boy in a white sweatshirt and making a fuck you gesture to him. Later, in another recovered recording, Kaylee is heard asking her what she had said to Adam and Madison responds: “I told him everything.”
Who is Adam? Is that the young man in the white diver?
An acquaintance eventually drove them to King Street, and at 1:56 a.m. on Sunday, the neighbor's camera showed them entering.
They were all home now, but not safe. Death was lurking.
The look of the living
It was late Sunday morning that Dylan and Bethany, the roommates from the lower floor, called other friends of theirs to come to the house because something had happened and they needed help. But be patient, because this part of the puzzle is missing crucial pieces to be able to put it together and see the complete picture.
The truth is that a friend who was called to help them called 911 at 11:58 a.m. using one of their cell phones. They would have said that there was a girl who had fainted.
When police arrived, they found neighbors and students gathered in the garden. Some were crying. Officers found the front door unlocked and discovered that no other doors or windows had been forced or broken. Inside was a sea of blood. On the second floor, they found two victims (Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle). They climbed one more flight of stairs and, on the third floor, they found two more bodies (Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen). All four were allegedly stabbed to death while sleeping in their beds.
That is, with its ups and downs, the “official” story.
But nothing closes.
What did Dylan and Bettany really see that made them call their friends? Why would they say someone had passed out in the house? Did those who entered go up to the upper floors and see the bodies? Did they realize that they were contaminating the scene of a horrible crime? No one knows. In fact, given the magnitude of the murders, as was later reported on social media, the house was covered in red. It was impossible not to notice. In fact, in a photo of the house taken by an American media outlet, blood could be seen dripping down an external wall.
Police spoke little to the press and refused to provide information to the families. The content of that 911 call was never released and almost nothing else emerged from those first hours. There are only disjointed sketches and buried rumors.
Ironically, Kaylee Gonzalez had posted on her Instagram account, hours before she died with her friends, how happy she was at this moment in her life. At 8:57 p.m. on November 12, she uploaded a photo of the five young women together on the social network and wrote: “A lucky girl to be surrounded by these people every day.”
Only hours later, three of them and one of their boyfriends stopped breathing, having been stabbed to death. It is inevitable that a naive post, after four violent deaths, takes on special meaning. This is what usually happens with the eyes of the living.
A lightning attack?
It is believed that when the massacre began, everyone was asleep. The killer(s) would have entered through the sliding glass doors of the kitchen located on the second floor at street level, as well as the living room, and would have gone directly to the room where Xana and Ethan were resting and then would have gone to the third floor where Madison and Kaylee were.
Among the 2.26 and the 2.52, Telephone records collected by investigators showed that there had been Seven unanswered calls from Kaylee's cell phone to her ex-boyfriend Jack DuCouer. And three more, also to Jack, from Madison's cell phone.
He was sleeping and never answeredJack refused to discuss the calls with the media and his ex-girlfriend's family supports him one hundred percent: "We know that she had nothing to do with it," the Goncalves assure.
But, What were these calls about? There is no certain answer, although it is not hard to imagine a scenario where the attacker was perhaps already inside the house, attacking Xana and Ethan on the floor below, while Kaylee and Madison listened in terror to what was happening beneath their feet. Could that be the reason for the insistent calls?
The only certainty we have is that, although each one had her own bedroom,They were found murdered together in Madison's bedroom bed. Kaylee's bed was left unmade. Were they there because they were scared? Was that when they started calling Jack over and over again?
It is something that is still in the realm of assumptions.
Police believe that the murders of the two friends on the top floor were the last and occurred between 3 and 4 in the morning.
Curious, but not impossible, while this demonic scene was unfolding on the two upper floors, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke slept without any problems. They were not attacked and only noticed something strange when they woke up. Was it coincidence, fate, luck, or were they simply not the killer's target in his deadly raid? Or could they be lying and know something they are not saying?
Suspicions are circulating among Internet users and some say that, statistically, it is almost impossible for them not to have heard some noise. Especially after it became known that some of the victims had fought for their lives.
