MOSCOW, Idaho — One of the four University of Idaho students killed by an unknown suspect earlier this month was seen having a “normal” night out with her friends just hours before the tragedy struck, a classmate recalled. and a sorority sister.
Madison Mogen, 21, spent much of the night on Nov. 12 at the Corner Club in Moscow, Idaho, where she was seen “laughing with all her friends,” said fellow student and neighbor Madison Moye.
“It was a normal night in Moscow,” Moye, a 21-year-old sophomore, told Fox News Digital on Monday. “Moscow is a safe place. Nothing like this ever happens… I didn’t think anything of it.”
TIMELINE OF MURDERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE KILLING OF FOUR STUDENTS
That was the last time Moye saw Mogen, who police say spent the night with another of the victims, 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves.
Moye said Mogen was at the club, a hotspot for University of Idaho students, for “most of the night.” According to police, Mogen and Goncalves left the bar around 1:30 a.m. and went to a nearby food truck before returning to their King Road home at 1:56 a.m. Sunday.
Senior photographs of Madison Mogen two days before her passing.
(Photo by Jessie Frost)
Tragedy struck later that day, when police received a call to the three-story house with a report of an “unconscious person” just before noon.
Officers arrived and found four students, Goncalves, Mogen, 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, and 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, on the second and third floors with multiple stab wounds, police said.
Exterior view of the Corner Club in Moscow, Idaho on Monday, November 22, 2022
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
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The victims’ wounds indicated they were stabbed in their sleep sometime between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m., with some signs showing the victims trying to defend themselves, police said. Investigators believe the killer used a single “fixed blade knife” to carry out the crimes.
University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, 20; Xana Kernodle, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
(Jazzmin Kernodle via AP/Instagram/ @kayleegoncalves)
Two other roommates were downstairs in the home at the time of the attack and survived, police said.
Aaron Snell, director of communications for the Idaho State Police, did not respond to a question Monday regarding whether the surviving roommates had guests at the time of the crimes.
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Police search a house in Moscow, Idaho on Monday, November 14, where four University of Idaho students were killed over the weekend in an apparent quadruple homicide. The victims are Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Idaho; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
Police previously said they had searched local knife shops for any leads related to the killer. Tuesday marked 16 days without police naming a suspect and investigators not recovering the murder weapon.
Goncalves, Kernodle and Mogen are said to have lived in the house at the time. The residence was located just a block from the perimeter of the University of Idaho campus and within sight of a few frat houses.
Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, along with the two other roommates of the women in Kaylee Goncalves’ latest Instagram post, shared the day before the murders.
(@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
Police said Chapin and Kernodle spent the night of November 12 at one of the frat houses, Sigma Chi, before returning to the King Road home around 1:45 a.m.
Speaking with Fox News Digital on Monday, Moye said she and two of the victims, Kernodle and Mogen, were members of the same college sorority, Pi Beta Phi. She said that she had been in the house “from time to time” before it became a crime scene, for events or when the girls “hang out”.
Goncalves was a member of a different sorority on campus, he said.
Their deaths, Moye said, have been “really tough.”
Exterior plan of the Pi Beta Phi House.
(FoxNews)
“The vandal community is very tight-knit, and it’s kind of like putting a darkness over it,” he said.
She told Fox News Digital that Mogen and Kernodle had withdrawn from the sorority last semester, and therefore she had seen them less frequently in recent months. Spokespersons for the local and national chapters did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for confirmation on Monday.
A memorial to the students killed at the University of Idaho on Monday, November 28, 2022 is covered in snow. The memorial honors the victims of a quadruple homicide involving an off-campus home on November 13.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
The Pi Beta Phi chapter of the University of Idaho posted a photo of the girls on Instagram last week, with a caption calling Mogen and Kernodle “brilliant young women who had amazing futures ahead of them.”
“Maddie was the sweetest soul, passionate about every aspect of her life. She shared her brilliance with those around her. Xana was a magnet for positive energy and always radiated that energy out into the world,” the post said. “We know that others in our community are hurting too; we grieve with them and share the weight of her pain.”
Moye lives in a house behind the crime scene. She said she did not go to the house on the morning of November 13, when police said officers arrived and found several people inside.
Photo illustration shows the approximate location of the University of Idaho crime scene in close proximity to the campus perimeter
(University of Idaho)
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When asked about the possibility that the killer passed through his yard, he replied: “It’s definitely something that crossed my mind and it’s really scary.”
She said that she and many of her classmates normally walked to campus for class, and that she has often used a shortcut that goes through the parking lot behind the victims’ home.
SEE: SECURITY ON THE UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO CAMPUS
As students returned to campus and classes Monday, Moye said he’s changing his habits and plans to bring pepper spray.
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A single marked police vehicle was seen parked outside the home on Monday. The perimeter remains covered in crime scene tape more than two weeks after the victims were found.
Authorities called the attack “targeted” but did not say who the intended victim was.
Police said Sunday that they had received more than 488 “digital media submissions” through the FBI website.
SEE: STUDENTS RETURN TO THE UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO CAMPUS
Idaho State Police Col. Kedrick Wills said investigators had collected 103 pieces of evidence from the crime scene and taken approximately 4,000 photos as of Wednesday.
He added that investigators had processed “more than a thousand leads and conducted 150 interviews.”
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A sign posted at a local restaurant in Moscow Idaho on Monday, November 28, 2022 asks the public to look for clues in the quadruple homicide of four University of Idaho students.
(Stephanie Pagones/Fox News Digital)
The Moscow Police Department encourages the public to submit any images or information that they believe might be important or useful to their investigation. They can do so by calling 208-883-7180, submitting suggestions via tipline@ci.moscow.id.us, and submitting digital media here.
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The authorities also created a dedicated web page related to the King Road attack.
Fox News Digital’s Rebecca Rosenberg and Matteo Cina contributed to this report.
