Idaho murder update – latest: Police insist case not ‘going cold’ one month after unsolved killings

Capt Lanier said the FBI, Idaho State Police and his department are working around the clock and sifting through thousands of tips. Last week, investigators asked for the public’s help in locating the occupants of a 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra seen near the crime scene around the time of the murders on 13 November.

The captain said the case was far from “going cold” and that the department continues to receive a good amount of viable tips every day. He urged the public to only listen to information made available through the department’s official channels.

The Independent has the story:

A month on from the murders that shocked the college town of Moscow, police have revealed, for the most part, what happened right before the brutal stabbings.

Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves went to a club before ordering food at a local food truck.

Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were at a Sigma Chi fraternity party for the first part of the night on 12 November.

Reporting from Moscow, The Independent’s Sheila Flynn outlines the four young students’ final hours:

The man dubbed “hoodie guy” in online sleuth communities – who police previously said is not considered connected to the 13 November killings – became the target of renewed speculation this week after the father of slain student Kaylee Goncalves mentioned rumours around him in an interview with The New York Post on Monday.

A Twitch livestream from the Grub Truck in Moscow, Idaho, captured the man standing nearby Goncalves and Madison Mogen on the night of 12 November, hours before the women were stabbed to death along with their roommate Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin at an off-campus home.

While the man was cleared by Moscow police shortly after the video emerged, Goncalves’ father Steve Goncalves suggested that police may have ruled him out too quickly in his interview with the Post, claiming that he’d heard the man had since left the country and declined a DNA test.

Last week, Idaho State Police spokesperson Aaron Snell told The Independent that investigators are “aware of the rumours”, but did not confirm or deny them.

“The person in question continues cooperating with the investigation,” Mr Snell added.

Investigators trying to track down the killer of four University of Idaho students have blamed internet sleuths for creating a “huge distraction” from the murder case, claiming the rampant online rumours make it hard for law enforcement to “stay on track”.

“Tracking down rumours and quelling rumours about specific information and specific events that may not have happened is a huge distraction,” Moscow Police Captain Roger Lanier said on Monday.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the story:

Investigators have admitted that they are stumped by the killings in the small, notoriously safe college town and still have no suspects or persons of interest on their radar.

For the past month, officials have given little in the way of updates on the case – this silence and absence of information only served to trigger an avalanche of online rumours and conspiracy theories among internet sleuths.

The Independent takes a deep dive into the mountain of unsolved questions – and the scant details we do know:

Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were killed between 3am and 4am on 13 November, Moscow Police have previously said.

The group had arrived home before 2am and were found dead by law enforcement around noon after a 911 call about an “unconscious person” was made from the phone of one of the surviving roommates nearly nine hours later.

Chapin and Kernodle’s bodies were found on the second floor while Mogen and Goncalves were found inside a room on the third floor. The two surviving roommates were on the first floor during the stabbings and are believed to have slept through it.

Now, a neighbour of the victims has come forward with information about the crime scene, telling Fox News Digital that they saw the victims’ front door, which opens to the first level of the house, wide open around 8.30am on the day of the attack.

A convicted killer was arrested on battery charges just a mile away from the scene where four University of Idaho students were murdered in November.

The man, 39-year-old James Leonard, is not considered a suspect in the brutal stabbings last month, Moscow Police have said. Leonard was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly beating his wife and underage daughter before injuring himself with a knife, a criminal complaint obtained by Fox News Digital revealed.

Leonard, who was convicted of a fatal shooting in 2007, is also being legally represented by Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt, who went on national television to reveal that Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were likely sleeping when they were killed inside their off-campus rental home on 13 November.

The Independent’s Andrea Blanco has the full story:

Police are asking for help finding the occupant of a car that was seen near where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death last month, saying that person could have “critical information” about the case.

The Moscow Police Department issued a statement last week asking for the public’s help tracking down the person or people inside a white Hyundai Elantra made between 2011 and 2013 that was near the off-campus home in the early morning hours of 13 November.

Investigators do not have the car’s license plate.

“Your information, whether you believe it is significant or not, might be the piece of the puzzle that helps investigators solve these murders,” the department wrote.

Describing the crime scene to Today, Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt said that there was “quite a bit of blood”.

DNA has been recovered from the home, which Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle shared with at least two other roommates.

Those roommates were home at the time of the killings but apparently were unaware of the murders until hours later. Nearly three weeks after the killings, police revealed a sixth person may have lived at the home.

Police have taken more than 4,000 pictures of the residence after the murders. The door appeared to be unlocked with no sign of forced entry and nothing seemed to have been taken, investigators said.

The bodies were found in the victims’ beds on the second and third floors, leading authorities to believe they were asleep when killed.

Steve and Kristi Goncalves said they’ve heard from police that the crime scene is sprawling and chaotic.

“They’re telling us that there’s so much evidence that it’s going to take a lot of time to process it all,” Mr Goncalves told Fox News. “This wasn’t like a pinpoint crime. This person was sloppy.”

It’s been one month since four Idaho students were brutally murdered, and fears are growing that the case is going cold.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp and Josh Marcus explore a troubling trend in America’s homicide clearance rates – and what happens to the families and communities left without answers.