Moscow, Idaho, police are addressing “unvetted information” circulating in the media, reminding the public to look at police bulletins for updates on the investigation into the murders of four University of Idaho students.
Police have not been able to identify or arrest a suspect in the Nov. 13 homicides. Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were killed in bed and stabbed in the chest and upper body with a large knife.
Family members of the murdered students have been speaking out, not only on their children’s legacies but also in frustration at the lack of information provided by police. Media coverage has also featured several experts looking at different angles using the limited evidence from the investigation.
In a press release, Moscow police acknowledged the large amount of speculation about the case, including the cause of death, victim injuries, and investigative techniques, among others.
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Police said they have not released additional information to both the families and public, stating it would be a “disservice” and hindrance to their investigation.
“We recognize the frustration this causes and that speculation proliferates in the absence of facts,” police stated. “However, we firmly believe speculation and unvetted information is a disservice to the victims, their families, and our community.”
Detectives are going through over 6,000 tips through email, phone, and digital media, per police.
“Our focus is the investigation, not the activities,” the police press release said. “Your information, whether you believe it is significant or not, might be one of the puzzle pieces that help solve these murders.”
Speculation over the nature of the murders has grown more recently after Steve Goncalves, father of Kaylee Goncalves, spoke to several media outlets stating he was seeking clarity from police on the circumstances surrounding his daughter’s death.
He expressed his disappointment in the lack of information available, particularly the alibis of those ruled out as suspects.
So far, the following people have been ruled out as suspects: everyone present during the 911 call that alerted police to the murders, a third-party driver that took Kaylee Goncalves and Mogen home, a man in a Grub Truck surveillance video, Kaylee Goncalves’s ex-boyfriend, and the person on the lease prior to Kaylee Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle, and their two roommates, Dylan Mortensen, 19, and Bethany Funke, 19.
However, this information is not enough for Steve Goncalves, he said.
“I don’t know what would prevent you from sharing someone’s alibi,” Goncalves said.
He also has claimed his daughter’s fatal wounds from the attack are inconsistent with the nature of the murders without offering further evidence on the subject.
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“I’m just going to say it. It wasn’t leaked to me. I earned that. I paid for that funeral,” he said to Fox News. “I sent my daughter to college. She came back in a box, and I can speak on that.”
Roommates Mortensen and Funke spoke out through statements read at a memorial service this past weekend, recalling their four murdered friends as “gifts to this world” who “will never be forgotten and will forever be in all of our hearts.”
