- University of Waterloo stabbings: We all need to teach ‘gender issues’ to protect our communities from hate The Conversation
- Man, 24, charged in ‘hate-motivated’ stabbing attack in gender studies class at Canadian university Yahoo News
- Students standing in solidarity with Waterloo school stabbing victims Global News
- The stabbing attack at the University of Waterloo underscores the dangers of polarizing rhetoric about gender The Conversation
- Suspect arrested for stabbing in Canada gender studies class, police say The Washington Post
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: stabbings
Indiana University student stabbing suspect says attack was motivated by race, records show
CNN
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The suspect in an unprovoked attack allegedly said she was motivated by race when she repeatedly stabbed the victim – a student of Asian descent at Indiana University – last week on a city bus, according to court documents and a student group.
In what appears to be the latest example of a swell in anti-Asian discrimination nationwide, Billie Davis, 56, who is White, has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery by means of a deadly weapon in the January 11 attack in Bloomington, court records obtained by CNN affiliate WTHR show. It was not immediately clear if she had an attorney.
Davis and the victim had been riding separately on the bus, and when the victim tried to exit, Davis got up from her nearby seat and allegedly stabbed the victim in the head with a folding knife, leaving puncture wounds, a probable cause affidavit says.
Davis later allegedly told investigators she used a knife to stab the victim because she was Chinese, saying “it would be one less person to blow up our country,” the affidavit says.
After the stabbing, Davis got off the bus, walked away and discarded the knife before authorities got to her, it states. The victim was rushed to a hospital, according to the documents; her condition isn’t known.
Surveillance footage from the bus showed no confrontation between Davis and the victim before the attack, the document states.
City and university officials have condemned the attack, which comes amid a rising tide of reported harassment and attacks against Asian Americans in the Covid-19 pandemic. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, reported hate crimes against Asians in 16 of the nation’s largest cities and counties rose 164% over the prior year, according to a study from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
The most prominent example may be the fatal 2021 shooting of eight people, mostly Asian women, at Atlanta-area spas in which prosecutors are pursuing hate crimes charges based on the victims’ sex and race. Last week in New York City, a man pleaded guilty to manslaughter as a hate crime and agreed to serve 22 years in prison in the April 2021 assault of a Chinese-American man, while another man pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and got 20 years in prison for striking a Chinese woman in 2021 with a rock.
Following last week’s bus attack, Bloomington’s mayor denounced hate-based violence, acknowledging a “racially motivated incident like this … can leave us feeling less safe.”
“We stand with the Asian community and all who feel threatened by this event,” John Hamilton said Saturday in a statement.
The attack reminded the city “that anti-Asian hate is real and can have painful impacts on individuals and our community,” said Indiana University’s vice president for diversity, equity, and multicultural affairs, James Wimbush.
“No one should face harassment or violence due to their background, ethnicity or heritage,” Wimbush said in a statement, adding, “To our Asian and Asian American friends, colleagues, students, and neighbors, we stand firmly with you.”
The Indiana University Asian Culture Center is “outraged and heartbroken by this unprovoked act of violence,” according to a statement that identified the victim as an 18-year-old Asian student. “We should not be fearing for our lives on public transportation. Taking the bus should not feel dangerous.”
“The fact that the perpetrator announced that race was the motivation for her attack sends a jolt through our Asian community,” the center said. “But it is becoming a familiar jolt.”
Kaylee Goncalves had moved out of home before Idaho murders
One of the University of Idaho students slaughtered in the November quadruple homicide had recently moved out of the home where the murders took place, but returned the day before the attack to see her former roommate and attend a party, her parents said.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, was set to graduate college early, with an IT job lined up in Austin, Texas, her parents, Kristi and Steve, told Dateline.
Goncalves had recently moved out of the three-story home in Moscow, Idaho where she had lived with her best friend 21-year-old Madison Mogen.
