University of Idaho slayings rekindle grisly memories of similar 1992 attack in Buffalo
Idaho, Moscow police have not identified any suspects in the stabbing death of four students more than two weeks ago
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A woman who found a college roommate near death after she was brutally beaten and raped more than three decades ago said the unsolved University of Idaho murders have reignited haunting memories.
"When my [former] housemates and I saw the news, I first went into shock," said Alanna Zabel, 50, who lived in a three-story home with five Chi Omega sorority sisters while attending the University of Buffalo in 1992. "People kept messaging me, ‘Can you believe how similar this is?’"
Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were savagely stabbed to death Nov. 13 between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. in a rental house just yards from campus in Moscow, Idaho.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Two surviving roommates, who lived on the basement level, appear to have slept through the carnage that occurred on the second and third floors.
UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO MURDERS TIMELINE: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE SLAUGHTER OF FOUR STUDENTS
Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle were stabbed to death Nov. 13 in a home near campus. Alanna Zabel, right, found her roommate badly beaten and unconscious in their rented home near the University of Buffalo in 1992. (Instagram/Facebook)
Police have not identified a suspect or recovered the fixed-blade knife they believe was used in the ambush.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the 1992 case, Zabel and her roommates attended a Sigma Chi party – just as Kernodle and her boyfriend, Chapin, had the night before they were murdered.
The group split up in the early hours of Sept. 5 with the victim, "a gorgeous, strong, independent woman from Long Island," heading home first, Zabel said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We were all hammered," added Zabel, who now lives in Santa Monica, California, where she owns a yoga studio.
Alanna Zabel, in a floral print dress, with friends when she attended the University of Buffalo. The Idaho slayings have rekindled memories of a grisly attack on her roommate near campus. (Courtesy of Alanna Zabel)
The victim, who lived on the second floor with Zabel and two other roommates, agreed to let Zabel in when she arrived. The other two roommates on their floor slept elsewhere that night.
However, when Zabel reached the front door a little after 3 a.m., it was locked and the victim did not answer her phone.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}911 CALLS IN IDAHO COLLEGE TOWN INCLUDE REPORTS OF ‘BLOOD,’ ‘UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES’
Zabel climbed through an open bathroom window, then called to the victim from outside her door. "I heard heavy breathing and thought she might be in there with her boyfriend," she said.
The victims of Nov. 13 University of Idaho massacre. (Instagram @xanakernodle / @maddiemogen / @kayleegoncalves)
Zabel went to her room and crawled into bed.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I turned off my light then I heard someone in my room and I lifted my head, but there was no one there, then the front door of the house closed," Zabel recalled. "I realized later that he [assailant] came into my room. It still chills me to this day."
The next morning at around 9 a.m., Zabel entered the victim’s room to ask her to move her car and was overpowered by the stench of vomit.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I didn't see any blood," Zabel said. "Her tongue was sticking up, there was liquid caked on her face. I thought she had choked on her vomit and I called 911 and said my housemate choked on her vomit."
The home where four University of Idaho students were murdered Nov. 13. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
It was only when the paramedics arrived and commented on the amount of blood that Zabel realized the room was covered in blood.
"The psychologist said it was a protective mechanism," Zabel told Fox News Digital. "The wall had what looked like red broom marks. Her hair was soaked in blood, so was the bed and the floor. They think he used a hammer."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}IDAHO STATE CRIME LAB PRIORITIZES EVIDENCE TESTING IN COLLEGE STUDENTS' BRUTAL MURDER CASE
The two roommates in the basement slept through the horrific assault just as the roommates did in Idaho.
Similarly, no one called 911 for hours. In the Idaho slayings, police received an 11:58 a.m. call requesting aid for an unconscious person rather than a possible murder victim – much like Zabel’s call to police, which bizarrely did not mention a blood-soaked room.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Flowers and stuffed animals are left at the entrance to the University of Idaho on Monday, November 14, 2022. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
Investigators in the Buffalo case and the roommates were certain the assailant was someone they had met.
"We always assumed it was a fraternity brother. We couldn't get out of the box of thinking it was someone we knew," she recalled.
Years later, Curtis A. Croskery was charged with the rape and attempted murder of the roommate after his DNA matched a sample left on her sock and recovered from a vaginal swab, according to the Buffalo News.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Investigators believe he crawled through the same bathroom window that Zabel had used to get in that night.
Croskery, then 25, had already been convicted of raping two other women in Buffalo when he went to trial in 1996 for the attack on the college student.
The victim, who was in a coma for months and suffered permanent brain damage, has no memory of the attack.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It's a miracle she survived," Zabel said.
Alanna Zabel found her roommate brutally beaten and raped in 1992 in a rented home near the University of Buffalo campus. The University of Idaho slayings have reignited her memories of the ordeal.
She added that the trauma of finding her roommate brutalized has stayed with her.
"I just hope these girls [in Idaho] take time to heal because if you don't, it just doesn't go away. My thoughts are with the surviving victims and the victims' families," she said.
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Police urge anyone with information to call 208-883-7180 or email tipline@ci.moscow.id.us.