Four University of Idaho students found dead in an off-campus home were targeted, and the killer or killers used a knife or other “edged weapon” in the attack, police said Tuesday.

The Moscow Police Department made the announcement in a news release, adding that investigators were working to establish a timeline to recreate the victims' activities before they were found dead Sunday. Police said the killings likely occurred in the early morning hours, and the bodies were found around noon.

The students' deaths were considered to be “an isolated, targeted attack and there is no imminent threat to the community at large,” according to police, who earlier said evidence from the scene led them to believe there was no broader risk. Police provided no information about that evidence or why they believe the victims were targeted.

Autopsies expected to be completed later this week could provide more information about how the victims were killed.

Investigators were “following all leads and identifying persons of interest” in the case, the news release said. Monday night, police Captain Anthony Dahlinger told the Idaho Statesman that officers were searching for a suspect.

Police discovered the students’ bodies Sunday as they responded to a report of an unconscious person at a home steps away from the campus.

The victims were identified as Ethan Chapin, a 20-year-old from Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, a 21-year-old from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, from Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, from Rathdrum, Idaho.

The university canceled classes on Monday, and said additional security staffers were available to walk students across campus if needed during the remainder of the week.

Still, the initial lack of information about the cause of the deaths — and the fact that police have said there is no one in custody — prompted many students to leave campus early, days before the Thanksgiving break was scheduled to begin.

A vigil for the slain students originally scheduled for Wednesday evening has been postponed until after Thanksgiving break, University of Idaho spokesman Kyle Pfannenstiel said in an email Tuesday.

In an earlier memo, University of Idaho President Scott Green urged university employees to be empathetic and flexible, and work with students who decided to leave classes to spend time with their families.

“Words cannot adequately describe the light these students brought to this world or ease the depth of suffering we feel at their passing under these tragic circumstances,” Green wrote of the slain students.

Police said anyone with information should contact the department and asked that people respect the privacy of the victims' family and friends.

Brian Nickerson, the fire chief of the Moscow Volunteer Fire and EMS Department, said police were the first to arrive at the home. The first responders from the fire and EMS department didn't go inside or transport anyone from the scene, Nickerson said.

The city of Moscow is a close-knit college town nestled in the rolling hills of north-central Idaho, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Spokane, Washington.

The university said Chapin was a freshman and a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, and Kernodle was a junior majoring in marketing and a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. Mogen was a senior also majoring in marketing and a member of Pi Beta Phi, and Goncalves was a senior majoring in general studies and a member of the Alpha Phi sorority, the university said. The university also had different home town listed for Chapin and Kernodle than the towns listed in the Moscow Police Department release: The school said Chapin was from Mount Vernon, Washington, and Kernodle was from Post Falls, Idaho.

Shortly after Moscow police announced the homicide investigation, students at the University of Virginia were also told to shelter in place after police said a suspect gunned down fellow students on a bus as they returned from a school field trip. The shooting left three members of the school's football team dead and two other students injured. The shooting touched off an intense manhunt Sunday, and authorities announced Monday that a suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., had been apprehended.

Authorities investigating the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students as they slept in a house near campus are asking for outside surveillance video to help solve the week-old crime.

The Moscow Police Department late Saturday requested from businesses and residences in specific parts of the city any footage recorded between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Nov. 13, the day of the killings.

Police said they have received about 500 tips after the killings shook the Idaho Panhandle community of 25,000 residents. The leafy college town about 80 miles south of Spokane, Washington, last saw a homicide about five years ago.

Also on Saturday, police said a private driver who gave two of the women a ride home was not involved in the crime.

Police held a news conference on Sunday afternoon to provide an update on the investigation. During the news conference, police said there are no suspects in custody and they have not yet located a weapon.

Police said they will continue to put all of their resources into the investigation.

All four victims were members of fraternities and sororities: seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington. The women were roommates, and Chapin was dating Kernodle.

Police said Chapin and Kernodle were at Sigma Chi house on the University of Idaho camps and returned home around 1:45 a.m. on Nov. 13. Police said Mogen and Goncalves were at a bar called The Corner Club in downtown Moscow, left the bar and stopped at a food truck, and then also returned home at about 1:45 a.m.

Police on Saturday said Mogen and Goncalves made multiple calls to a male they didn't identify, and that information is part of an ongoing investigation.

Additionally, police said a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt and seen in a video at the food truck near Mogen and Goncalves shortly before they returned home is not involved in the crime.

