Video from Idaho murders house reveals wild party while victims weren’t home

Newly-released bodycam footage reveals Moscow authorities previously responded to a wild party at the off-campus house where four University of Idaho students were slain on November 13, and even spoke to one of the victims via phone.

In the video obtained by the true crime YouTube channel “Truth & Transparency,” Moscow police officers are seen addressing a noise complaint at 1122 King Road on the night of Sept. 1, 2022. 

After knocking on the door for about 10 minutes, the officers are greeted by a raucous party of young people, one of whom informs them that the residents are not home.

“They left and went to another party,” a man tells the frustrated officers, seemingly referring to Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, as well their two other housemates.

Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle, and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were found stabbed to death at the King Road house just over two months later, on Nov. 13. The two additional housemates, who were home at the time of the murders, were unharmed. 

After a tense moment in which an officer demands that the students “quit [playing] games,” they manage to contact Mogen.

Speaking to one of the officers over the phone, Mogen– who identifies herself as “Maddie”– can be heard saying she was “so sorry” for the inconvenience.

“I’m just frustrated,” she tells the officer. 

While it is unclear where Mogen was when she took the call, the officer then advises her to “just come home.”

The September bodycam footage is the latest twist in the slow-moving investigation, as investigators struggle to come up with a suspect over one month after the shock slayings. Earlier this week, police were photographed inspecting the King Road property through a dusting of snow.

On Monday, the Moscow Police Department announced it had received 10,000 tips hoping to identify the culprit.

“We’re reviewing all those tips, we’re checking to ensure that we have individuals who look at those tips and any piece of evidence that they can link to this case they’re doing so,” MPD Chief James Fry said in an interview this week.

Shortly after the killings, neighbors in the busy college town neighborhood remembered the King Road residence as a “party house.”

“There were a lot of people that went into and out of that house pretty frequently,” Jeremy Reagan, a law student who lived near the victims, told reporters at the time.