Idaho police say individuals cleared as suspects in college student murders may be reinterviewed
Several people including the two surviving roommates and a man seen with two of the victims at a food truck have been cleared as suspects in the killings
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Individuals who have already been publicly cleared as suspects in the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students may be reinterviewed by law enforcement as the investigation rumbles on for a fourth week and the killer remains at large.
Moscow Police Chief James Fry told Fox News on Tuesday that “cleared” individuals could still be called back in to speak with police if the evidence leads law enforcement back to them.
“We always have the option of reinterviewing,” he said.
“We’ve actually reinterviewed people two or three times because we’ll get tips, or we’ll get information that we need to verify again, and sometimes we need to ask the questions just a little bit different to ensure that we’re getting the proper information to continue on with this investigation. So, that happens regularly in all investigations.”
The police chief’s comments come as tensions continue to mount between law enforcement and the families of some of the victims, who are growing increasingly frustrated with a lack of answers in the case.
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Where were Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin? Five-hour time gap still unexplained weeks on from Idaho murders
More than three weeks have now passed since Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death in a student home in Moscow, Idaho, on 13 November.
No arrests have been made, no suspects named and the murder weapon has not been recovered.
Last week, Goncalves’ mother hit out at the speed with which some people had been ruled out as suspects in the brutal slayings.
“I just feel like there have been a couple of individuals that were cleared very fast that maybe should not have been,” Kristi Goncalves told NewsNation.
To date, investigators have ruled out: the two surviving housemates who were left unharmed and appear to have slept through the murders, other friends who were in the home when the 911 call was made alerting police to the murders, Goncalves’ former long-term boyfriend, a man seen on camera with Mogen and Goncalves at a food truck on the night of 12 November, and the person who gave them a ride from the food truck to the home where they died.
A sixth person listed on the lease of the student home and two men involved in a “stalker” incident with Goncalves around a month before the murders are also not believed to be connected to the case, police said.
While multiple people have been ruled out, law enforcement have admitted that they do not have any suspects on their radar – with Goncalves’ family saying they are losing faith in authorities’ abilities to solve the case.
Amid escalating tensions, the 21-year-old’s grieving father said that he is now considering hiring a lawyer to try to force police to release information about the case.
Steve Goncalves told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that he has consulted with several attorneys about what legal avenues could be used to challenge what he feels is a lack of transparency from police, as he accused officials of “messing up a million times” during the ongoing probe.
“There are things that we can request and things we can do to get to the truth faster,” said Mr Goncalves.
“You have to fill out forms to get this evidence released to you. I don’t know how to do that.”
He added: “They’ve messed up a million times. But I don’t get to say that because what experience does Steve have? He doesn’t know.
“He’s just a dad who woke up one day and had his life turned upside down.”
Chief Fry has vowed that the case is “not going cold” and continues to insist that “no stone will go unturned” until the killer is caught.
In Tuesday’s interview, the police chief broke down in tears saying that, as a father himself, the brutal murders of the four students “affects us”.
“This case is not going cold. We have tips coming in, we have investigators out every day interviewing people. We’re still reviewing evidence, we’re still looking at all aspects of this,” he said.
“I said early on that no stone will go unturned, and I mean that. We are going to continue. This case is not going cold.”
Choking up with emotion, he added: “I’m a dad with daughters, and it’s tough. We’re human.
“We don’t go to these and just turn it off. It affects us. But we have a job to do, and we’re going to continue to do that job, going to continue to push forward.”
On Wednesday, the police chief will collect some of the victims’ personal belongings from the home where the murders took place so that they can be returned to their family members.
The items released “are no longer needed for the investigation”, Moscow Police said in a release, asking the media and the public to allow the collection to take place “as privately as possible in an effort to maintain respect for the victims and their families”.
While investigators are keeping information about the case under wraps, they appear to be zeroing in on an almost five-hour time gap where two of the victims whereabouts remain unknown on the night of the murders.
On the night of 12 November, Kernodle and Chapin had gone to a fraternity party at Sigma Chi from 8pm to 9pm on the University of Idaho campus.
The young couple then arrived back at the home on King Road that Kernodle, Mogen and Goncalves shared with two other female students at around 1.45am on 13 November.
The four victims were all stabbed to death at around 3am or 4am, their bodies lying undiscovered for several more hours.
Three weeks on from the murders, there continues to be an almost five-hour gap between the time Kernodle and Chapin were seen at the frat house party and the time they arrived back at the house where they were attacked.
The two locations are only minutes apart on foot and are based in busy student areas, close to Greek Row where the University of Idaho’s sorority and fraternity houses sit.
Despite, thousands of tips pouring in from the public desperate to catch the killer, investigators are still unable to account for the major lapse in time and have provided no explanation for where Kernodle and Chapin may have been during those final hours.
Kernodle’s mother Cara Northington has said she believes her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend were at a bar during that time. However, she confirmed that she does not know that for sure.
On Monday, Moscow Police issued a statement urging anyone with information about “any interactions, contacts, direction and method of travel, or anything abnormal” of Kernodle and Chapin’s movements to come forward to help “add context to what occurred”.
The lack of information about Kernodle and Chapin’s last known movements is at odds with the detailed narrative given about the final movements of the other two victims.
On the night of 12 November, police said that best friends Goncalves and Mogen had spent the night at The Corner Club bar in downtown Moscow, arriving at around 10.30pm and staying around three hours until around 1.30am.
From there, they went to nearby food truck Grub Truck where they were captured on Twitch footage ordering food and chatting to other students.
They then got a ride home from an unnamed “private party” – a sorority service – to arrive back at the King Road home at around 1.56am.
The two surviving roommates were also out that night and arrived home at around 1am, police said.
At around 3am or 4am, an unknown assailant stabbed the four victims to death with a fixed-blade knife, police said. There was no signs of sexual assault on any of the victims.
The two surviving roommates woke later on the 13 November and called friends to the home as they believed one of the victims on the second floor had passed out and wouldn’t wake up. A 911 call was then made at around midday from one of the surviving housemate’s cellphones reporting an “unconscious individual” at the three-storey home.
Police arrived to find the four victims brutally stabbed to death on the second and third floors.