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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Graeme Massie

Parents of University of Idaho victim hit out at conspiracies surrounding slayings

King5

The parents of murdered University of Idaho student Ethan Chapin have hit out at the conspiracies surrounding the dramatic case.

Ethan Chapin, 20, was among four students found stabbed to death at their rental home near the university’s campus over the weekend.

The murders have rocked the town of Moscow, Idaho, and grieving Stacy and Jim Chapin say they have been overwhelmed at the national attention it has brought and the online theories about what happened.

“The things that are being said are 100 per cent not true,” Ms Chapin told King5.

“There is not drugs involved, there is not some weird love triangle. He had stayed the night at his girlfriend’s house, who was one of five girls who lived in the home.”

A string of theories about what may have happened has populated the Reddit board r/MoscowMurders, with posts on stalkers, serial killers, the surviving roommates, and skinned animals found in the area.

Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt told CNN she saw “lots of blood on the wall” when she arrived at the scene.

(AP)

She has said that all four victims were stabbed to death in bed and “that maybe they were sleeping” when they were fatally attacked.

“It has to be somebody that’s pretty angry in order to stab four people to death,” Ms Mabbutt said.

(AP)

Ethan was a triplet and his siblings both attended the same university together.

“We’re just trying to process it,” said Ms Chapin.“It’s not a call that you think that you’re going to, have to speak with the funeral home directors, and the FBI and have it hit national news.”

And his parents say that his girlfriend, Xana Kernodle, was one of the other victims.

“If everyone was like Ethan Chapin in this world, it would be a better place,” she added.

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