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The University of Idaho plans to provide housing for students who left campus after the killings of four students.
As the killers of the Idaho community remain free from the brutal murders of Xana Kernodle, 20, Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Madison Mogen, 21, fellow students continue to struggle with safety concerns.
University of Idaho senior Dylan Bartels told The Independent that he estimated half of the students left Moscow and went home before Thanksgiving break. Others, like Mr. Bartels, don’t have that option and stay on campus.
“Normally, I have to drive about five minutes to find a parking spot; I pulled over and one of the closest spots was open,” Mr. Bartels said. “I mean, literally, the student population going to class dropped 50 percent. Overnight.”
In a release Tuesday, university president Scott Green said the college planned to “be flexible at the end of the semester” and that faculty had been asked to prepare in-person and distance learning options for the last two weeks of the semester.
“We have heard from many of you how you hope we will move forward as a university after fall break,” the statement said.
“Moving courses fully online is not preferred but may be necessary in limited circumstances. Students, your faculty will contact you with course options shortly.”
The university also announced that they plan to hold commencement ceremonies on December 10. Two of those killed in their off-campus rental home, Goncalves and Mogen, were set to graduate with the class of 2022.
Chapin and Karnodle are about to finish their first semester as juniors.
Idaho’s four dead universities
(Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Mr. Green thanked the community and said resources were made available to students struggling with the aftermath of the killing that rocked the city of just over 25,000.
“We appreciate our staff who are keeping offices open, providing resources and helping our students, again while dealing with their own natural response to this tragedy,” Mr. Green added.
The university will hold a vigil at 5pm on Wednesday for the slain students, who lived off campus and were likely killed in their sleep after returning home in the early hours of November 13.
The bodies were found on the second and third floors after one of the home’s two surviving roommates called 911 around noon. Autopsy results released last week revealed that all four suffered multiple stab wounds from a large knife.
Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Jana Karnodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were killed on Nov. 13.
(Instagram)
The death was ruled a homicide with the killer or killers still a week after the murder.
Police said the two surviving roommates, a man seen in a Twitch video that also showed Goncalves and Mogen at a food truck hours before the murders, and a man who drove the two home that night are not considered suspects.
More details will be released during a press conference scheduled for Wednesday.