Idaho murders - updates: Parents vow to ‘get justice’ at vigil as university dean says he’s ‘scared’ too

University officials are now reading out the names of the four slain students: Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kerndole and Ethan Chapin.

After each name, a bell is being rung, and students are holding a moment of silence and raising lights and flashlights in the air.

Ben Mogen, father of the murdered Madison Mogen, is sharing a touching story about seeing a Mac Miller concert with his daughter.

“That was the happiest memory I could think of that we shared together was that,” Mr Mogen said.

Steve Goncalves, father of the slain Kaylee Goncalves, is speaking about his daughter and her sisterly bond with best friend Madison Mogen, both of whom were killed on 13 November.

“In the end they died together, in the same room in the same bed. It’s a shame, and it hurts, but the beauty of the two always being together comforts us,” he said. “It lets us know they were with their best friends in the whole world.”

“We’re gunna get our justice,” he continued. “We’re gunna figure stuff out. This community deserves that.”

Stacy Chapin, the mother of Ethan Chapin, is now onstage.

“The hardest part is, we cannot change the outcome,” she said of what happened.

She’s describing how Ethan loved country music and spending time out on the lake in the family boat.

“It’s important that we share Ethan’s legacy and talk about the impact he made in his short 20 years,” Ms Chapin said.

“We are now Ethan’s voice.”

Ms Chapin added that the tragedy should remind people of the preciousness of spending time with family.

University of Idaho Dean of Students Blaine Eckles urged commnunity members attending a vigil for four murdered students on Wednesday evening to remember Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kerndole and Ethan Chapin for more than just their tragic deaths and to come together as a community.

“It is snowy and cold outside, but a family comes together to bring warmth when it is needed most,” he said. “It is a sad and unsettled time right now, but a family will come together to find comfort and ressurance in one another.”

The dean pointed to a wristband he got at Chapin’s memorial, urging people to “live life like Ethan did,” full of joy and laughter.

“Tell the fun stories, remember them in the good times,” Mr Eckles said. “Do not let their lives be defined by how they died, but instead remember for the fun times they had and the joy they spread when they lived.”

A vigil inside the University of Idaho’s Kibbie Dome will begin momentarily, remembering slain students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kerndole and Ethan Chapin, who were found butchered in their beds back on 13 November.

You can watch a live feed of the event here or here.

Criminal justice experts say it’s extremely “dangerous” for local crime stories to become viral trending topics on social media, leading to false identifications of suspects and distracting from police work.

“It’s extremely dangerous,” Adam Scott Wandt, an assistant professor and vice chair for technology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told NBC News on Wednesday. “There’s a Wild, Wild West aspect to all of this.”

However, in some cases, Internet discussion has pushed cases to the top of the national agenda, bringing attention and resources to investigations that otherwise may have languished. “Gabby Petito went viral because there’s no doubt that TikTok was pushing that hashtag,” he said.

Third-year law student from Idaho University calls out internet sleuths

Internet speculation has run rampant since four University of Idaho students were murdered this month.

Online conspiracies have distracted from the real police work at hand, according to families of the victims, and have singled out innocent bystanders a suspects.

Parents of University of Idaho victim criticise conspiracies surrounding slayings

Idaho murders: Neighbour addresses rumours claiming his media appearances suspicious

The bodies of Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Madison Mogen, 21, were discovered around noon on Sunday 13 November.

All four had been brutally stabbed and were found on the second and third floors of a house just two blocks from the University of Idaho campus. Chapin, a Sigma Chi fraternity member, was spending the night with his girlfriend, Kernodle; she and the other two victims lived with two more female roommates in the three-storey home on King Road.

Almost everything that happened in that residence after 1.45am that night still remains a mystery – compounded by changing stories from law enforcement and wild social media speculation that has seeped into the local rumour mill.

Sheila Flynn has the full story.

Almost everything that happened after 1.45am last Sunday inside the college home where four students were murdered still remains a mystery – compounded by changing stories from law enforcement and wild social media speculation that has seeped into the local rumour mill. Sheila Flynn reports from on the ground in Moscow

Every since four University of Idaho students were killed, everyone in the college town of Moscow, Idaho, has been feeling the effects, including university officials.

University of Idaho Dean of Students Blaine Eckles told NewsNation on Wednesday that he’s felt the same fear as his students that the killer is still out there.

“I tell them I am scared too. This is a worrying time,” he said. “We also have the ability to understand that his is just an example that crime happens and it can happen anywhere.”

He added that he sympathises with fears that the murderer could come back to Moscow and observe a vigil taking place for the murdered students on Wednesday evening.

“It’s always a concern,” he said, though he noted the vigil will feature enhanced security measures like metal detectors.