The order in which the executions took place is also being discussed on the internet. For some, it could be that if Kaylee had indeed been the main target of the crime, they would have attacked her and her friend first, waking up the couple on the middle floor. And, when they went down the stairs, the killers could have crossed paths with the couple who tried to defend themselves and died under the stab wounds. Possible hypotheses.
Another discussion is whether or not the killer knew the house. If he had never been there, that could be the reason why, upon entering through the kitchen on the second floor, he would not have noticed that down below was the lower floor where Dylan and Bethany slept. That detail could have saved them.
However, there is one more rumor: that one of the two survivors was not on the lower floor but was in the other room on the same floor as Xana and Ethan, but locked.
After the first interviews, it was revealed that a neighbor of the students “believed” he had heard screams that night. No further information was provided.
A thread of uncertainties and unverifiable statements is what unites this story so far.
Let's move on. Who were Madison, Kaylee, Kala and Ethan?
Maddie, That's what they called Madison Mogen, she studied marketingShe had a huge family and a boyfriend, Jake Schriger, who lived across the street from her on King Street. He said she was excited about graduating next year and dreamed of exploring the world: “There are no words I could use to describe her to explain what a wonderful, good person she was.”
Kaylee Goncalves was from Rathdrum, Idaho, and was about to graduate from marketing this December. In June 2023, she was set to move to Austin, Texas, with a friend named Jordyn Quesnell. She already had a job offer from a company and was fantasizing about traveling the country. The victim's younger sister, Alivea Goncalves, revealed that her dead sister was still shared a dog named Murphy with her ex Jack DeCoeur, with whom she had been dating for five years. According to Alivea, they were about to resume their relationship.
Xana Kernodle was born in Idaho but grew up in Arizona. According to her father Jeffrey Kernodle, she was an incredibly strong-willed and very independent young woman. He said: Her daughter had fought off her attacker: she had not died sleeping in her bed. Ethan Chapin, was Xana's boyfriend. He was born in Conway, Washington. He was one of three: the Chapin triplets. The brothers studied together at the University of Idaho. Ethan, good sportsman and basketball player, had spent part of Saturday, November 12 with his brothers at the fraternity party. This was recounted by his own mother, Stacy Chapin.
Kaylee and Madison had gone to school together since sixth grade.Kaylee’s father, Steve Goncalves, told a crowd gathered for a vigil for the victims: “They went to college together, they started college together, they came here together… They moved into the same apartment together and, ultimately, they died together, in the same room, in the same bed.”
Madison's father, Ben Mogen, said with emotion that she was his only daughter and that the two were close friends. Madison was his great pride and joy and, as they loved music, they often went to concerts and recitals.
They are four devastated families who still do not understand what happened and what ruined their future. They demand answers that are not forthcoming.
Speculations and networks
The network of rumors is multiplying rapidly on the networks where everyone provides information unofficially. The point of discussion that emerged was the following: Police had said the victims had died in their beds, something that rumors and some relatives deny.. Someone revealed that Ethan's body was not in his bed but in a hallway, that his girlfriend Xana was not in his bed either and that there was so much blood that it would have dripped from the upper floors through the wooden panels that make up the walls. Kaylee's family said they had learned that she had defensive wounds on both of her hands.
If all this is true, the awakening of the ground floor neighbors would not have been as naive as was initially believed.
Four deaths in total silence seems like a difficult task to achieve. How did no one scream or try to escape? What motivated such a massacre? Was it directed at someone in particular or was it a random act that could happen again?
Knowing the motive would be key to knowing whether or not the sharp dagger is hanging over everyone's heads.
In fact, it is known that a neighbour saw, at 8.30am that morning, the main door of the house facing King Street wide open. Could the murderer have entered or left through there and not through the kitchen?
