CNN
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Authorities investigating the murders 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 an update on Saturday, the Moscow Police Department said it received more than 2,640 emails at 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 approximately 4,000 crime scene photographs.
But the case remains unsolved. Police have not located the murder weapon or identified a suspect.
“To help with the ongoing investigation, any strange or unusual events that have occurred should be reported,” Moscow police said on Saturday. “Your information, whether you think it’s significant or not, could be the piece of the puzzle that helps investigators solve these murders.”
Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were likely stabbed multiple times in their sleep just days before the Thanksgiving holiday, police said.
Since then, their gruesome deaths have rocked Moscow, a university town of some 25,000 people that hasn’t recorded a single murder since 2015, and the nation.
In an attempt to clear up false information that has been spreading about the case, Moscow police this week debunked several theories.
“There is speculation, without factual support, that is stoking community fears and spreading false facts,” the Moscow Police Department said in a press release on Friday.
None of the victims in the quadruple homicide were bound and gagged, which belies online reports. A report of a dog “skinned” weeks before the killings is unrelated to the case, according to police, and dead animals left on a resident’s property elsewhere were determined to be wildlife activity.
In addition, police noted that the student’s murders are not related to two other stabbing incidents in neighboring Washington and Oregon, in 1999 and 2021, respectively, which may “share similarities” but “do not appear to be any evidence to support the cases”. are related,” according to the statement.
Police also assured the public that a September incident involving an argument between a group of people walking on the University of Idaho bike path and a bicyclist, who displayed a folding knife, is not related to the student murders. .
“The individual involved turned himself in and the charges were forwarded to the Moscow city prosecutor’s office,” police said.
And while police have said they don’t know who carried out the killings, they have released information that eliminated some people as suspects, most recently a person listed on the lease for the residence where the killings occurred, police said. on Friday.
“They spoke to this person and confirmed that they moved in before the start of the school year and that they were not present at the time of the incident. Detectives do not believe that this person has any involvement in the murders,” Moscow police said.
Police also ruled out the two surviving roommates who were in the home at the time of the murders and others inside the home when the 911 call was made. The person who made the 911 call alerting authorities to the house after the murders has not been identified.
Goncalves and Mogen, two of the victims, were taken home by someone after the couple bought food from a truck hours before they were killed; Authorities have ruled out the driver as a suspect.
In addition, a man seen on surveillance video of a food truck visited by Goncalves and Mogen, and another man the couple called “numerous times” in the hours before his death, were also ruled out as suspects by police.
It is unclear how close authorities are to releasing information about a possible suspect or suspects. “Only examined information that does not impede the investigation will be released to the public,” Moscow police said on Friday.
But some details published by the authorities since the beginning of the investigation have required further clarification.
This week, Moscow police noted and retracted comments from the Latah County prosecutor who said that “the suspects specifically observed this residence” and “that one or more of the occupants was undoubtedly attacked.”
Moscow police called that a “miscommunication” and added: “Detectives do not currently know if the residence or any of the occupants were specifically targeted.”
On Thursday, Moscow police tried to clear up key conflicting information, once and for all.
“We remain consistent in our belief that this was a targeted attack, but investigators have not concluded whether the target was the residence or the occupants,” police said.
Authorities also needed to clear up 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 next day, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said that police were not final in concluding that the public was not at risk.
Detectives have received testing and analysis of crime scene evidence from the Idaho State Police Forensic Services, and will continue to receive additional test results, according to police.
“To protect the integrity of the investigation, specific results will not be released,” police said.
Detectives also collected the contents of three dumpsters on the street where the home is located and impounded five nearby vehicles to process as 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 murders.
Multiple agencies and law enforcement personnel are investigating the homicides. More than 30 employees, including detectives, patrolmen and support staff from the Moscow Police Department, are working on the case, police said in the press release on Friday.
The FBI has posted 22 investigators in Moscow, 20 agents nationwide and two investigators from the agency’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, police said.
Additionally, there are 20 Idaho State Police investigators assigned to Moscow, and an additional 15 uniformed officers are patrolling the community. Forensic services and a state police mobile crime scene team are also working on the case.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Xana Kernodle’s last name.
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