Idaho police ask for public’s help after tips that 1 of the 4 students murdered had a stalker
Police are investigating claims that one of the victims killed in Moscow, Idaho, had a stalker.
Four University of Idaho students were found dead with multiple stab wounds the morning of Nov. 13: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
Police have not located or named a suspect in the attack. Officials said the four victims were likely sleeping at the time of the attack and bled out from their wounds.
Officials don’t think the two surviving roommates who called police were involved in the crime and are still looking for a suspect or suspects in the slaying.
In an update on Nov. 22, police said investigators have "looked extensively into information they received about Kaylee Goncalves having a stalker" and pursued hundreds of tips, but they "have not been able to verify or identify a stalker."
Police are asking the public for tips regarding the potential stalker, as well as in the general case.
Police also noted the online conversation about the terminology used to describe the weapon in their deaths and clarified:
"The type of knife thought to be used in the attacks is believed to be a fix-blade knife," officials said in a release on Nov. 22. "Detectives continue to look for the weapon."
On Nov. 21, police said the surviving roommates had called friends over to the house the morning the bodies were discovered because they initially believed one of their roommates had passed out.
The night before their deaths, Mogen and Goncalves had gone out to a bar before stopping at a food truck and taking a ride home from a "private party driver."
Chapin and Kernodle went to a party at a fraternity house, police have said, and all four returned home around 1:45 a.m. on Nov. 13.
The four were killed sometime after 2 a.m., the local coroner told NBC News on Nov. 17.
Police have said the driver who drove Mogen and Goncalves home, as well as another man spotted in a video with the two at a food truck, have both been ruled out as suspects. Police also ruled out a person called seven times from Goncalves’ cell phone after she returned home.
“This person was asleep unfortunately, (and) was not getting the calls,” Goncalves’ mother, Kristi Goncalves, told TODAY. “If Kaylee was in imminent danger — her or Maddie — they would have called 911. They would not have been calling this person.”
Anyone with information regarding the case can call 208-883-7180 or email tipline@ci.moscow.id.us. Digital media can be submitted at fbi.gov/moscowidaho.
Police are slated to give an update in the case on Nov. 23 from the University of Idaho campus at 1 p.m. PT.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
