Kristi Goncalves, mother of murdered University of Idaho student Kaylee, said she learned police were looking for a Hyundai sedan “critical” to solving the case from the media, not Moscow authorities.
“The United States just found out the same time I did,” Goncalves told NBC’s Today.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, along with Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21, were killed in bed and stabbed in the chest and upper body with a large knife on Nov. 13.
On Dec. 7, Moscow, Idaho, police asked the community to be on the lookout for tracking down a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra that was caught on video being in the immediate area where the murders took place.
“Investigators believe the occupant(s) of this vehicle may have critical information to share regarding this case,” the release said. “Your information, whether you believe it is significant or not, might be the piece of the puzzle that helps investigators solve these murders.”
Police did not offer any further details on the vehicle’s relation to the homicides.
Goncalves said that she did not know about the police’s interest in the vehicle until she read it in news articles.
“My first thought just started being like, ‘How long have they had this information? Where do they get this information? Was it on a camera?’” she recalled.
She added that an initial burst of happiness was replaced with confusion when she realized that she discovered the clue’s existence with everybody else.
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Goncalves said the police’s request sparked hope in their family that the homicides may finally be solved.
“We thought it was a wrap,” Goncalves said. “We really, as a family, we really felt like this is it.”
However, Shanon Gray, lawyer for Goncalves, said the Moscow police should have alerted the families to the detail before releasing it to the public.
“[The families] should be prepared to be able to answer any questions about those things,” Gray said. “It allows the victims’ families to sleep at night when they know and they trust that the police” view them as a priority.
Police forwarded an email with the news release to Gray at 2:24 p.m. on Dec. 7, according to a police spokesperson. The press release was not sent out to the public via email until 5:51 p.m. It is unclear when it was posted on the city’s website.
Goncalves also spoke out against the information released by Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt, including graphically detailed TV interviews and descriptions of her daughter’s wounds to Kaylee’s 17-year-old sister.
Mabbutt’s described Kaylee’s injuries in a phone call to the family, which was answered by the 17-year-old. Goncalves said Mabbutt asked, “‘Are you sure you want to know this?’ And my daughter, thinking that she did for whatever reason, said yes.”
“Every time we turn around, there’s another, there’s a new — I don’t know if they’re new or they’re old — I’m just coming across them, and I’m just like, ‘Oh, my gosh. How many of these did she do?'” Goncalves said of Mabbutt’s interviews.
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So far, police have no suspect and are providing limited information to the public so as not to damage the investigation.
Police have warned the media not to perpetuate, or even cause, rumors and speculation and have asked the public to refer to their press releases for updated and accurate details.