Video below: Investigators seen collecting evidence in Idaho parking lot

Police said two other roommates who were in the house on the night of the killings had returned home at about 1 a.m. and slept through the attack, waking later that day. Police said one of their phones was used to call 911 from inside the residence at 11:58 a.m.

Police have said those two roommates were not involved in the killings.

Police said the victims were found on the second and third floors of the six-bedroom home.

Police have said evidence leads them to believe the students were targeted, though they haven't given details. Investigators say nothing appears to have been stolen from the victims or the home. Police have said there was no sign of forced entry, and first responders found a door open when they arrived.

Police also said online reports of the victims being tied and gagged are not accurate.

Police have seized the contents of three dumpsters to locate possible evidence, and detectives have asked local businesses if they recently sold a fixed-blade knife.

The Moscow Police Department said four detectives, five support staff and 24 patrol officers are working on the case.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has 22 investigators helping in Moscow, and 20 more agents assisting from outside the area.

The Idaho State Police has supplied 20 investigators, 15 troopers, and its mobile crime scene team.

CNN —

A coalition of media organizations and the father of a murder victim are set to come to an Idaho court on Friday with the same goal in mind: challenging a gag order.

Two separate hearings are scheduled in the criminal case against Bryan Kohberger, the criminology graduate student at Washington State University accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in their off-campus home. A not guilty plea has been entered on his behalf, and the trial is set for October.

The brutality of the killings and the lack of clarity on his connections to the group of friends have made it one of the highest-profile cases in U.S. news.

Yet due to a wide-ranging gag order, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and attorneys for victims' families and witnesses are prohibited from saying anything publicly, aside from what is already in the public record.

Gag orders are a common occurrence in high-profile cases, such as the man accused of carrying out January's mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, California, or the involuntary manslaughter trial of the parents of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley.

In Idaho on Friday, an attorney for the family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the four victims, will argue to amend the order at a hearing at 10:30 a.m. local time, saying it has restricted their free speech rights. Afterward, a coalition of media organizations also will argue to vacate the order, calling it "vague, overbroad, unduly restrictive, and not narrowly drawn," according to court documents.

The dual hearings have put a renewed focus on the gag order, the colorful term for what's technically known as a "nondissemination order."

At its most basic level, the gag order sets restrictions on what information can be released to the public and what certain people involved in the case can say.

The idea is to balance the First Amendment right to free speech with the Sixth Amendment right for a defendant to receive a fair trial, said University of Idaho assistant professor of law Samuel Newton. The concern is that too much commentary and publicity about a case can create jurors who have already made up their minds.

"What you're worried about is tainting the whole (jury) pool," Newton said.

The gag order is just one of a number of strategies judges can take to eliminate jury bias. They can also move the trial to another venue, create a jury questionnaire or sequester the jury during the trial.

But when does restricting speech in a case with such high public interest go too far? What are the limits?

What the gag order says

The arrest warrant and criminal affidavit for Kohberger were issued on December 29, 2022, and within a week the prosecution and defense jointly agreed to a gag order.

The Jan. 3 order states that "investigators, law enforcement personnel, attorneys, and agents of the prosecuting attorney or defense attorney, are prohibited from making extrajudicial statements, written or oral, concerning this case, other than quotation from or reference to, without comment, the public records of the case," Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall wrote.

The order specifically forbade commentary on evidence of occurrences or transactions, the character or criminal record of a party, opinions about the merits of the case and "the existence or contents of any confession, admission, or statement given by the defendant."

An amended nondissemination order issued on January 18 then expanded the gag order. The amended order stated the restrictions applied not just to the prosecution and defense but to "any attorney representing a witness, victim, or victim's family." Further, the order prohibited any statements on the character or criminal record of "a party, victim, or witness, or the identity of a witness, or the expected testimony of a party, victim, or witness."

"There is a balance between protecting the right to a fair trial for all parties involved and the right to free expression as afforded under both the United States and Idaho Constitution," the amended order explained. "To preserve the right to a fair trial some curtailment of the dissemination of information in this case is necessary and authorized under the law."

For the Goncalves family, that amended order went too far. The family's attorney Shanon Gray filed a motion challenging it, saying there should not be any restrictions on what he can say on behalf of the Goncalves family.

"He's not voicing his own opinion, he's voicing the family's opinion," Steve Goncalves, Kaylee's father, told CNN on May 23. "What's the point of having a lawyer if a judge can just say your lawyer can't speak?"

