University of Idaho murder victims were in bed, stabbed multiple times: coroner

The four University of Idaho students found slaughtered in an off-campus house Sunday were stabbed to death while in bed — and it’s “likely” they were asleep when attacked, the coroner has revealed.

Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt gave shocking new details on a Thursday night appearance on NewsNation’s “Banfield” as the killer or killers remain on the loose and the “large knife” used in butchering the four college students has yet to be recovered by cops.

“It was late at night or early in the morning so it seems likely maybe they were sleeping,” Mabbutt told host Ashleigh Banfield.

The coroner wouldn’t say if the four victims were found in separate areas, but confirmed the bodies were found in bed.

The stabbings were targeted in the chest and upper bodies of the victims, Mabbutt said.

“It was a pretty large knife so it’s really hard to call them puncture wounds … it has to be somebody that’s pretty angry in order to stab four people to death,” she told Banfield.

Victims Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21 were stabbed multiple times in a house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho on Sunday.

Mabbutt had previously called the rampage “personal” and said it was possible that some of the wounds on the bodies were defensive. There were no signs of sexual assault to any of the students killed, she said.

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AP

Authorities have been trying to piece together the four’s final hours as they say they were murdered sometime overnight Saturday or early Sunday.

Here’s the latest coverage on the brutal killings of four college friends:

Kernodle’s father said in an interview with Arizona Family that the autopsy, performed on Wednesday, showed his daughter fought her killer to the end and had defensive marks on her.

“Bruises, torn by the knife,” Jeffrey Kernodle told the publication. “She’s a tough kid. Whatever she wanted to do, she could do it.” Kernodle had been in a relationship with Chapin and the pair had been living together in the house with the other two victims and two others.

James Keivom

James Keivom

James Keivom

Law enforcement authorities called the bloody crime the “worst they’ve ever seen,” as the community remained shaken over the slaughter.