Idaho murders: Former first floor tenant of Moscow home says he couldn’t hear activity from other floors

FIRST ON FOX: MOSCOW, Idaho — A former tenant of the Moscow, Idaho, home where four University of Idaho students were murdered on Nov. 13 says it was difficult to hear activity on the second and third floors of the home from the first, where he lived.

Ryan Augusta — a healthcare worker and local business owner who now lives in Genesee, Idaho — told Fox News Digital in an interview that when he lived on the first floor of the home on King Road in 2019, unless his roommate was playing the television loudly on the second floor, he typically “heard nothing” from the second and third floors.

“I wouldn’t have heard it from downstairs,” Augusta, 43, said when asked whether he could hear activity coming from the second and third floors of the house when he lived on the first floor.

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At the time of the November quadruple homicide, there were six tenants listed on the lease for the home located near the university’s campus, next door to Greek Row, where the student fraternity and sorority houses are located. 

The house has three floors, and each floor has two bedrooms and one bathroom. The first floor has a door accessible from the driveway, and the second floor has a sliding door accessible from the ground and back patio area because the house was built on a slope in the backyard.

Augusta, a U.S. Army veteran, said he did not know of any crime in the area while he lived there. 

Moscow police have said that two of the victims’ roommates — who lived on the first floor — survived the attack that left Ethan Chapin, 20; Xana Kernodle, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; and Madison Mogen, 21, dead in the early morning hours of Nov. 13. 

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The two roommates on the first floor arrived home at 1 a.m.; Kernodle and Chapin returned home around 1:45 a.m.; and Goncalves and Mogen got back just before 2 a.m. Authorities believe the four were stabbed to death between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m., likely while asleep.

Police responded to a 911 call reporting an unconscious person from one of the two surviving roommates’ phones at 11:58 a.m. on Nov. 13 and located the four deceased students upon arrival shortly thereafter. All victims had multiple stab wounds and “some” had defensive wounds. An unknown number of friends were at the scene when a 911 call was made from one of the victims’ roommates’ phones to report un unconscious person that morning.

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In 2019, when Augusta lived at the house, the residence had code locks on each bedroom door because each bedroom was rented individually, he said. 

It was unclear if that was still the case when the victims began their lease on June 5. Some other victims’ social media posts showed images of the home that reflected that the locks had since been changed. Team Idaho & Team Washington Property Management, which oversees the property, had no comment on Friday.

Augusta lived there with a handful of other people, all men at the time, who were a mix of students or employees at the University of Idaho or Washington State University, or workers at nearby businesses. Augusta lived there for six months and moved out in December 2019.

He called the residence at the time a “community house.”

“You never locked the [side] screen door. Why would you lock the screen door? I mean, you’ve got locks on all the rooms, so we never locked the screen door,” Augusta said.

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He said people would frequently use a “walk path” that led directly from the area of the King Road home to the nearby fraternities. 

“People would continue to walk up that path to that parking lot back there because they probably parked back there, and they lived in the [next-door] brown complex or something,” Augusta explained. “So, yeah, people walk through that all the time. You would always hear people out front. Always trash on the ground, broken bottles — it was pretty nasty.”

The former tenant said he did not have many concerns about his own safety in the neighborhood, but added, “I was concerned for everyone else’s safety at 1122, but that’s because there were so many outrageous parties.”

“I was more worried about drunken hooligans just causing a ruckus,” he said.

Augusta said he has since submitted two tips to police, and is considering a third based on his experience around Moscow and living at the home. 

Moscow police have continued to describe the brutal murders as “an isolated, targeted attack.” University of Idaho students who left campus for Thanksgiving break were given the option to stay home and learn remotely instead of returning to campus with a suspect still on the run. 

Authorities are asking anyone with information about the incident to call 208-883-7180 or tipline@ci.moscow.id.us.