“These girls were best friends since sixth grade, like inseparable,” Kristi Goncalves said. “Maddie had been a huge part of our life.”
The grieving parents said that Kaylee had just purchased a new Range Rover, and wanted to show it off to Mogen back in Moscow. She also had plans to attend a nearby party.
“That was the last time that I saw Kaylee,” her mother said.
In the early hours of Nov. 13, Goncalves and Mogen were stabbed to death at the off-campus home, along with Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 20.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, a criminology doctorate student at nearby Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, was arrested in Albrightsville, Pa., on Dec. 30 and hit with four charges of first-degree murder when he was returned to Idaho. He potentially faces the death penalty.
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A sheath to a Ka-Bar knife that was believed used in the attack was recovered near Kaylee Goncalves and Mogen’s bodies, according to a police affidavit unsealed earlier this month. Kohberger was identified as a suspect by DNA he had left on the sheath‘s button.
The Goncalves told Dateline that they hoped their daughter in the struggle with the assailant had snatched the sheath and played a role in identifying her killer.
“I just said, ‘Can you believe that?’” Kristi Goncalves said, recounting reading the report’s details. “And I said, ‘I hope that maybe a struggle, she pulled it off him, in the struggle or whatever…’”
Steve Goncalves added: “It’s a checkmate type moment. And our girls were a part of it.”
Bryan Kohberger: Suspect in the Idaho college student killings plans to waive extradition hearing, attorney says
CNN
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The suspect in the killings of four University of Idaho college students plans to waive his extradition hearing this week, his attorney said, to expedite his return to the Gem State, where he faces four counts of first-degree murder.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger is “shocked a little bit,” Jason LaBar, the chief public defender for Monroe County, Pennsylvania, told CNN Saturday, a day after the 28-year-old’s arrest in his home state on charges related to the fatal stabbings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20. He also faces a charge of felony burglary, according to Latah County, Idaho, Prosecutor Bill Thompson.
LaBar did not discuss the murder case with the suspect when they spoke for about an hour Friday evening, the attorney said, adding that he did not possess probable cause documents related to it and is only representing Kohberger in the issue of his extradition, which the attorney called a “formality.”
“It’s a procedural issue, and really all the Commonwealth here has to prove is that he resembles or is the person who the arrest warrant is out for and that he was in the area at the time of the crime,” LaBar said.
Waiving the extradition hearing set for Tuesday was “an easy decision obviously,” LaBar said, “since he doesn’t contest that he is Bryan Kohberger.”
In a statement, LaBar stressed his client is presumed innocent until proven guilty, saying, “Mr. Kohberger is eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible.”
The arrest of the suspect – a PhD student in Washington State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, the school confirmed – comes nearly seven weeks after the victims were found stabbed to death in an off-campus home on November 13. Since then, investigators say they have conducted more than 300 interviews and scoured approximately 20,000 tips.
But authorities have yet to publicly confirm the suspect’s motive, or even if he knew the victims, whose deaths rattled the college community and the surrounding town of Moscow. The murder weapon has also not been located, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said Friday.
In the weeks since the killings, some community members have grown frustrated as investigators have yet to offer a thorough narrative of how the night unfolded. Authorities have released limited details, including the victims’ activities leading up to the attacks and people they have ruled out as suspects.
Fry told reporters Friday state law limits what information authorities can release before Kohberger makes an initial appearance in an Idaho court. The probable cause affidavit – which details the factual basis of Kohberger’s charges – is sealed until the suspect is physically in Latah County and has been served with the Idaho arrest warrant, Thompson said.
Investigators honed in on Kohberger as a suspect through DNA evidence and by confirming his ownership of a white Hyundai Elantra seen near the crime scene, according to two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation. Authorities say he lived just minutes from the site of the stabbings.
He drove cross-country in a white Hyundai Elantra and arrived at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania around Christmas, according to a law enforcement source. Authorities began tracking him at some point during his trip east from Idaho.
