Idaho murders - updates: Eerie new crime scene detail emerges as Moscow police target mystery car

Police in Moscow have announced that they will return some personal items belonging to the four University of Idaho students who were murdered at their off-campus home last month.

In a Facebook update, Moscow police said on Tuesday: “Starting Wednesday morning, December 7, 2022, and potentially into Thursday, Moscow police chief James Fry, along with members of the department, will collect and remove some of the victims’ personal belongings from the residence, which are no longer needed for the investigation, so that they can be returned to the families.

“The items will be loaded into a truck and transferred to a secure location until the families can collect the belongings. These arrangements were made in coordination with the families.”

In an interview with Fox News Digital on Wednesday, John Henry Browne compared the crime scene at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, to a “de facto sorority house,” which Bundy targeted during his violent crime sprees in the 1970s.

Mr Browne is not involved in any way with the investigation into the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. Authorities investigating the 13 November slayings have never suggested that a serial killer could be behind the crime.

The Independent has the story:

A neighbour of the University of Idaho students murdered in their off-campus rental home in Moscow last has revealed new details about the crime scene.

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Describing the crime scene to Today, coroner Ms Mabbutt said that there was “quite a bit of blood”.

DNA has been recovered from the home, which Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle shared with at least two other roommates.

Those roommates were home at the time of the killings but apparently were unaware of the murders until hours later. Nearly three weeks after the killings, police revealed a sixth person may have lived at the home.

Police have taken more than 4,000 pictures of the residence after the murders. The door appeared to be unlocked with no sign of forced entry and nothing seemed to have been taken, investigators said.

The bodies were found in the victims’ beds on the second and third floors, leading authorities to believe they were asleep when killed.

At a vigil on 30 November, Goncalves’ father revealed that his daughter and Mogen were in the same bed when they were killed.

Goncalves’ parents had previously said that they had been told by authorities that the investigation is moving slowly because the killer left behind a “mess” of evidence.

Steve and Kristi Goncalves said they’ve heard from police that the crime scene is sprawling and chaotic.

“They’re telling us that there’s so much evidence that it’s going to take a lot of time to process it all,” Mr Goncalves told Fox News. “This wasn’t like a pinpoint crime. This person was sloppy.”

A neighbour told Fox that the victims often hosted gatherings at the home and had a lot of people coming in and out of the residence, which could potentially complicate crime scene analysis.

Despite more details becoming available in the two weeks since the murders took place, key pieces of what happened in the early morning hours of 13 November remain missing.

Police have revealed the victims’ last steps, yet the timeline becomes blurry as the second part of the night of the murders progresses.

On the night of 12 November, Goncalves and Mogen spent around three hours at Corner Club at the northern edge of Main Street.

The pair walked straight down Main Street to a red brick building that used to host the now-defunct Garden Lounge; a favourite food truck, Grub Wandering Kitchen - fondly called Grub Truck by its many local fans – often parks outside on Main Street.

Goncalves and Mogen ordered, laughed and chatted with friends as they got their pasta carbonara; according to police, they got a lift home from a “private party” and returned to King Road around 1.56am.

Kernodle and Chapin returned to King Road at around 1.45am. The young couple had gone to a party across the road at Sigma Chi.

The other two roommates at King Road – who have still not been named by authorities – had gotten home first, around 1am, and fallen asleep, according to police.

Mogen and Goncalves both made multiple calls to the same number around an hour after they got home.

Goncalves’ sister said the unanswered calls were placed to her ex-boyfriend, who’d dated her sister for years before they amicably split, still sharing a dog named Murphy. He has been ruled out as a suspect.

Authorities believe a killer or killers fatally stabbed Chapin, Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen between 3am and 4am.

Their bodies weren’t found until nearly nine hours later, around noon on 13 November.

Despite multiple law enforcement agencies being drafted in to work on the case, police appear to be no closer to catching the killer, leaving students and residents of the notoriously safe town racked by fear and social media awash with speculation.

While officials are remaining tightlipped about key parts of the investigation including why they believe the murders were targeted, they have debunked several online rumours and ruled out potential ties to the killings.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the story:

Cara Denise Northington, mother of Xana Kernodle, broke her silence three weeks after the death of her daughter.

“There is so much more that can be done that has not been done,” she told NewsNation concerning the police investigation that has so far not turned up any suspects.

Speaking with anchor Ashleigh Banfield, Ms Northington said of her communication with the police: “They haven’t said anything. I learn more on the news and on TV than what they have said to me.”

Steven Goncalves, father of 21-year-old Kaylee, said that the suspect went upstairs where his daughter and her best friend Mogen, 21, were sleeping on the same bed on the top floor, which was out of the way of the killer’s entry point.

Authorities said that the perpetrator entered the house through a sliding glass door or window on the second floor of the home, which meets a hill on the ground level in the backyard.

The other two victims — Kernodle and Chaplin — were found dead on the second floor of the house.

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Kerry Ulhorn, a 37-year-old former member of the Delta Gamma sorority, told The Independent that she wanted to help students feel safe in the college town after four sorority and fraternity members were stabbed to death in a brutal knife attack back on 13 November.

“The hope is that these will give the students on campus a small sense of security and also just let them know that their alumni and others deeply care about keeping them and the university that we love a safe space for them to be,” she said.

The Independent’s Io Dodds and Rachel Sharp have the story:

Last week, Steven Goncalves spoke about the strong bond between his daughter Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both killed on 13 November.

“They just found each other, and every day they did homework together, they came to our house together, they shared everything,” he said.

He added: “Then they started looking at colleges, they came here together. They eventually get into the same apartment together.”

“And in the end, they died together, in the same room, in the same bed.”