Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
- Hey guys, so like many of you, I've been following the weird case that's happening up in Moscow, Idaho. Maybe you heard about it. Four students at the University of Idaho were found dead early this week in a house they all shared off campus. Now this is a piping hot case. You may have seen articles and videos on it, but nothing that gives a clean cut summary and picture of what happened.
and the circumstances of it are just so bizarre. And also, it happened near where I'm from in my home state of Idaho. So we have to jump on and talk about it and give you an up-to-date story. So here's what we know about the case so far. And before I can
I want to note that the families of the victims in this case have been saying that the lack of information from Moscow police has allowed rumors about what happened to spin out of control. Again, I am pointing back to theorizing videos that have been circulating the internet. It's not helpful for police and continues to hurt the victims and their families. So we're not
going to feed that by speculating on what may have happened or who may have done it. We're going to stick to what we know for sure so you guys have a clear-cut timeline. It all began around noon on Sunday. That's November 13th, last Sunday, so the beginning of last week.
when a call came in to 911 about an unconscious person at 1122 Kings Road, which is an off-campus residence near the University of Idaho. When first responders showed up at the scene, they found the front door open. And when they entered the residence, they found not one unconscious person, but four dead university students. Each of them had been stabbed to death.
and it did not appear to be a murder-suicide because they did not find a weapon at the scene. An alert went out on campus advising students to shelter in place and avoid the area near Kings Road, just south of campus where the bodies were found.
The Moscow police issued a statement and then Scott Green, the university president, announced that all four of the victims were students at the university. He then canceled classes for the next day. And then that Monday, the police announced the names of the students.
21-year-old Kaylee Gonsalves from Phoenix, Arizona, 20-year-old Zana Cronado, 21-year-old Madison Mogan, both from the Coeur d'Alene Spokane area, 80 miles north, and then 20-year-old Ethan Chapin from Conway, Washington. That's just north of Seattle.
The residence where the four students were found was a three-story, six-bedroom apartment with two bedrooms on each floor. The victims were found on the second and third floors of the apartment. Now, three of the victims, all but the boy Ethan, lived at the apartment. Ethan was actually dating Zana and was sleeping over. There were two other roommates who lived in the house with these three victims.
And this is where the case gets weird. Police have stated that those other two roommates who weren't murdered that night were in the apartment the night of the murders and somehow slept through four people being stabbed. We have no answers as to how four people can be stabbed to death. At least one that we know of fought back and no one hears it. Now,
Now, we don't know the names of these roommates at this time, but police have said they're cooperating with the investigation and have been clear to suspects. And though police haven't revealed exactly who placed the 911 call, they have said it was made from one of the surviving roommate's phones.
Apparently, they woke up that morning and discovered one of the victims who they thought to be passed out. Now, we know they weren't passed out, but this is what the roommates said. They then decided to call some friends over to check on said victim. And once those friends arrived, they discovered that the victim wasn't breathing because they were stabbed to death and called 911 around noon. Now, the timeline of events is still developing. But among the pieces of the picture we have so far is this.
There had been a University of Idaho football game that night that many students attended, which was followed by a very lively night on campus. We have one of the victims, Kaylee Gonsalves, posting a series of pictures to her Instagram on Saturday. This would be her last Instagram post because she would be murdered that night.
Now, one of the pictures was Kaylee with Maddie Mogan, one of the other victims, sitting on her shoulders with Ethan and Zana, the other two victims, standing beside them. Ethan had his arms around Zana. The two of them, again, were dating. And the caption read, quote, one lucky girl to be surrounded by these people every day, followed by a heart emoji. And this is just devastating and almost eerie that the four of them were in a picture. It was posted Saturday night and then they were all stabbed to death.
This was posted again on Saturday, and then later that night, Ethan and Zana went to a frat party at the Sigma Chi house, while the other two friends, Kaylee and Maddie, went to a bar in downtown Moscow called Corner Club. Now, around 1 a.m. that night, while the four victims were out hanging out, the two surviving roommates both returned home separately. Now, they had been out of town and had arrived home around the same time and went to bed, while all of the victims were still out.
At around 1.41 a.m. that night, technically early the next morning, but that never feels right calling it morning when it's the tell end of the night. So we're just going to say late, late that night at 1.41 a.m. Kaylee and Maddie had left the bar they were at and made their way to a popular food truck in the area. We will put a picture up of the map here if you're watching this on video. But if you aren't, they're very close.
Together, the two victims ordered mac and cheese from this food truck that was called Grub Wandering Kitchen. And we're actually able to pinpoint this time because that food truck was running a live stream on the Twitch platform. So the girls can be seen on the stream through that.
