[imagesource: Instagram / Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle / PEOPLE]

On Sunday, November 13, Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were found dead in an apartment near the campus of the University of Idaho.

All four victims were stabbed to death as they slept in an off-campus house on King Road, located near the university’s sorority and fraternity houses, and their deaths were officially ruled as a quadruple homicide.

The four friends were found covered in blood in their beds on the second and third floors of the house while two other unidentified surviving housemates slept until the next morning.

A manhunt has been underway for more than a week in this remote college town as the still-unidentified suspect is on the loose. The motive for the appalling crime is also still not known.

In fact, very little is known about this brutal slaying of these four young college students:

Image: Instagram/Kaylee Goncalves

The university and surrounding Moscow town community are terrified in the wake of this tragedy as the authorities stumble through the mountain of evidence from the “messy” crime scene, per The Independent:

Almost everything that happened in that residence after 1.45am last Sunday still remains a mystery – compounded by changing stories from law enforcement and wild social media speculation that has seeped into the local rumour mill.

The investigation has already included 646 tips, 90 interviews and more than 130 members of law enforcement, authorities said Sunday. The FBI alone had 44 people working on the murders, including two members of the Behavioural Analysis Unit – the criminal profiling unit made famous by Criminal Minds.

The investigation entered its ninth day on Monday and all that authorities have nailed down is the victims’ movements in the hours before their murders:

Kaylee and Madison had been partying downtown on Saturday night, spending from 10pm to 1.30am at The Corner Club, a local bar at the edge of Main Street. Then they grabbed pasta at the Grub Truck, a local favourite food truck often parked on Main Street on Saturdays to cater to students leaving bars looking for late-night snacks.

Here the two girls were captured on surveillance footage speaking to a hooded young man; he was the focus of much speculation in the immediate aftermath but has been ruled out as a suspect, authorities said.

The girls were then driven home by a “private party”, getting home at 1:45AM. The driver has also been ruled out as a suspect, police said.

Meanwhile, Ethan and Xana, who had been socialising at the Sigma Chi frat house located on a hill just across a field and just a few kilometres from the girls’ home on King Road, came home around the same time, too:

Madison and Kaylee made several calls after getting home, police said; according to Kaylee’s sister, the calls were to her ex-boyfriend who shared a dog with the victim. The Goncalves family has repeatedly said they stand by her former boyfriend and do not believe he is in any way involved in the crime.

The other two housemates in the house at the time were also ruled out, even though there was a suspect 911 call made from one of their phones:

A 911 call reporting an unconscious person came in at 11.58am on Sunday, and it was only when police responded that the four victims were found stabbed to death. But the cops were evasive for a full week about the call, throwing up red flags; they have not only refused to release the transcript but have also refused to confirm who made it.

The autopsy findings ruled that the victims were stabbed to death, probably with a large knife – but not a single possible weapon or hint of one has been found in the small town:

There was no signs of sexual assault on any of the victims but they were each stabbed a different amount of times and in different places on the body.

Some of the victims had defensive wounds, [Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt] added – without revealing which victims.

On Instagram, Goncalves’s sister, Aubrie Goncalves, asked everyone to be careful and get out of the town as they are not safe while her sibling’s “sicko” killer remains at large.

Image: Sheila Flynn / The Independent

Authorities, meanwhile, “can’t say that there is no threat”, per The Guardian:

“Based on details at the scene, we believe that this was an isolated, targeted attack on our victims,” said Moscow police captain James Fry in the days following the murders.

“We do not have a suspect at this time and that individual is still out there. We cannot say that there is no threat to the community and, as we have stated, please stay vigilant, report any suspicious activity and be aware of your surroundings at all times.”

Apparently, a load of students have already skedaddled out of the town and it looks like it will stay quiet until someone is apprehended for the heinous crime.

[sources:independent&guardian]