The merciless gossips at one point targeted the nearest neighbour, Jeremy Regan, a third-year law student. The young man had given interviews and others began to point at him with suspicion. They said he was very upset by the noise from his neighbours' parties; that when he spoke he did not blink and that he wore a black bandage on his left hand... Was he injured? Furious, on 30 November Jeremy came out to deny them. He denied being the murderer, but admitted that, due to his way of relating socially, he could seem a strange person. The accusations, he said, had made him feel insecure and that was why he was now carrying a gun. He added that he is willing to give his fingerprints and DNA when the police ask him to.
Joining forces
Detectives initially pointed to a “crime of passion.” They clung to comments from Kaylee Goncalves who reportedly said that someone had harassed her some time ago. Police said the multiple homicide appeared to be directed at one person in particular, but declined to provide further details. Initially, they claimed that “there was no imminent threat to the community,” but as the days went by they had to open up. Department Chief James Fry had to backtrack, saying during a press conference: “We cannot say there is no risk.”
Since the city's police force has only four detectives and 24 patrol officers, the state of Idaho provided 20 additional investigators, 15 police officers, forensic services, and cell phone and crime scene experts. The FBI joined the investigation with 22 investigators, 20 agents, and two behavioral experts. In total, the investigations were conducted in the city. Three forces, added more than 130 specialists who are dedicated to solving the four homicides as soon as possible.. A tip line was created by the students to help with the investigation. As of December 5, clues had been reported in 2,645 emails, 2,770 phone calls and 1,084 contacts through various digital media. Today, the police have 113 pieces of evidence, some 4,000 photos and have already conducted 150 interviews, in addition to having scanned the house on several occasions.
The victims' autopsies were conducted on November 17. Very little was said in the report. It revealed only that they had been stabbed multiple times and had fatal wounds to the chest and upper body. They had not been sexually abused, bound or gagged. Because of the latter, It is thought that there could be more than one attacker. The weapon? It has not been found, But they believe it was a special knife with a very long blade or several similar ones. And they maintain that this type of fixed blade tends to dull quickly and requires a lot of force to continue using it, so it could progressively lead to a pattern of larger wounds to smaller ones. This could have made the crime a very personal and close task with each new victim.
You may be interested in: He murdered and dismembered his college classmate after graduating: why did he do it?
The forensic expert in charge of the autopsies called Kaylee's parents and asked them if they wanted to know about her injuries. They said yes, they want the truth, no matter how hard it is. She was the body with the most severe stab wounds and could be the killer's main target. Some people believe so.
The mysterious white car
Detective teams continue to review hours and hours of video from the area during that tragic weekend. On December 5, more was learned about Kaylee's alleged stalker. They identified two men and questioned them about what happened at a cigarette store where one of them allegedly followed her when she left the store to go to her car. But the video shows the man going back inside the building and having no further contact with her. Officers found those men who admitted to the crime, but nothing more. Police found no connection that would suggest they could be involved in the crimes. However, The young owner of a store where the girls went to seek shelter from a stalker, said that they themselves had told him that, since Kaylee felt that someone was stalking her on the street, they went everywhere together. They looked after each other a lot..
Retired FBI agent Mary Ellen O'Toole, in an interview with CBS News, said she believed the killer would have had to have left a lot of physical evidence at the scene because it was very likely that he had cut himself while attacking his victims. She also said she believed he had not disposed of the gun and that was why it had not been found. These are just the beliefs of an expert who is not working on the case.
On December 8, another new development emerged from the videos: a white sedan, a Hyundai Elantra from 2011 to 2013, had been captured driving near the house and around the university campus that morning. Inside the vehicle, there was at least one occupant. These days, the Moscow police and the FBI are searching for him. The video was provided by a young man who works at a gas station who wanted to help and spent hours watching recordings until he made the discovery: a mysterious white car passing by the Exxon Mobil gas station at 3:45 in the morning.
Police are defending themselves against widespread astonishment at the lack of progress: “We are making continuous progress,” said Aaron Snell, a police spokesman, “but, as this is an ongoing criminal investigation, we cannot always provide information.”
