CNN
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The investigation into the murders of four University of Idaho students has received an overwhelming number of leads related to the search for a white sedan seen near the crime scene at the time of the deaths last month, police said Friday. .
Due to the number of tips received, calls are being directed to an FBI call center to help triage the tips received, according to a Thursday update from the Moscow Police Department.
“The global call center has the resources to take those calls, categorize them, and send them to investigators so they can use those tips in the investigation,” the department said.
Dozens of local, state and federal investigators have yet to identify a suspect or find the murder weapon used in last month’s attack in the small Moscow university town. Still, the researchers maintain that they have made progress, but cannot share details, as that could compromise the investigation.
The students: Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kernodle’s boyfriend, 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, were killed just days before the Thanksgiving school vacation. All were stabbed multiple times and were likely asleep when the attack began, a coroner said.
“We are continually making progress,” Idaho State Police spokesman Aaron Snell told CNN. “But this is a criminal investigation, and as we move forward, we can’t always provide that information.”
Investigators are working with more than 6,000 leads they have received in the course of the investigation thus far. “We have quality data that we are working on,” Snell said.
The Moscow Police Department said Wednesday that a 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra was seen “in the immediate vicinity” of the off-campus house where the students were stabbed to death in the early hours of November 13.
The information about the vehicle came from the thousands of tips police received in the case, which has shocked the small college town of Moscow, Idaho.
“Investigators believe that the occupants of this vehicle may have critical information to share about this case,” the police statement said, noting that it had an unknown license plate.
The Moscow Police Department is leading the investigation with the assistance of the Idaho State Police, the Latah County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI, which has assigned more than 40 officers to the case across the United States.
On Wednesday, police began the process of returning some of the victims’ belongings to their families.
“It’s time for us to give back those things that really mean something to those families and hopefully help with some of their healing,” Chief James Fry said Tuesday in a short video statement.
“I’m a parent, I understand the meaning behind some of those things,” Fry said. The items being recalled are “no longer needed for the investigation,” the department said.
Investigators believe the four victims had been out in the hours leading up to the murders, two in a Moscow bar and the other two in a frat house, but had returned home at 2 a.m. on the day of the stabbings.
Later that morning, two surviving roommates “called friends at the residence because they believed one of the victims on the second floor had passed out and was not waking up,” police said in a statement. Someone called 911 from the house at 11:58 using the phone of one of the surviving roommates.
When the police arrived, they found two victims on the second floor and two victims on the third floor. There were no signs of forced entry or damage, police said.
A coroner determined that the four victims were stabbed multiple times and were likely asleep when the attacks began, police said. The manner and cause of death was stabbing homicide, the coroner said.
Police are beginning to receive the results of forensic evidence from the crime scene, Moscow police spokeswoman Rachael Doniger told CNN last week.
Detectives do not believe the surviving roommates were involved in the murders, police said.
Moscow police said they are still investigating the possibility that one of the victims, Kaylee Goncalves, had a stalker.
Police described a situation in October when a man appeared to be following Goncalves out of a local business, according to a department news release. Police said this was an isolated incident, and that the man and an associate were trying to meet women in the business, which police said was corroborated through further investigation.
It was not a continuous pattern of harassment. There is currently no evidence linking the two men to the murders, according to the statement.
Last month, investigators “extensively” analyzed hundreds of pieces of information that Goncalves had a stalker, but “have not been able to verify or identify a stalker,” police said.
Police are still asking the public for tips on information about a possible stalker.
“Investigators continue to search for information about Kaylee having a stalker. Information about a potential harasser or unusual occurrences should go through the tip line,” the statement said.
Source: news.google.com