The autopsies performed on the 4 University of Idaho students who were butchered to death showed that the killings were “personal” – as the daddy of considered one of the victims suggested that his daughter tried to fight off the attacker.
Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt on Thursday confirmed that the reason behind death was murder by stabbing.
“It might have needed to been a big knife,” she told the Moscow-Pullman Day by day News in regards to the murder weapon, which has not been found.
The coroner described the attacks from early Sunday as “personal,” in accordance with Idaho News, which cited a CBS report.
Mabbutt said it was possible that a few of the wounds within the bloody rampage were defensive, adding that it was unknown who was attacked first.
She told KXLY that every victim was stabbed greater than once and that there have been no signs of sexual assault on the off-campus home on King Road where the scholars were slaughtered.
Mabbutt said there was a “fair amount of blood” on the scene, adding that in her 16 years on the job, she had never handled such a horrific case where 4 college students were killed in a single spot.
“I don’t think I’ve had one other death by stabbing,” she added.
The murders of Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, have left the college community reeling — with police describing the crime scene because the “worst they’ve ever seen.”
Kernodle’s father said he believes the autopsy results show that she fought her killer to the top.
“Bruises, torn by the knife. She’s a tricky kid. Whatever she desired to do, she could do it,” Jeffrey Kernodle told Arizona’s Family.
Jeffrey said he last heard from Xana, who was from Avondale, Arizona, at midnight Sunday and that “she was fantastic.”
“They were just hanging out at home. Xana was just hanging out at home together with her boyfriend,” he told the news outlet, referring to Chapin.
“Her and Ethan were together a couple of 12 months, give or take. And he or she, really, once I went up there she, I saw her just every week before that and she or he modified quite a bit. She had a life. She got to see what it was wish to have a boyfriend you reside with,” the devastated dad said.
Meanwhile, tons of of individuals held a vigil at Boise State University on Thursday night to recollect the slain students.
“Today I wear the black and gold of the University of Idaho,” BSU President Marlene Tromp told the gang, the Idaho Statesman reported.
“Today, our long-standing rivalry is ready aside. Today, we come together to create light in a painful and dark time. We’re all Vandals. Ethan. Xana. Madison. Kaylee. We are going to remember,” she said.
One person in attendance read a press release on behalf of a student who was said to be a friend of the three female victims.
“I remember jumping on the trampoline and watching ‘MTV Cribs’ at Kaylee’s house, to watching reality TV and trying on makeup at Maddie’s,” wrote the friend, named Carly. “They’re individuals who shaped who I’m today in crucial years in my life, and I’ll at all times think fondly of the friendships I had with them.”
BSU student Trevor Drummond remembered Kernodle, whom he met in junior high.
“Xana, she treated me like I used to be a part of the friend group for years,” he said, the Statesman reported.
“I don’t think there’s anyone as outgoing, fun or loving as her. Every time we were hanging out, she would at all times be certain others round her were having more fun than she was,” he added.