Friends and family of a beloved freshman athlete at a Christian Kentucky college cannot fathom why his wrestling teammate allegedly strangled him in his dorm room just days before their team traveled to Kansas to compete for a national championship.

Josiah Kilman, 18, was found dead in his dorm at Campbellsville University just before 1 a.m. Feb. 24. His death is one of four homicides on college campuses nationwide in a 10-day span.

Student Samuel Knopp, 24, and Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, were murdered in a dorm room at the University of Colorado at Colorado Spring campus Feb. 16. Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley, 22, was killed on Feb. 22 while jogging on a trail on the University of Georgia’s campus in Athens.

“It boggles my mind,” O’Brien Byrd, Kilman’s soccer coach from eighth grade through high school, 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 is pictured in an undated photo provided by his high school soccer coach. (Provided by O’Brien Byrd)

Sarah Cook, Kilman’s cousin, told Fox News Digital the 18-year-old attended Campbellsville on a biblical scholarship with “dreams of leading others to follow the Lord through the Christian principles.”

“Josiah influenced many hearts, and he was a true example of compassion, kindness and love,” Cook said. “His example compelled so many others to make the same changes he wished to see in the world, and his impact on their lives will never truly be forgotten.”

Gilfry told Fox News Digital Kilman practiced Messianic Judaism, wearing a Star of David around his neck and adhering to both Christian and Jewish principles. 

“I remember just going out to eat breakfast, all we’d talk about is religion,” Gilfry recalled. “We’d make fun of him for not eating bacon, and he’d say ‘that’s just who I am.’ That’s all he wanted to do. He was the kind of guy who always questioned you and made you think deeper into everything, always pushed you to be better at what you were doing and encouraged you to try something new.”

Josiah Kilman is pictured alongside his high school soccer coach O’Brien Byrd.  (Brandon Lopez)

Since Kilman’s death, Gilfry said, he has been “protect[ing] himself and the people around [him] a little more,” making sure to lock his doors and that his friends don’t go out alone.

Byrd, a soccer coach at Columbia Falls High School, said he appointed Kilman captain of the school’s team his senior year due to his remarkable grace and maturity. 

In addition to wrestling, soccer, weightlifting and heavy involvement at the Fellowship Alliance Church, Kilman helped teach soccer to young kids at an annual summer camp, Byrd said.

“He was a full-blooded American teenage boy, a rascal like we all are in those years. He liked to pull pranks and tell jokes. He was just like all of his friends in that regard. But he had such great leadership characteristics,” Byrd said Tuesday. 

“He always was able to say the hard things to his buddies. In society today, kids are afraid to speak up and say things that are unpopular. But Josiah never had an issue with that, he would say what they needed to hear,” Byrd added. 

“He always knew when younger eyes were on him. … He knew those little kids were looking up to him, and he wasn’t going to waste that opportunity to make an impression in the right way.”

Kilman left behind two older sisters and an older brother, along with a 6-year-old younger brother Aurelius. 

Josiah Kilman, second from right, is pictured alongside Tyler Gilfry, far left, and other members of his high school wrestling team. (Provided by Tyler Gilfry)

“Josiah, Jojo as Arelius would call him, was his hero, his absolute hero,” Byrd said. “[The community is] thinking a lot about Aurelius now.” 

Kilman’s parents, Jessica and Joe, have raised over $65,000 on GoFundMe to transport the undergrad’s body home and cover his funeral expenses. Members of the teen’s wrestling team will fly into Montana to join Kilman’s family for a funeral service next week, Byrd said. 

“I’ve talked with his father almost every day,” Byrd said. “He’s in survival mode for his family right now. I can say that there’s been some really hard moments. He’s got a lot of responsibility right now to get Josiah home. He’s got daughters and sons to love on and a wife to comfort and, of course, he he has to maneuver through this himself.”

As his family works to get his body sent back to Montana, Kilman’s car also sits abandoned in a Campbellsville University parking lot. One classmate shared photos of a memorial of flowers and photos on its windshield. 

Byrd said Kilman is the third youth under 19 to die young in Columbia Falls in the last seven years, but his former team captain’s death is “on a different level” due to the lingering questions left after his “unimaginable” death.