MOSCOW, Idaho — Some students were packing their bags to leave town. Others who stayed behind feared the uncertainty around them. Two days after four University of Idaho students were found dead at a home just outside of campus, residents had little comfort that they were safe.
Authorities investigating the deaths Tuesday said that they believe the students, who were all friends, were killed with a knife or some other blade but that no weapon had been recovered and no suspect was yet in custody. As students and their families pushed for more information, police issued a new statement Tuesday night in which they offered no new information but pleaded for patience. Chief James D. Fry Jr. reiterated that the killings appeared to be “a targeted attack.”
The chief also repeated the department’s assurance that there appeared to be no threat to the community, a message that has perplexed some in town, as a killer remains on the loose. Before Sunday, the college town had not recorded a murder in seven years.
As classes resumed Tuesday, some students were instead leaving the city on an early Thanksgiving break. Some stayed but said they were being cautious, worried that whoever committed such a gruesome crime was still at large.
Nic Conner, a second-year student dual-majoring in food science and music composition, said it was concerning how little information was available about the attacks. Up until now, he has felt safe in Moscow, often going on walks at night.
“And now it’s just like, I probably shouldn’t do that,” he said.
On Tuesday, people were bringing flower bouquets and stuffed animals to a spontaneous memorial to honor the victims at an entrance to the campus. The university offered counseling and therapy dogs for students.
But a planned candlelight vigil that had been set to take place Wednesday evening was postponed until after Thanksgiving because “a great number of students have already left the Moscow campus,” Blaine Eckles, dean of students and vice provost for academic affairs, said in a message to students.
Investigators were working to assemble a timeline of events in the hours leading up to the deaths of the students — three women and one man — whose bodies were discovered around midday Sunday after someone called 911 to report an unconscious person. Officials said they would focus on the activities of the victims beginning Saturday evening and into the early morning hours of Sunday, while pursuing leads and “identifying persons of interest.”
Police in their statement on Tuesday night said they were working with the Idaho State Police and the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office, along with other law enforcement resources, “to bring about a fast resolve to this incident.”
But the county prosecutor, Bill Thompson, also had no leads to share. “I hope that the investigators are successful in identifying who is responsible and that we have the evidence we need to hold them accountable,” he said in an interview.
The police have not located any weapons used in the attack but said in a statement that preliminary information indicated that “an edged weapon such as a knife was used.” Cathy Mabbutt, the Latah County coroner, said there had been a large amount of blood at the crime scene.
Mabbutt has said that all of the deaths were being treated as homicides and that the case was not a murder-suicide.
Autopsies were planned Wednesday to pin down the exact causes of death, she said. Federal and state law enforcement agencies were also assisting in the case. Officials have identified the victims as Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
One of Goncalves’ close friends, Jordyn Quesnell, said she had been distraught by the killings and had no idea how to make sense of them.
“I have no idea who could have done this or why they could have done this to Kaylee,” said Quesnell, 22, a recent graduate of the University of Idaho, adding that Goncalves had not seemed to be worried about anything in the weeks before her death. “Right now what I’m doing is just trying to process and grieve that I don’t have Kaylee in my life anymore.”
Quesnell said she and Goncalves, who was set to graduate early in December, had planned to move to Austin, Texas, together in June. The plan was for Quesnell to teach elementary school and Goncalves to work for a marketing firm that had offered her an internship. Both women had grown up in Idaho and yearned to see more of the country, Quesnell said, and they spent weeks trying to choose a city to move to, eyeing San Diego, Boston and Charlotte, North Carolina, before settling on Austin.
“Neither of us could decide because we just knew we wanted to get out and see the world,” Quesnell said. “At one point we joked about moving to Greece. We were just down for anything.
“We wanted that adventure: I would be like, ‘Let’s go do this,’ and she’d be like, ‘Down!’” Quesnell said.
Jazzmin Kernodle, the older sister of another victim, Xana Kernodle, was likewise left in the dark by the killings and the lack of information. She said in a text message on Monday night that she and her family were “confused and anxiously waiting” for updates on the investigation.
“They haven’t told us much, other than it was a homicide,” she said of the police.
Kernodle said that the three other victims had been great friends to her sister and that her sister had been dating Chapin since the spring semester. Xana was “lucky to have them in her life,” Kernodle said.
She added that her sister, who was majoring in marketing and was a member of Pi Beta Phi, was “so positive, funny, and was loved by everyone who met her.”
“She made me such a proud big sister, and I wish I could have had more time with her,” Kernodle said. “She had so much life left to live.”
The victims were all members of the university’s fraternal organizations. At the campus’ Greek Row, many of the buildings were quiet Tuesday. Hank Heusinkveld, who studied at the University of Idaho from 1980-84, was dropping off flowers at some of the sororities affected by the killings.
“I checked with some of the guys in house here, and they said, ‘Everybody’s taken off. They’re going home,’” he said. “So everybody’s, everybody’s affected on Greek Row.”
John Felin, a junior accounting major and a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, of which Chapin was a member, did not want to talk about the killings but said many of the members were also leaving early.
“The professors have been pretty understanding,” he said.
Will Winterbottom, who is majoring in international studies and Spanish, said his English class had been canceled for the week, as had a test.
“A lot of teachers have agreed that, ‘Hey, if you need to take time off or something like that,’ they’re all for that,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times .