Idaho murders updates: Moscow police spark confusion over ‘targeted’ attack as crime scene results come back

Investigators have continued to spark further confusion about whether or not the murders of four University of Idaho students were “targeted” or not, as Moscow police accused the local prosecutor of “miscommunication”.

Ever since Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kerndole and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death in an off-campus home on 13 November, investigators have described the attacks as “targeted”.

They have used the phrase in multiple press conferences and media interviews but have refused to reveal what has led them to that conclusion or whether only one of the victims was the intended target – with the others simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This week, Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson gave conflicting statements about the nature of the crime.

On Tuesday, he appeared to walk back the belief that the killings were targeted, saying that it was “perhaps not the best word to use”.

On Wednesday, he gave a different interview where he said that the “attack was intended for a specific person”.

Hours later, Moscow Police released a “clarification” on their Facebook page – which only added to the confusion.

In it, police said that officials “do not currently know if the residence or any occupants were specifically targeted” and said that Mr Thompson’s comments were the result of “miscommunication”.

The first crime scene lab results have started to come back – more than two weeks on from the quadruple murders that have rocked the college town of Moscow.

Idaho State Police Communications Director Aaron Snell told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that investigators were starting to receive the results from forensic testing.

“I do know that each type of testing… some take longer than others. And I also do know that there have been results that have been returned and those go directly to the investigators, so that way they can help, again, paint that picture as we keep talking about,” he said.

Mr Snell refused to reveal whether DNA that did not belong to the four victims or the two surviving roommates had been found at the crime scene as it is hoped that the forensics could finally provide some clues to lead police to the killer.

More than two weeks on from the murders, investigators still have no suspects on their radar.

But, despite the lack of concrete leads in the case, police are wrapping up the investigation at the three-storey home on King Road where the brutal murder took place.

The grieving father of one of the four slain University of Idaho students has revealed that his daughter was found dead in the same bed as her life-long best friend.

Steve Goncalves, whose 21-year-old daughter Kaylee Goncalves was stabbed to death back on 13 November, gave a heartbreaking speech at a vigil for the victims on Wednesday evening where he said it gave him comfort to learn that she was with best friend Madison Mogen until the very end.

Mr Goncalves told how the “absolutely beautiful” young women first met in sixth grade and became inseparable.

“They just found each other, and every day they did homework together, they came to our house together, they shared everything,” he said.

“Then they started looking at colleges, they came here together. They eventually get into the same apartment together.

“And in the end, they died together, in the same room, in the same bed.”

The devastated father, whose family also saw Mogen as a daughter, said that while “it hurts”, there is some “beauty” in knowing that the pair were together when they died.

“The beauty of the two always being together is something that will – it comforts us, it lets us know that they were with their best friends in the whole world,” he said.

“It’s like a book, it’s like some kind of terrible chapter but there’s beauty in it. And we’re gonna get our justice, we’re gonna figure this stuff out. This community deserves that.”

“We understand there is a sense of fear within our community,” said the Moscow Police Department on Sunday, revealing that it had received more calls about “unusual circumstances” and requests for welfare checks in the past two weeks than in the entire month of October.

In a statement, the Moscow police department said “there have been online reports of a red Mustang on S Deakin St being processed as part of the investigation” but “this case is not related” to the ongoing murder investigation”.

The mystery of the four murders on 13 November in which Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Gonsalves, 21, were brutally killed has baffled not just the police but internet sleuths as well.

After cops failed to identify a suspect or locate the murder weapon, speculations were rife on social media, with the latest being one about a red Mustang.

Maroosha Muzaffar has the details.

Kaylee Goncalves was killed at an off-campus house in the city of Moscow, Idaho, in the early hours of 13 November, with police still hunting for the murderer.

Goncalves, 21, was slain along with her best friend, Madison Mogen, 21, another roommate Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20.

Kaylee’s father, Steve Goncalves, says that the family has not been able to bring itself to have a commemoration for their daughter just yet.

“My wife’s biggest fear, part of the reason we didn’t have a funeral, is because she couldn’t be guaranteed that that monster was going to not be there,” he told ABC News.

Graeme Massie has the story for The Independent.

A University of Idaho alumna has raised almost $20,000 in donations to buy 1,900 personal alarms for terrified students living in Moscow with a murderer at large.

“The hope is that these will give the students on campus a small sense of security and also just let them know that their alumni and others deeply care about keeping them and the university that we love a safe space for them to be,” she said.

Two weeks have now passed since Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were brutally murdered in the off-campus home that the three female students shared.

A neighbour of the four Idaho murder victims has blasted internet sleuths who claimed that his media appearances were suspicious.

In a recent interview, Jeremy Reagan, a third-year law student from the Idaho University, said he went to bed early the night the murders took place. However, Reddit sleuths are finding his statements suspicious.

Mr Reagan addressed the online conspiracy theories about him and told Court TV on Tuesday that he “didn’t do it. I have nothing to hide. I’m willing to give DNA, fingerprints … whatever they need”.

In an earlier interview with Fox News, Mr Reagan had said, “I went to bed early that night” and “then a couple of hours later we got a message, and there was a bunch of police here. And then that was the end of normalcy for the past week or so here”.

Maroosha Muzaffar has the details.

The Moscow Police Department said on Tuesday afternoon that it was moving five vehicles away from the crime scene to a “secure” location to properly scrutinise them for evidence.

“Today, as part of the ongoing homicide investigation and original search warrant, there will be an increase in detective activity and tow trucks on-site as investigators move five vehicles from within the police perimeter to a more secure long-term storage location to continue processing evidence,” the department said.

Officials did not say who owns the vehicles or what their connection to the deaths might be.

Io Dodds has the details.

Two weeks have now passed since four University of Idaho students were brutally stabbed to death in the small college town of Moscow – with no suspects identified, no arrests made and the murder weapon nowhere to be found.

The four victims were all stabbed multiple times with a fixed-blade knife and are believed to have died at around 3am or 4am that morning.

Their bodies went undiscovered for around eight hours when police were finally called to the home to a report for an “unconscious individual”.