An FBI surveillance team tracked him for four days before his arrest while law enforcement worked with prosecutors to develop enough probable cause to obtain a warrant, the two law enforcement sources said.
Genetic genealogy techniques were used to connect Kohberger to unidentified DNA evidence, another source with knowledge of the case told CNN. The DNA was run through a public database to find potential family member matches, and subsequent investigative work by law enforcement led to his identification as the suspect, the source said.
LaBar confirmed Kohberger, accompanied by his father, had driven from Idaho to Pennsylvania to celebrate the holidays with his family. A white Hyundai Elantra was found at his parents’ home, LaBar said, where authorities apprehended Kohberger early Friday.
LaBar was unsure how quickly his client would be returned to Idaho following his intent to waive extradition at Tuesday’s hearing, saying it would be based on authorities. But LaBar expected Kohberger to be returned to Idaho within 72 hours of the proceeding.
Man stabbed in neck with scissors near NYC Times Square
A man was stabbed in the neck with scissors near Times Square Saturday as revelers packed the streets watch the ball drop and ring in the new year, cops and witnesses said.
The slashing occurred around 8:45 p.m. New Year’s Eve when a fight broke out between two men on West 42nd Street and 6th Avenue, police said.
A tourist visiting from San Diego to watch the New Year’s Eve festivities for the first time told The Post the victim grabbed a pair of scissors from his backpack when the attacker landed a punch, knocking him out.
The knifeman then knocked the weapon from the other man’s hands and stabbed him.
“A guy with a book bag got knocked out. He was digging through his book bag. The guy with the bag was holding scissors. He pulled 2-inch scissors out of his bag. The guy who hit him knocked the scissors out of his hand and jabbed him in the neck three times,” the man, who only wanted to be identified by his first name, Brandon, said.
“He was bleeding pretty bad in his neck. He did damage when he stabbed him with the scissors … When I saw him digging through the bag, we moved away.”
Cops reportedly arrested the attacker and transported the victim to the hospital.
Brandon’s girlfriend Bailey said the brawling duo both looked drunk. The attacker had been sitting with a girl and a case of beer, she said.
Another witness, Gabriel, 22, said there was a lot of blood.
“I was staring at the ball and I saw a big commotion and I saw someone do this like three times to someone’s neck,” Gabriel said, making a stabbing gesture.
“I saw a bunch of blood so I’m assuming he got stabbed. Everybody was yelling ‘yo it’s not worth it!”
Brandon and Bailey said the bloody New Year’s Eve attack would stop them from visiting the Big Apple again for the celebration.
“When people ask me how the ball dropped, I’ll tell them that story … I will say I saw some guy get stabbed in the neck in New York City. Very typical New York City,” Bailey told The Post.
“I probably won’t see the ball drop again.”
The scissor stabbing was the second in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
A man was stabbed “about eight times” at 11 a.m. near Seventh Avenue and West 40th Street
The night before, a man was knifed a few blocks away from Times Square at West 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue.
Bryan Kohberger Idaho student killings suspect: Authorities tracked the suspect as he drove cross-country to Pennsylvania, sources say
CNN
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Authorities carefully tracked the man charged in the killings of four Idaho college students as he drove across the country around Christmas and continued surveilling him for several days before finally arresting him Friday, sources tell CNN.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested in his home state of Pennsylvania and charged with four counts of murder in the first degree, as well as felony burglary in connection with the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in November, according to Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson.
Still, investigators have not publicly confirmed the suspect’s motive or whether he knew the victims. The murder weapon has also not been located, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said Friday.
In the nearly seven weeks since the students were found stabbed to death in an off-campus home, investigators have conducted more than 300 interviews and scoured approximately 20,000 tips in their search for the suspect. News of the killings – and the long stretch of time without a suspect or significant developments – have rattled the University of Idaho community and the surrounding town of Moscow, which had not seen a murder in seven years.