Separately, a coalition of media organizations petitioned the district court to vacate the gag order for other reasons. In a May 1 filing, the coalition, referred to as "Associated Press, et al," said the gag order was too expansive and argued the court did not provide any evidence that media coverage presents a risk to Kohberger's right to a fair trial.

"The Gag Order, which is based on the Parties' stipulation, rests merely on an assumption that press coverage is bad. The U.S. Constitution and the Idaho Constitution demand more."

The filing specifically noted several instances of the gag order's impact on journalists. For example, officials have cited the gag order in declining to release tapes of 911 calls and public records requests, the filing states.

The media coalition had initially asked the Idaho Supreme Court to overturn the gag order. While the court agreed the order restricted freedom of the press, it declined to vacate the order, saying the state supreme court was not the proper venue.

Kohberger's defense attorneys pushed back in motions arguing that courts have broader powers to limit the speech of lawyers and that the media attention, specifically noting a recent "Dateline NBC" special, threatens his right to a fair trial.

"The upshot of this and similar media stories is a constant feedback loop of people crying out for Mr. Kohberger's blood," defense attorneys wrote.

Similarly, state prosecutors have argued against amending the nondissemination order, stating that the restrictions on attorney statements is "not vague, overbroad or unduly restrictive."

Gag orders used in other cases

Gag orders have similarly been used in other high-profile mass killings that garnered significant public attention.

One such case is the trial of Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley. His parents have pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter for what prosecutors say was their "gross negligence" in purchasing the gun and ignoring their son's warning signs.

Prosecutors have publicly criticized the couple repeatedly, and the couple's arrest after a manhunt was captured on CNN video.

Last year, the defense filed a motion to restrict pretrial publicity, but Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald pushed back, saying their request was "consistent with the conduct that brings them before this Court – they are concerned only about themselves."

After a series of back-and-forth filings, the court issued an order and an amended order restricting publicity about the case.

"It is hereby ordered that, to protect the rights of the accused as well as the People to a fair trial, none of the parties, directly or through their agents, will engage in pretrial publicity by making public statements about the case to the media," Judge Cheryl Matthews wrote on July 14, 2022, in the amended order.

Similarly, the suspect in the January mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, which left seven people dead, asked for and was granted a gag order in his case, according to CNN affiliate KGO. That ruling prohibits any of the parties from talking about the case outside of court.

Chunli Zhao, the shooting suspect, has pleaded not guilty.

MOSCOW, Idaho —

Video above: Church holds memorial service for slain University of Idaho students

A suspect in the killings of four University of Idaho students was arrested in eastern Pennsylvania, a law enforcement official said Friday.

Arrest paperwork filed in Monroe County Court said Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was being held for extradition to Idaho on a warrant for first degree murder.

A law enforcement official confirmed the arrest to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the official could not publicly discuss details of the investigation ahead of a formal announcement expected later Friday.

A Ph.D. student by the same name is listed in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, which is a short drive across the state line from the University of Idaho. Messages seeking more information were left for officials at WSU.

The Idaho students — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — were stabbed to death at a rental home near campus sometime in the early morning hours of Nov. 13. The slayings initially mystified law enforcement, with investigators unable to name a suspect or locate a murder weapon for weeks.

But the case broke open after law enforcement asked the public for help finding a white sedan seen near the home around the time of the killings. The Moscow Police Department made the request Dec. 7, and by the next day had to direct tips to a special FBI call center because so many were coming in.

Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington, were members of the university's Greek system and close friends. Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle lived in the three-story rental home with two other roommates. Kernodle and Chapin were dating and he was visiting the house that night.

Autopsies showed all four were likely asleep when they were attacked. Some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times. There was no sign of sexual assault, police said.

Police said Thursday the rental home would be cleared of “potential biohazards and other harmful substances” to collect evidence starting Friday morning. It was unclear how long the work would take, but a news release said the house would be returned to the property manager upon completion.

The stabbing deaths shook the small town of Moscow, Idaho, a farming community of about 25,000 people — including roughly 11,000 students — tucked in the rolling hills of the northern Idaho’s Palouse region.

The case also enticed online sleuths who speculated about potential suspects and motives. In the early days of the investigation, police released relatively few details publicly.

