Family and friends were left stunned after the strangling death of a Kentucky college freshman at the hands of a teammate — with his former coach warning that campus violence “could happen to everybody anywhere.”
The unsettling comments come in the wake of the “unimaginable” killing of Josiah Kilman, 18, a theology major and wrestler at Christian private college Campbellsville University in Kentucky.
“It boggles my mind,” Kilman’s former soccer coach O’Brien Byrd told Fox News Digital.
“I hope to God this isn’t a pattern we’re seeing, but I also think that this could happen to everybody anywhere.”
Kilman was found strangled in his dorm shortly before 1 a.m. on Feb. 24 and his wrestling teammate Charles Escalera, 21, was arrested for the crime after a tip from a local farmer who reported a suspicious person in a barn, according to WLEX.
Escalera was charged with murder and burglary. He’s being held on $2 million bail at Taylor County Detention Center.
Kilman’s tragic death isn’t an isolated incident; his alleged murder marks the fourth on-campus homicide nationwide in a span of just nine days.
Two University of Colorado at Colorado Springs students, Samuel Knopp, 24, and Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, were gunned down in a dorm room Feb. 16, cops said, both killed by a single gunshot to the head.
Police have arrested 25-year-old Nicholas Jordan in connection with the double slaying, charging him with two counts of first-degree murder.
Then on Feb. 22, Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley, 22, was brutally murdered by a Venezuelan migrant who allegedly attacked her while she was out for a jog on the nearby campus of the University of Georgia, authorities said.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was arrested and charged with a slew of counts including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another.
Kilman’s murder came just days before the Campbellsville wrestling team was scheduled to head to Kanas to compete in the national championships.
One of his fellow wrestlers who asked not to be identified told Fox News Digital that although Kilman’s death has taken “a big toll” on the rest of the squad, they were pressing ahead with Tuesday’s tournament to honor their slain teammate’s family.
“Some of us have been through a situation like this before, but at this time in the season it’s definitely taken a toll on us, trying to get our minds right and focus on this tournament,” Kilman’s teammate said.
“A lot of people would go home and be with their families. But we’re going out there to wrestle for his family.”
Kilman’s heartbroken family has launched a GoFundMe to cover burial expenses and the cost of transporting his body back to his home state of Montana, which as of Sunday afternoon had raised nearly $75,000.