Investigators honed in on Kohberger as the suspect through DNA evidence and by confirming his ownership of a white Hyundai Elantra seen near the crime scene, according to two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation.
Kohberger, who authorities say lived just minutes from the scene of the killings, is a PhD student in Washington State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, the school confirmed.
He drove cross-country in a white Hyundai Elantra and arrived at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania around Christmas, according to a law enforcement source. Authorities were tracking him as he drove and were also surveilling his parents’ house, the source said.
An FBI surveillance team tracked him for four days before his arrest while law enforcement worked with prosecutors to develop enough probable cause to obtain a warrant, the two law enforcement sources said.
Genetic genealogy techniques were used to connect Kohberger to unidentified DNA evidence, another source with knowledge of the case tells CNN. The DNA was run through a public database to find potential family member matches, and subsequent investigative work by law enforcement led to him as the suspect, the source said.
Kohberger was arraigned Friday morning in Pennsylvania and is being held without bail, records show.
Kohberger intends to waive his extradition hearing to expedite his transport to Idaho, Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar said in a statement to CNN on Saturday.
“Mr. Kohberger is eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible,” LaBar said.
LaBar later told CNN that the extradition hearing is a “formality proceeding.” He said all the Commonwealth needs to prove is that his client resembles or is the person on the arrest warrant and that he was in the area at the time of the crime.
LaBar said he spoke to Kohberger for around an hour Friday evening, discussing where he was at the time of the killings. “Knowing of course that it’s likely they have location data from his cell phone already putting him on the border of Washington and Idaho,” LaBar told CNN, “it was an easy decision obviously, since he doesn’t contest that he is Bryan Kohberger.”
Kohberger is “shocked a little bit,” LaBar said. “He’s doing OK. Obviously, he’s calm right now.”
LaBar added, “We don’t really know much about the case. I don’t have any affidavit or probable cause. I didn’t want to discuss the case with him because I’m merely his representation for this procedural issue as to whether or not he wants to be extradited back to Idaho.”
Even with a suspect charged, law enforcement’s work is far from over, prosecutors said.
“This is not the end of this investigation. In fact, this is a new beginning,” Thompson said Friday night.
Thompson urged people to continue submitting tips, asking anyone with information about the suspect “to come forward, call the tip line, report anything you know about him to help the investigators.”
Since the killings of the four students – Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20 some community members have grown frustrated as investigators have yet to offer a thorough narrative of how the night unfolded. Authorities have released limited details, including the victims’ activities leading up to the attacks and people they have ruled out as suspects.
Fry told reporters Friday state law limits what information authorities can release before Kohberger makes an initial appearance in Idaho court. The probable cause affidavit – which details the factual basis of Kohberger’s charges – is sealed until the suspect is physically in Latah County, Idaho, and has been served with the Idaho arrest warrant, Thompson said.
Kohberger is a resident of Pullman, Washington, a city just about nine miles from the site of the killings, authorities said. His apartment and office on the Washington State University’s Pullman campus were searched by law enforcement Friday morning, the university confirmed in a statement.
In June 2022, he finished graduate studies at DeSales University, where he also was an undergraduate, according to a statement on the school’s website. He also got an associate degree from Northampton Community College in 2018, the college confirmed to CNN.
LaBar called Kohberger “very intelligent.”
The attorney said he spoke with Kohberger’s family Friday night for 15 to 20 minutes.
“They’re also very shocked,” he said. “Out of character for Bryan… The FBI, local police, Idaho State Troopers were at their house at approximately 3 a. m. yesterday knocking on the door and announcing themselves to enter, out of real shock and awe to them.”
In a Reddit post removed after Kohberger’s arrest was announced, a student investigator named Bryan Kohberger who was associated with a DeSales University study sought participation in a research project “to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime.”
“In particular, this study seeks to understand the story behind your most recent criminal offense, with an emphasis on your thoughts and feelings throughout your experience,” the post said.
