Half-empty Idaho campus full of fear, grief after killings
BOISE, Idaho — In a normal year, University of Idaho students would be bustling between classes and the library, readying for the pre-finals cramming period known as “dead week.”
On Wednesday, however, a little under half the students appeared to be gone, choosing to stay home and take classes online rather than return to the town where the killings of four classmates remain unsolved, said Blaine Eckles, the university’s dean of students. Some students who were in attendance were relying on university-hired security staffers to drive them to class because they didn’t want to walk across campus alone.
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The Moscow Police Department has yet to name a person of interest in the stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington. The three women lived together in a rental home across the street from campus, and Chapin was there staying that night.
A county coroner said they were likely asleep when they were attacked. Two weeks later investigators have yet to find a weapon used in the killings — believed to be a military-style knife — or elaborate on why they think the killings were “targeted.”
The killings have left the university and the small farming community that contains it shell-shocked.
“When we lose any students, especially under these circumstances, my heart is absolutely broken,” Eckles said. “It shakes you to your core a little bit, knowing that in this community, which is incredibly safe in general, can have something this horrific happen.”
Now, as students and faculty members try to navigate a quagmire of grief and fear, government agencies and community members are searching for answers and trying to help lessen the damage.
Gov. Brad Little announced last week that he was directing up to $1 million in state emergency funds for the investigation.
The FBI has assigned 44 people to the case — half of them stationed in Moscow — and the Idaho State Police has 15 troopers helping with community patrols and another 20 investigators working the case.
Some community members started online fundraising campaigns to support family members and friends of the slain students. A university alum began raising money to equip women on campus with handheld personal safety alarms.
By last week, Kerry Uhlorn had brought in more than $18,000, ordered more than 700 of the alarms and had plans to buy 900 more, Boise television station KTVB reported.
Thousands of people were expected to join the university community in mourning Wednesday evening, with several simultaneous candlelight vigils scheduled across the state.
The school districts in Boise and Meridian announced plans to light up their athletic fields at the same time in solidarity.