The manager of the truck, Joseph Woodall, later said that neither of the young women appeared to be in any kind of distress. They seemed very normal. And the video shows Kaylee and Maddie arriving at the food truck in the company of a guy in a hoodie who sort of hangs back while they order food. Again, these are basically these two girls' last known footage of them alive. Now, this man has reportedly been identified and is cooperating with the police, and they're saying he's not a suspect.
After this, the girls then parted ways with the guy in the hoodie and at 1.56 a.m. arrived back at their off-campus residence where Ethan and Zana had returned home to. Authorities are saying that an unidentified private party drove them back to the residence because there's no record of either of the girls having ordered an Uber or a Lyft. What we're not sure about this point is if the identity of this private party is known to the police and they're just not releasing the name or if they haven't figured it out yet.
But around 2:26 AM and 2:56 AM, all four victims are at the house. Now Kaylee places seven phone
phone calls to an ex of hers named Jack. And a lot of people have made a really big deal about these seven phone calls that happen right before the girls are murdered. But Kaylee's family has said that this was not unusual for Kaylee to do. Kaylee would often phone people in the middle of the night and would keep calling till they picked up. And usually it would be for some totally inconsequential reason. Maddie also called Jack three times between 2.44 a.m. and 2.52 a.m. So this means
it's safe to assume that the two girls were still hanging out together. They were out earlier, came home, and then hung out together, both trying to call Jack. Now, Jack didn't answer any of these calls because he was asleep and his phone was silenced. And we don't know how or who, but we know what happens after this. Everyone in the house goes to sleep. And then sometime between 3 a.m. and noon the next day, all four victims are stabbed to death while their roommates slept.
It was a little before noon the following afternoon when the call came in reporting an unconscious person and the police arrived to discover the four dead bodies. Police believe the murders took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, several hours before the 911 call came in, probably sometime between 3 and 4 in the morning. And they now believe the victims were asleep when they were attacked.
Now, police found no signs of forced entry, no damage to the property, and to date, no one is in custody. But the president of the University of Idaho did make a really curious statement, which is that the Moscow police, quote, Again, this was right after the bodies were discovered.
and the mayor of Moscow, Idaho, gave an interview with the New York Times in which he described the murders as, quote, a crime of passion, though he didn't make it clear what his basis for this statement was. So then the next day, that would be last Tuesday, the Moscow police revealed that a, quote, edged weapon such as a knife had been used in the deadly attack, but
to date, they haven't recovered the murder weapon that we know of. They also offered in a statement echoing what the university president had said that quote, the investigators believe this was an isolated targeted attack and there is no imminent threat to the community at large. We hear you and we understand your fears. We determined early in the investigation that we do not believe there's an ongoing threat for community members. Evidence indicates that this was a targeted attack.
But the police chief, James Fry, kept saying, and Moscow police have maintained this up to this point, that they don't have any suspects. So how do they know this? He acknowledged the other two roommates who were at home at the time the four students were killed, and he added, "...we're not just focusing just on them, we're focusing on everybody that may be coming and going from that residence."
And then Chief Fry kind of backtracked a little, sort of revising his earlier statement. Quote, quote,
So what seems to be confusing to everyone is how the police keep repeating that there's no threat to the community. University senior Bailey Briggs told the New York Times, they say it's a homicide. They're 100% sure it's a homicide, but there's no threat?
And Moscow, Idaho is generally a pretty safe place. These are the first murders in the area in over seven years. So I don't know, maybe the police there are a little out of practice in dealing with situations of this magnitude. Classes, meanwhile, have resumed. The university has left it up to students whether or not they felt safe enough to return. A lot of them, though, haven't felt safe and are fleeing campus to start their Thanksgiving holiday early as Thanksgiving is now this week.
The dean of students increased campus security patrols and student escorts, and the university has made drop-in counseling available to students who feel that they need it. On Wednesday evening, last Wednesday, there was a candlelight vigil held on Admin Lawn for the students. Earlier that day, Jim Chapin, the father of Ethan, the male victim, put out a statement of his own accusing the Moscow police of not being transparent.
Then there was a press conference where Chief Fry apologized for not holding a press conference earlier, and he made it clear everything they still didn't know. The identity and location of the suspect, unknown. The location of the knife, unknown. Or any clothing that was worn by the suspect.
On Thursday, the coroner completed autopsies on all four victims. She says she didn't find any indication of sexual assault, and she described the stab wounds as extensive, and some of the victims had bruises and defensive wounds, likely inflicted by a larger knife. Now police are looking for a military-style, Rambo-style, K-bar-type combat knife. They're warning that, quote, the threat is still out there. Quite different.
different from what they were saying earlier last week. And they're also considering the possibility that there may have been multiple suspects. So this is a breaking story and new information keeps developing throughout each day. In fact, as you're listening to this, new information might have already come out from the time I recorded this. Now, as I continue the story, I do want to spend a little bit of time on the victims and who they were. It's important that we give them a voice in all of this.