CNN reached one of the principal investigators of the study, a professor at DeSales University, but they declined to comment on the matter. The university has not responded to requests for comment.
Wedding descends into massive brawl, leaving 1 stabbed
A couple’s glitzy wedding descended into chaos when guests started fighting outside the venue, leaving one of them stabbed.
Police were called to the Grand Paradiso in Fairfield, in Sydney’s west, at about 11 pm on Thursday after a mass brawl broke out.
Video from the scene shows two well-dressed men pushing and shoving each other as an argument breaks out.
One of them throws a left hook which narrowly misses, but it quickly causes tensions to boil over.
Next, men in suits are seen spilling over each other on the pavement as the fracas suddenly develops into an all-in brawl.
A man who appeared to throw the first punch is seen being kicked to the ground as another guest throws punches in his direction.
A 49-year-old was taken to hospital with cuts to his hand and face, 7 News reported.
A man was being questioned by police, but as yet no charges have been laid.
The wedding had earlier got off without a hitch, with guests seen enjoying dancing and drumming as the newlyweds celebrated tying their knot alongside their family and friends.
Eight teen girls charged with killing homeless man in Toronto
Eight teenage girls who met through social media were charged with the murder of a homeless man in Toronto on Sunday, police said.
The gang of three 13-year-olds, three 14-year-olds and two 16-year-olds swarmed their 59-year-old victim at a plaza near the main rail station just after midnight Dec. 18, the Toronto Police Service announced.
Bystanders that saw the girls stabbing the man at York Street and University Avenue flagged down EMS, who transported the victim to a nearby hospital. The victim, who had been living in the city’s shelter system for several weeks, died from his injuries, Detective Sergeant Terry Browne said at a Tuesday press conference.
The teenagers were found near the scene carrying a “number of weapons,” Browne revealed.
The group of girls — whose identities are protected under Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act — may have gone out with the intention of causing trouble. Police said the teenagers were involved in another altercation about two hours before they allegedly killed the homeless man.
“What they are alleged to have occurred that evening would be consistent with what we traditionally call a swarming or swarming type behavior,” Browne said.
Three of the teenagers have a history with police, Browne said.
The girls live in varying parts of Toronto and met through social media, though police do not yet know how long they’ve known each other. Officials are still investigating why they met in the area and what their plans for the evening may have been.
All eight girls have been charged with second-degree murder. They were remanded into custody and are scheduled to appear again at the end of the month.
Idaho stabbings rock campus a decade after deadly romance between professor and student
MOSCOW, Idaho – The brutal slayings of four University of Idaho students early on a November Saturday marked the first homicides in Moscow in years, according to authorities, but while such crimes are rare, details about the few can be shocking.
Sunday marks four weeks since the slayings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, in a rental house across the street from the university’s Greek Row. The three women lived there, and Chapin, who lived in a frat house 200 yards away, was visiting his girlfriend, Kernodle. Police have not publicly named a suspect or any persons of interest.
While the city’s last murders came in 2015, in August 2011, a university professor turned a gun on a graduate student with whom he’d been romantically involved, then killed himself in a murder-suicide, school workers told Fox News Digital Friday.
Katy Benoit, a 22-year-old musician and psychology student from Boise, was gunned down in her off-campus apartment months after her romantic relationship with University of Idaho professor Ernesto Bustamante ended.
IDAHO MURDERS: POLICE URGE PUBLIC TO ‘STAY VIGILANT’ AS FAMILIES GATHER FOR FALL GRADUATION
A University of Idaho memorial for Katy Benoit, a former graduate student who was shot and killed by a professor in 2011. Inset: Katy Benoit.
(University of Idaho/Facebook, Moscow Police Department)
The Associated Press reported in 2011 that the police affidavit contained a statement from Bustamante’s friend, Rowdy Hope, who alleged “that Bustamante had multiple handguns and multiple personality disorders…[including] one Bustamante calls a ‘psychopathic killer’ and another Bustamante calls ‘the beast.'”
