Idaho police have now combed through nearly 20,000 leads and questioned 300 people in the killings of four college students last month – but still have not identified a suspect.
In an update Thursday, Moscow Police said they have received over 9,000 email tips, 4,575 phone tips and 6,050 digital media posts regarding the killings of four University of Idaho students. They have also conducted over 300 interviews.
They are now preparing to return the home where Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed, to a landlord.
But they don’t seem to have gotten any closer to determining who killed the college students at their off-campus home on Nov. 13, although newly released surveillance footage shows two of the victims sleeping with a man in a car just hours before they died speak bar.
Moscow police have still not named a suspect in the inquest into the November 13 deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20
In Thursday’s update, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said officers will return to the students’ King Street home one more time as they prepare to return it to the landlord.
“Part of the reason we’re doing this is because of the biological hazards as well as the chemicals that were used during the investigation,” he said in a video posted to YouTube. ‘So there will be activity over at this residence.’
Authorities don’t know how long it will take to clean up the property, but said in a press release that it “will be returned to the property manager upon completion.”
The update comes just days after Fry told KREM his investigators are still awaiting crime lab results from evidence collected at the crime scene.
“We don’t want to rush this, we want to make sure they take the time to get this all right,” the police chief said in an interview on Tuesday.
He added: “Real life and the movies are very different. You know, in the movies they all have [the results] back in an hour.
“We don’t get that in real life, so we’ll be patient.”
It remains unclear if DNA was found from the crime scene.
The authorities are now preparing to return the crime scene to the landlord
A member of the Moscow police is pictured here removing some of the personal belongings from the house last month
Kaylee and Madison’s bodies were found on the top floor of the house. Ethan and Xana were found in a bedroom on the second floor. Survivors Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke slept on the first floor
Fry also said during the interview with the local news channel that the Moscow police may wait even longer to release the audio of a 911 call made to the police by the victims’ friends when they found a person in the hospital earlier this morning House “not accessible” found.
“I think it will be released if prosecutors think we can release it,” he said. “That could be in court… That could be before.”
Police previously said the two surviving housemates from the attack, who slept on the ground floor of the King Street home, “called friends to the residence, believing that one of the victims on the second floor had passed out and was not waking up.
“Several people spoke to the 911 dispatcher before a Moscow police officer arrived at the scene,” authorities said in a previous statement.
When they arrived at the scene, they said they found Kernodle and Chapin, who were in a relationship, downstairs, while Mogen and Goncalves shared a bed upstairs.
Authorities believe they were all stabbed between 3 and 4 a.m. that morning after enjoying a night out.
Kaylee and Madison were out and about in Moscow hours before her death. The leaked surveillance photo was taken at 1:32 a.m. at the Corner Club bar
The two girls had spent the night at a local bar before heading to a food truck and returning home, while Ethan and Xana spent the night at a frat house before returning to the King Street home at around 1.56am
Earlier in the night, newly released surveillance footage shows Goncalves and Madison Mogen chatting with an unidentified man – wearing a baseball cap – at 1.32am at the Corner Club Bar – minutes before they ran to get food.
The girls were seen with their backs to the security camera at the bar, which appeared to be filled with a mix of young and older adults.
The leaked surveillance photo was posted by former FBI agent Jennifer Coffinaffer, who has dedicated her Twitter to the mystery of the Idaho murder.
She said she received the photo as soon as it was released and put it online to prevent evidence in the unsolved mystery from being revealed.
“My concern is to prevent evidence from leaking out from those who control it and turned it over to LE. As soon as it was leaked and wholesaled, “the horse left the barn,” as they say,” Coffinaffer wrote.
“At this point all I can do is discourage and explain why it hurts a case.”
She explained that releasing evidence could hamper investigations as several outsiders try to solve the case themselves.
“As feared, evidence, including video, will continue to leak over time,” she said.
“Whether for money or attention or whatever the motive is, it is not right and will not help LE in her investigation. Don’t we all want this case to be solved?’
Authorities previously said the girls were last seen at a food truck around 1.40am on November 13 before running for their ride home. Pictured: Mogen, left, and Goncalves, right
A taxi driver spoke to and recounted the night he picked up the two friends after they stopped at the ‘grub truck’ (pictured) after a night out in downtown Moscow
Still, the release of the still provides a more detailed timeline of the girls’ whereabouts in the hours leading up to their murder.
Authorities have previously said they were last seen at a food truck around 1.40am on November 13 before running for their ride home.
They returned to their off-campus home at 1:56 a.m., around the same time as Kernodle and Chapin returned from a sorority house.
Her other housemates returned about 45 minutes early and were unharmed in the attack.
Speaking to , the man who drove them home said the community is now losing confidence in the Moscow police department to solve the quadruple murders.
“Most of us have very little faith in the MPD. We can’t tell if we’re watching qualified investigators who are in control of the situation, or if they’re completely at a loss and grasping at straws.”
Moscow police are continuing to search for the occupant of a white Hyundai Elantra (like the one pictured here) who was found near the home of the four murdered University of Idaho students
But Moscow police have denied that inexperienced officers – the lead investigator has only been a police officer for two years – are obstructing the investigation or have already botched it.
No murder weapon was recovered and no suspects were named, but police are still searching for the occupants of a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Electra with unknown license plates who were caught on CCTV near the time of the murder.
There are now six MPD detectives, 62 FBI agents, 13 Idaho State Police investigators and 15 uniformed officers assisting with community patrols, and forensic experts working on the arduous task of processing evidence found at the crime scene.