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Slain University of Idaho students had ‘defensive wounds’: police

Some of the University of Idaho students who were murdered while in bed had defensive wounds, police confirmed late Friday.

The latest details into the horrifying crime were determined through autopsies conducted Thursday that also found no signs of sexual assault on any of the victims, according the Moscow Police Department, which posted the findings to their Facebook page.

The slain students, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle, were found brutally murdered in their home on Kings Road in Moscow on Nov. 13. They were likely asleep at the time they attacked, the coroner said.

It’s not clear which of the victims had defensive wounds.

Authorities have said the murders appear to be targeted as they work to put together a timeline leading to the slaughter.

Goncalves and Mogen, both 21, had spent the night at a local bar called The Corner Club in downtown Moscow, between 10 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. on November 13th, according to police. They were last seen outside a local food truck around 1:40 a.m. before Ubering back to their home by 1:45 a.m.

Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, were two of the victims of the University of Idaho murder.
Xena Kernodle/Instagram
Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves
Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were also victims of the slaying.
Instagram / @autumngoncalves

Chapin and Kernodle, both 20, spent the night at the Sigma Chi house on the University of Idaho Campus before returning to the home around the same time as Goncalves and Mogen, police said.

Chapin was previously reported as a resident at the home, however police confirmed Friday that he was only visiting.

Moscow police responded to a 911 call just before noon the next day where the four were found dead.

The four friends were likely attacked with an “edged weapon,” or a knife between 3 and 4 a.m., authorities said.

Police said Friday the victims’ two surviving roommates — Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen, both students at the university and friends of the victims who police said may be “key” to their investigation  — are not believed to be involved in the crime. They were upstairs and sleeping when the victims were killed.

A candle light vigi
A candlelight vigil was held for the four murdered Idaho students.
AP

Additionally, the “mystery man” seen with Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves outside of a food truck in surveillance footage before the killings is also not believed to be involved, cops said.

Police also confirmed that reports that the victims were tied and gagged “are not accurate.”

Their killer or killers were still on the loose as of Friday, although cops have said there was no imminent threat to the community. No suspects have been named and the weapon has not been located.

Contents of three dumpsters on King Road have been seized for potential evidence, cops said. Police said they have also been contacting local businesses to learn if a fixed-blade knife had recently been purchased

The identity of the 911 caller has still not been released. Police did not comment on why the 911 call was made hours after the time of the murders.

Investigators dust for fingerprints as they gather evidence in the back section of at an off-campus home where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death on Friday.
Investigators dust for fingerprints as they gather evidence in the back section at an off-campus home where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death on Friday.
James Keivom

FBI agents with the Behavior Analysis Unit profilers have been called in to assist with the case. The agents are part of an elite squad generally used to get inside the minds of serial killers or on exceedingly bizarre cases.

Detectives have received nearly 500 tips in connection to the case, and conducted 38 interviews as of Friday.

“Right now, all options are on the table. We haven’t excluded anything yet,” Aaron Snell, Idaho State Police Communications Director, told Fox News Digital. “We have not come to any conclusion yet, and I know that’s frustrating to the public, but this is a very complex and difficult case.”

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