Two roommates of slain University of Idaho students break silence

By Erik Ortiz -

Two roommates inside the building where four students were killed near the University of Idaho said they are struggling to come to terms with why the lives of

were so brutally taken. .

In letters read aloud at a church vigil Friday, the housemates made public statements for the first time about the unsolved murders of 21-year-old Maddie Mogen;

Kaylee Goncalves, 21;

Xana Kernodle, 20;

and Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20.

According to authorities, Chapin had spent the night at the home when the four were fatally stabbed in the early hours of November 13.

Bethany Funke wrote that Mogen told her that “'everything happens for a reason,' but I'm having a really hard time understanding the reason for this”.

From top left, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle.

Another roommate, Dylan Mortensen, claimed in a letter that the victims "lighted up any room they entered and were gifts to this world."

“My life was greatly impacted by meeting these four beautiful people,” Mortensen wrote,

.”

Police in the rural college town of Moscow say Funke and Mortensen were on the first floor of the house, just south of the University of Idaho, where the friends were all students, when an assassin or assassins attacked the other classmates. room.

[The death of 4 University of Idaho students is being investigated as a possible “crime of passion”]

Police said that all four victims were probably sleeping, and that all were stabbed multiple times.

The investigation enters its fourth week as frustration mounts among the families of the victims and the community at large over the failure to identify the suspect.

The weapon, which is believed to be a knife with a large blade, has not been found.

In this small town no one has been killed in seven years.

"A very complex case" shocks her now

Dec 1, 202202:42

Moscow police have had to retract conflicting statements and deny internet rumors, but insist the killings were a "targeted attack."

“We remain convinced that this is a targeted attack, but we have not concluded whether the residence or its occupants were targeted,” the Moscow Police Department said last week.

Detectives are piecing together the final hours of the roommates' lives, receiving thousands of clues and requesting more videos from the neighborhood to aid the investigation.

Several people who were seen interacting with friends throughout the night, including at a food cart, have been cleared.

[The death of 4 University of Idaho students is being investigated as a possible “crime of passion”]

Funke and Mortensen, identified by police as "two surviving roommates", are not believed to have been involved in the crime.

According to detectives, both were asleep during the stabbings and one of their phones was used to call 911 when they woke up that same morning on November 13.

They reveal that a sixth person lived in the house where the Idaho students were murdered

Dec 2, 202200:26

Mortensen assured in his letter that he would never forget his three roommates or Chapin, whom he described as an older brother.

“I know it will be hard not having all four of them in our lives, but I know that Xana, Ethan, Maddie and Kaylee would want us to live life and be happy,” Mortensen said, “and they would want us to celebrate their lives.”