On red alert
So far, no one has been arrested, and no suspects have been named. Detectives appear to have ruled out several. Among those facing charges are: the student in a white sweatshirt and hood who was talking to Madison at the food truck; the person who drove the two friends home; the two young women who were sleeping on the stage at the time of the murders; Kaylee's longtime boyfriend, Jack Du Coeur; the classmates who went there to call 911; and the alleged stalkers.
The authorities do not confirm it, but they do not deny it either: There could be one more killer. And they are looking for someone in local shops who might have bought a knife of the same style as the one they have identified. In recent days, a rumour has also spread that a police audio recording of another unrelated incident near the scene of the crime recorded a scream at 3.12 in the morning. Imagination or proof of something? Nobody has clarified anything.
So many deaths and so little evidence? It seems unbelievable. And what scares the inhabitants the most is that the police chief continues to confess that they have little, for now, to solve the case: “I cannot say if the person is here, I cannot confirm which community he is from.” Of course: the agents asked the population to avoid spreading rumors. Such as, for example, those that speak of strange deaths of animals. One refers to a case that occurred in October: an elderly couple (Pam and Jim Colbert), who lived only four kilometers from the young women, went out for a walk and, upon returning, found their dog skinned and sliced, as if it were prepared to be swallowed. While many speculate about the existence of some kind of satanic group Although he performs bloody rituals, investigators maintain that this matter has nothing to do with the quadruple murder. Is this really the case? the frightened students ask.
Once peaceful Moscow has about 26,000 inhabitants, including 11,000 university students. The Reddit forum MoscowMurders already has 78,000 members. Moscow is burning.
All hell broke loose as the state's Republican governor, Brad Little, ordered a million-dollar grant to assist the ongoing investigation. In recent days, it has emerged, despite the police's ironclad silence, that the victims' hands have been preserved to protect any DNA evidence that could be vital to solving this case. And everyone is speaking in hushed tones about an item that was allegedly found outside the house on November 28, many days after the murders: a gloveWhy didn't the police see it before? Did someone leave it there afterwards? Who does it belong to?
Kaylee's mother, Kristy Goncalvez, said they are considering offering a reward to get anyone who might know something to come forward. And they are angry with authorities for the lack of information. Steve Goncalves says the gaping wounds on the victims are the sadistic work of a strong man: "It's a brutal weapon. It sounds like a professional weapon that doesn't break... and they weren't just simple wounds, they were long stab wounds."
Because of all this, the Goncalves are considering taking legal action against the police, saying it could happen again: “… they are cowards because there are girls walking down the street who deserve to know.” Kristi Goncalves said that, because of this lack of information, her family has been “left in the dark” and that she fears that the case will never be solved. She is convinced that Whoever committed this massacre “thought it through, was methodical, fast and silent”.
Police are defending themselves against these accusations and saying that the case will not go cold. They say they are reviewing thousands of hours of video and 22,000 Hyundai Elantras from 2011 to 2013. Captain Lanier confirms: “We have a lot of information that we are specifically keeping secret. More than an arrest, we want a conviction.”
Silence could be a strategy, but it could also be the result of the cumulative errors of the first officers without experience in crimes.
The funerals for the victims will be held on December 30th.
Until November 13, Moscow residents felt safe at all times. Women walked alone at night, bicycles were left lying on the grass, children played on the sidewalk, and the doors of houses were open. It was a safe, joyful, and happy community.
But from that cold Sunday morning on, fear began to creep in among them. Professors are missing classes, many students have returned to their home states to wait for this to be resolved, and the university has brought forward the pre-Christmas holidays.Those who remain are terrified, anxious, and distressed. They are on alert, walking in groups, and taking all kinds of precautions. Many carry pepper spray in their pockets, and others have bought weapons. Nightlife has also changed, with cafes and bars closing early so that workers can return home before dark. Not in vain have the authorities advised local residents to remain vigilant, never go out alone, and stay connected to their families. They know there is a ferocious killer roaming among them. Or several.
A soft blanket of silent snow covers today the grey house that stands absently in the landscape.
Everything has changed in Moscow. Who knows for how long.
Continue reading:
English 
Spanish