Ethan Chapin was studying recreation, sport, and tourism management and was a freshman at the college. And the fall term had just begun on August 22nd.
Ethan was one of three triplets, all students at University of Idaho. He had been a basketball player for the Mount Vernon High School Bulldogs back home in Washington State and graduated in just 2021. He was very athletic. His high school basketball coach remembers him as top notch, and he was also a spike ball champion and liked to play volleyball and soccer.
and he loved going on trips with his family. A classmate of his from high school described him as, quote, the kind of kid who would light up a room and always had a smile on his face. Now, Kaylee Gonsalves was a general studies major in her senior year, and both Maddie Mogan and Zana Cronado were marketing majors. Maddie was a senior and Zana was a junior. All of them were part of Greek life. Kaylee was in the Alpha Phi sorority, and Ethan belonged to the Sigma Chi fraternity.
And both Maddie and Zana were part of the Phi Beta Phi sorority. Now, Maddie's boyfriend described her as someone who was excited to graduate and explore the world. Maddie and Zana also both worked as servers for a restaurant in downtown Moscow called Mad Greek, which shut down on Wednesday to mourn their deaths.
Maddie and Zana had worked at Mad Greek for three years, and Maddie ran their social media, so it's like they were part of this family. In an Instagram post on Monday, the restaurant owner, Jackie, wrote, quote, Now, Jackie, the girl's boss, also organized a special dinner the evening after the murders to remember the victims.
Zana's sister Jasmine said that Zana truly was a once-in-a-lifetime type of person, so positive, funny, and loved by everyone who met her. Quote,
She also told the Times that Zana had been lucky to have the three other victims in her life and that they'd been great friends to her. So we're seeing that all four of these kids were so close. A classmate who'd known Zana since the second grade described her as the nicest person, someone who was never rude to anyone and whom everybody liked. Kaylee, in her senior year, had already landed a position with a marketing company and planned to move to Austin, Texas after graduating. She had a whole life to live.
A friend who cheered with Kaylee said she was super welcoming and always helped her when she needed her. Her family described her as outspoken and motivated, quote, the ultimate middle child. And her friend says she was her family's bonus child and one of the most genuine people that they'd ever met.
Her family said in their statement, quote,
This case is all questions and no answers at this point. Like, for example, why was the 911 call placed for one unconscious individual? How did they not know the victim was stabbed? How did they not find the other three victims? From what we've heard, it was a very bloody crime scene. And what's with all of the mixed messages from the police? First, we have the mayor describing this as a crime of passion, which makes it sound like a murder-suicide or someone who knew the kids.
even though the coroner established that it wasn't a murder-suicide and no weapon was found at the scene. And then the police state again and again that there's no threat to the community, before doing a total reversal on this, now saying the threat is still out there. I feel like maybe they were trying to avoid causing a panic in the community, and maybe they believed that they were going to catch the perpetrator in the first 24 hours, so it wasn't that big a deal to say there was no threat, but now there could still very much be a threat.
Now they believe it could be multiple killers, like they're entertaining the possibility. And then you have someone or multiple someones methodically going from room to room, stabbing each victim to death before moving on to the next room, which is...
is total serial killer behavior. In fact, this case is eerily similar to the 1990 Gainesville Ripper murders, where over a four-day period, a 34-year-old drifter named Danny Rowling broke into off-campus residences at the University of Florida and viciously killed five students with the same kind of knife, a K-bar combat knife that was used here.
But we're not going to speculate. In fact, Ethan Chapman's family has already gone on record about the harm that speculation is causing. He said in a statement, quote, there is a lack of information from the University of Idaho and the local police, which only fuels false rumors and innuendo in the press and social media. Quote, the silence follows.
further compounds our family's agony after our son's murder. For Ethan and his three dear friends slain in Moscow, Idaho, and all of our families, I urge officials to speak the truth, share what they know, find the assailant, and protect the greater community.
And his mother told KTVB7, the things that are being said are 100% not true. There were not drugs involved. There is not some weird love triangle. Ethan had stayed the night at his girlfriend's house, who was one of the five girls who lived in the home. This was very common. And again, this is pointing back to videos going around trying to make reason of something that we don't know enough about. All we can report on is the facts.
So we're going to be keeping an eye on this case and following it closely. It's definitely one of the stranger murder cases we've seen in a while. Stay tuned as the updates keep coming. Thank you for caring about these cases and thank you for caring about the victims. It's always good to pop in on the feed in the middle of the week and we will see you guys in a couple days with another regular episode. I love it and Garrett hates it. Goodbye. Bye.