Campbellsville University student found dead in dorm room

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Authorities found Campbellsville University freshman Josiah Kilman dead in his dorm room around 12: 43 a.m. Feb. 24, 2024 in Campbellsville, Kentucky. Fellow student Charles “Zeke” Escalera was arrested for murder. (Kilman: GoFundMe; Escalera: Taylor County Detention Center)

A small Christian college in Kentucky is mourning the loss of a student who was found murdered in his dorm room early Saturday morning. Now a fellow student at Campbellsville University, a 21-year-old man, is facing a murder charge, authorities say.

Campbellsville Police Department officers were called to the school’s campus after 18-year-old Josiah Malachi Kilman was found unresponsive in his dorm room. Paramedics took Kilman to Taylor Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Cops did not release a cause of death but said the Kentucky State Medical Examiner’s Office in Louisville will conduct an autopsy.

Police said it obtained an arrest warrant for Charles E. Escalera and asked community members to be on the lookout for him. About an hour after the alert went out, around 5:15 p.m., the Green County Sheriff’s Office and Kentucky State Police received a call about a suspicious man inside a barn located near the Green County-Taylor County line. Deputies and troopers responded where they found Escalera and took him into custody.

He’s currently in the Taylor County Detention Center where he’s being held without bond on the murder charge, along with burglary. Cops have not released a motive.

The campus was left shock.

“Campbellsville University is grieving the loss of one one of our family,” University President Joseph Hopkins said in a statement. “We have lost a student and our hears are broken.”

A GoFundMe page was started to pay for the funeral and the costs of transporting Kilman’s body to his native Montana.

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“There are no words strong enough to mend the broken hearts of this family right now,” the page said. “We are all truly in shock of his abrupt and unexpected loss of Josiah and we are asking for an abundance of prayers for them as they grapple with this devastating tragedy.”

While police have not detailed the relationship between the two men, both have ties to the school’s wrestling program. Kilman was a freshman on this year’s team while Escalera, who went by Zeke, wrestled in the 2021-22 season, according to the school’s website.