Fears of a repeat attack prompted nearly half of the University of Idaho students to switch to online classes for the remainder of the semester, abandoning dorms and apartments in the normally bucolic town for the perceived safety of their hometowns. Safety concerns also had the university hiring an additional security firm to escort students across campus and the Idaho State Police sending troopers to help patrol the city’s streets.

Monroe County is located in eastern Pennsylvania in the Pocono Mountains. The county seat, Stroudsburg, is about 100 miles north of Philadelphia.

___

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho, and Balsamo reported from Washington.

An Idaho judge entered not guilty pleas on behalf of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students last fall, during an arraignment in a Latah County Court on Monday.

Judge John Judge read aloud Kohberger’s rights and each of the murder and burglary charges outlined in the indictment. When asked if he understood the charges, Kohberger replied to each, “Yes.”

When asked for his plea to the counts, Kohberger remained silent. His attorney rose and said, “Your honor, we are standing silent,” and the judge then entered not guilty pleas for him.

Kohberger, 28, was indicted last week on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary for the November 13 killings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, at a home just outside the university’s main campus in Moscow, Idaho.

The trial was set for Oct. 2 and is expected to last about six weeks. Prosecutors have 60 days from Monday to announce, in writing, whether they plan to seek the death penalty in this case.

Wearing an orange prison outfit, Kohberger smiled and nodded at his attorney upon entering court but otherwise stared straight ahead during the arraignment. Family members of Goncalves also attended the hearing and remained focused on Kohberger as he was arraigned, according to Jordan Smith, a reporter for CNN affiliate KXLY who had a vantage point of the family in court.

The hearing offered few details on a grisly case that remains shrouded in mystery. Authorities say Kohberger, a graduate student in the Department of Criminology at nearby Washington State University, broke into the students’ home and repeatedly stabbed the victims before fleeing the scene. Police have not released a potential motive in the case, and due to a wide-ranging gag order, few details have trickled out so far.

The killings and lengthy investigation rattled the community of Moscow, a city of 25,000 people that hadn’t recorded a murder since 2015. After weeks with little information and heightened anxieties, Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania in late December and identified as the alleged killer.

He has been in police custody since then and is being held without bail.

Also on Monday, the court scheduled two hearings for June 9 to address motions, filed by an attorney representing the family of Goncalves and a media coalition, regarding concerns over the wide-ranging gag order in the case.

As it stands, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and attorneys for victims’ families and witnesses are prohibited from saying anything publicly, aside from what is already in the public record.

How police narrowed in on Kohberger

In the days after the discovery of the grisly crime scene, investigators narrowed in on Kohberger after focusing on a white Hyundai Elantra seen in surveillance footage near the crime scene, according to a probable cause affidavit released in January.

By Nov. 25, area law enforcement officers were notified to look out for the vehicle, the affidavit read. Within days, police at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington, identified a vehicle and found it registered to Kohberger.

His driver’s license information was consistent with the description of a man given to police by the victims’ surviving roommate, the affidavit says, specifically noting his height, weight and bushy eyebrows.

The roommate told investigators she saw a man with a similar description clad in black the morning of the attack. Hours before the killings, Chapin and Kernodle had attended a party on campus, police have said, while Mogen and Goncalves went to a downtown bar before ordering food at a food truck.

Video below: Police body camera video shows officers executing search warrant at Bryan Kohberger's home

Investigators connected Kohberger to the crime scene after DNA on a tan leather knife sheath found lying next to one of the victims was linked to DNA on trash recovered from Kohberger’s family home in Pennsylvania, according to the affidavit.

There, investigators seized a white 2015 Hyundai Elantra an attorney for the suspect previously said he’d used to drive, accompanied by his father, to his parents’ home for the holidays. Court documents show investigators dismantled the vehicle, collecting parts, fiber and swabs for further examination.

Investigators also seized knives, a cell phone, black gloves, black masks, laptops, dark-colored clothes and dark shoes, an evidence log shows.

Following his arrest, Kohberger waived extradition and was sent back to Idaho. He was booked into the Latah County Jail on the same counts for which he was indicted.

Many details about the case remain unknown, in part due to a wide-ranging nondissemination order that prevents attorneys for any interested party in the case from commenting beyond the public record, leaving in place a veil of secrecy.

A preliminary hearing had been scheduled for the end of June, with the parties expected to detail evidence collected by the state. But the hearing was canceled after Kohberger’s indictment, Latah County Deputy Court Clerk Tamzen Reeves said, and court records indicate the names of the witnesses who testified before the grand jury are under seal.