Police reportedly found Bustamante in a hotel room the day after Benoit’s slaying, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
IDAHO MURDERS: SLAIN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ NEIGHBOR SAYS FRONT DOOR LEFT WIDE OPEN AFTER ATTACKS
“We are shocked and saddened by the death of Kathryn ‘Katy’ Benoit, who was killed outside of her off-campus residence in Moscow last night,” the university wrote on Facebook on Aug. 23, 2011. “There is no way to express how devastating the loss of any life can be, but especially someone so young with such potential.”
UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO MURDERS TIMELINE: WHAT WE KNOW
“Her last weeks as a physical being on Earth were filled with excitement and anticipation for her new role as a Teacher’s Assistant, where she would be teaching undergraduate classes in Social Psychology and Developmental Psychology,” her family wrote in an online obituary. “Katy was a recipient of the Bronze, Silver and, just this past year, Gold Congressional Awards, which are given by Congress to outstanding young Americans with high achievement in volunteer public service, physical fitness and personal development.”
A University of Idaho memorial for Katy Benoit, a former graduate student who was shot and killed by a professor in 2011.
(University of Idaho/Facebook)
Benoit’s death prompted the school to begin an annual event called the Campus Safety Week and Katy Benoit Safety Forum. The university also installed a memorial in her honor on campus.
“The Katy Benoit Safety Month is still held annually and includes a safety forum, a ‘lighting audit’ for students, trainings and other events,” Jodi Walker, the school’s executive director of communications, told Fox News Digital Saturday.
Moscow is generally regarded as a safe community, where there have been few slayings over the years.
Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, along with the women’s two other roommates in Kaylee Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the slayings.
(@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
Court records show the 2015 homicides involved a local man named John Lee, also known as Kane Grzebielski, who later pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and another count of aggravated battery.
Lee fatally shot his adoptive mother, his landlord and a local restaurateur, the Associated Press reported at the time, and he injured another man who survived.
Lee is currently serving a life sentence for the crimes at the Idaho State Correctional Institution.
IDAHO MURDERS: CONVICTED KILLER ARRESTED A MILE FROM UNIVERSITY STABBINGS
In 2007, another man, James Leonard, shot and killed Tyler Lee in a driveway in Genesee. He initially claimed self-defense but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was later freed – only to be arrested last week in Moscow on domestic violence charges just over a mile from the off-campus house where someone killed four students in the early hours of Nov. 13.
Police said his arrest had no connection to the murder investigation.
Moscow, Idaho detectives are interested in speaking with the occupant(s) of a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra, with an unknown license plate in relation to the investigation of a quadruple homicide on November 13, 2022. This image is not the car in question, it is just for reference.
(Moscow PD)
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Anyone with information is asked to call the tip line at 208-883-7180 or to email tipline@ci.moscow.id.us.
Police are also looking to speak with the occupant or occupants of a 2011 to 2013 white Hyundai Elantra that was near the crime scene around the time of the slayings.
Idaho college murders: Authorities say they’ve received thousands of tips in the case
CNN
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Authorities investigating the killings of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death last month say they have received thousands of tips from the public.
In a Saturday update, the Moscow Police Department said it has received more than 2,640 emails to a tip web address, more than 2,770 phone tips and more than 1,000 submissions to an FBI link.
Investigators have collected more than 110 pieces of physical evidence and roughly 4,000 crime scene photos.
But the case remains unsolved. Police have not located the murder weapon nor identified a suspect.
“To assist with the ongoing investigation, any odd or out-of-the-ordinary events that took place should be reported,” Moscow police said Saturday. “Your information, whether you believe it is significant or not, might be the piece of the puzzle that helps investigators solve these murders.”
Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kernolde’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were likely stabbed multiple times in their sleep just days before Thanksgiving break, police said.
