Other roommates home when 4 Idaho college students were stabbed to death
Police in Moscow, Idaho, are pleading with the public to help them find the unknown suspect who stabbed four University of Idaho students to death in a house near campus.
"That individual is still out there," Moscow Police Chief James Fry said during a news conference Wednesday. "We cannot say there is no threat to the community."
The students, who were killed early Sunday morning and found hours later, were identified as Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho.
Two other roommates were home at the time of the crime, and they were not hurt, Fry said. It was not a hostage situation, he added.
Those roommates were home when police responded to a call for an unconscious individual at about noon on Sunday, Fry said.
MORE: 4 Idaho college students killed in 'targeted attack,' no suspects in custody
Former FBI agent and ABC News contributor Brad Garrett said the surviving roommates are the "key" in the investigation, but he doesn’t think they are suspects.
"It’s a small town. The likelihood that they know who that person was in the house, I think, is reasonable," Garrett said Thursday.
The four victims were killed with a knife in "an isolated, targeted attack", Fry said.
In terms of the investigation, Garrett said, "police appear to be stymied based on their own comments."
For police, Garrett said the next steps are: "You really are going to have to do a complete detail of the party that was prior to whatever was going on between 3 and 4 o'clock at the victim's house. … Who followed them home? Who has been taking whom? Who have had issues with people? This killer didn’t all of a sudden show up at this house -- he knew this house.”
Police said they are working to determine the victims' timeline Saturday night.
Chapin and Kernodle were at a party on campus while Goncalves and Mogen were at a downtown bar that night, Fry said.
Chapin didn't live in the house but was sleeping over with his girlfriend, Kernodle, according to his mother, Stacy Chapin.
Goncalves and Mogen had been best friends since childhood and "did everything together," Goncalves' sister, Alivia Goncalves, told ABC News.
She said she finds some solace that the friends were together in their final moments.
Autopsies were conducted on Wednesday, Fry said.
He urged anyone with information about the victims' whereabouts Saturday night to call the tip line at 208-883-7180.
Other roommates home when 4 Idaho college students were stabbed to death originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
