If police have made any progress in determining who murdered four University of Idaho students in their beds, they did not share it at a Sunday night press conference.
Instead, authorities ran through details they had already confirmed, debunked several rumors, and insisted they are working as hard as they can to solve the week-old crime.
“We know people want answers. We want answers, too,” said Col. Kedrick Wills, head of the Idaho State Police, which is working with local cops and the FBI to find the killer.
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Moscow Police Chief James Fry said more than 600 tips have come in, been vetted and put aside. Investigators have interviewed 90 people, canvassed businesses and dumpsters, and reviewed surveillance.
“It is a complex and terrible crime and it will take some time to resolve,” Fry said.
Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, 21, and Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, both 20, were found knifed to death last Sunday—two of them on the second floor and two on the third floor. The coroner said they were most likely asleep when attacked.
“Some of the victims had defensive wounds... there was no sign of sexual assault,” said Moscow Capt. Roger Lanier.
Lanier said investigators have ruled out two surviving roommates, a man seen near Goncalves and Mogen at a food truck earlier in the night, and the person who drove the two young women home as suspects.
He said police are aware that Goncalves and Mogen repeatedly called a male subject from the home in the hours before the crime. Goncalves’ parents have said that person was her ex-boyfriend and that they do not believe he was involved.
“They’re wasting their time with Jack,” Kristi Goncalves told Fox News on Saturday. “Jack is just as distraught as we are. Jack is our family. Jack is 1,000 percent, 2,000 percent our family, and Jack is with us, and we stand behind him 100 percent.”