Their horrific deaths have since rattled Moscow, a college town of some 25,000 people which hasn’t recorded a single murder since 2015, and the nation.
In an attempt to clear up false information that’s been spreading about the case, Moscow police this week debunked several theories.
“There is speculation, without factual backing, stoking community fears and spreading false facts,” the Moscow Police Department said in a news release Friday.
None of the victims in the quadruple homicide were tied and gagged, refuting online reports. A report of a “skinned” dog weeks before the killings is not connected to the case, according to police, and deceased animals left on a resident’s property elsewhere were determined to be wildlife activity.
Additionally, police noted the students’ killings are not related to two other stabbing incidents in neighboring states Washington and Oregon – in 1999 and 2021, respectively – which may “share similarities,” but “there does not appear to be any evidence to support the cases are related,” according to the release.
Police also reassured the public that a September incident which involved an argument between a group of people walking on the University of Idaho bike path and a cyclist, who displayed a folding knife, is not connected to the students’ killings.
“The individual involved turned himself in, and charges were referred to the Moscow City Attorney’s Office,” police said.
And although police have said they don’t know who carried out the killings, they have released information eliminating some people as suspects, most recently a person listed on the lease of the residence where the killings happened, police said Friday.
“They have spoken to this individual and confirmed they moved out prior to the start of the school year and was not present at the time of the incident. Detectives do not believe this person has any involvement in the murders,” Moscow police said.
Police also ruled out the two surviving roommates who were in house at the time of the killings and other people inside the house when the 911 call was made. The person who made the 911 call alerting authorities to the home after the killings has not been identified.
Goncalves and Mogen, two of the victims, were driven home by someone after the pair purchased food from a truck hours before they were killed – authorities have ruled out the driver as a suspect.
Additionally, a man seen in surveillance video from a food truck visited by Goncalves and Mogen, and another man the pair called “numerous times” in the hours before their deaths, were also ruled out as suspects by police.
It remains unclear how close authorities are to releasing information about a potential suspect or suspects. “Only vetted information that does not hinder the investigation will be released to the public,” Moscow police noted Friday.
But some details released by authorities since the start of the investigation have required further clarification.
This week, Moscow police noted and backtracked comments from the Latah County prosecutor that said, “the suspect(s) specifically looked at this residence” and “that one or more of the occupants were undoubtedly targeted.”
Moscow police called that a “miscommunication,” and added: “Detectives do not currently know if the residence or any occupants were specifically targeted.”
On Thursday, Moscow police attempted to clarify the key conflicting information, once and for all.
“We remain consistent in our belief that this was a targeted attack, but investigators have not concluded if the target was the residence or if it was the occupants,” police said.
Authorities have also needed to clarify other information, including initially saying on November 15 that detectives believed the attacks were “isolated” and “targeted” and that the community was not under imminent threat. The following day, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said police were not definitive in concluding the public was not at risk.
Detectives have received testing and analysis of the crime scene evidence from Idaho State Police Forensic Services, and they will continue to receive the results of additional tests, according to police.
“To protect the investigation’s integrity, specific results will not be released,” police said.
Detectives also collected the contents of three dumpsters on the street where the house is located and seized five nearby vehicles to be processed for evidence, according to police.
As for the murder weapon – believed to be a fixed-blade knife – detectives contacted local businesses regarding knife purchases in the days leading up to the killings.
Multiple agencies and law enforcement personnel are investigating the homicides. More than 30 employees including detectives, patrol officers and support staff from the Moscow Police Department are working on the case, police said Friday in the news release.
The FBI has devoted 22 investigators in Moscow, 20 agents through the country and two investigators from the agency’s Behavior Analysis Unit, police said.
Plus, there are 20 Idaho State Police investigators assigned to Moscow, and an additional 15 uniformed troopers are patrolling the community. Forensic services and a mobile crime scene team from the state police are also working the case.