Quadruple Murder Breakthrough: Police Zero In On University of Idaho Reserve Officers' Training Corps For Possible ‘Rambo’-Style Knife
Nov. 21 2022, Published 10:38 a.m. ET
Cops investigating the grisly quadruple murder of four University of Idaho students who were found brutally murdered on Nov. 13 are probing a possible link to the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.
A Reserve Officers' Training Corps — or ROTC — is a college program offered at the students’ colleges campus that prepares young adults to become officers in the U.S. Military.
Investigators believe the weapon used in the brutal slaying was a combat knife and it could’ve been sourced for the University of Idaho ROTC program, said a law enforcement source.
No murder weapon has been found as of yet.
“Police believe a Ka-Bar-style knife was used in the murders, and they’ve already ruled out that type of weapon was for sale at a local store,” a case insider told RadarOnline.com.
“This is a very unique style of a knife which is about six inches long.”
It has been described as similar to the knife brandished by Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone. A Ka-Bar knife has a blade on one side and a serrated edge on the other.
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The combat knife was issued by the U.S. Marine Corps in the 1940s, according to the company’s website.
The knife was later adopted by the Marines, the Army, the Navy, the Coast Guard, and the Underwater Demolition Teams.
A police source added, “Clearly investigators want to know if the University of Idaho’s Reserve Officers' Training Corps program had any Ka-Bar knives in its archive or on display.
They are proving whether the weapon could have been swiped by the killer or killers to commit the crimes, the insider said.
The University of Idaho's official website confirms the United States Air Force, Army, and Navy provide coursework at the school through the ROTC program.
Retired LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman told Fox News “a knife is a weapon of rage.”
All four victims — 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 — were stabbed with a knife. They were found dead inside a home near their campus.
Police discovered the students' bodies just before noon on Nov. 13 as they responded to a report of an unconscious person at a home steps away from the college campus.
Officials stopped short of publicly identifying a suspect in the quadruple homicide in a press conference on Sunday.
The coroner has said that the victims were likely asleep during the attack. However, police have confirmed some of those killed had defensive wounds and each victim was stabbed multiple times.