A former FBI detective says the five cars towed from the Moscow, Idaho, home where four University of Idaho students were killed on November 13 were likely an afterthought to investigators.
Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were stabbed to death early that Sunday between 3 and 4 a.m. at a Moscow, Idaho, home on King Road near the University campusaccording to the police.
The attacker likely used a “fixed blade knife,” police said, adding that a suspect has not yet been identified.
Authorities say the victims were likely sleeping when they were attacked, stating that each victim was stabbed multiple times.
IDAHO MURDERS: CARS OF MURDERED STUDENTS TOWED FROM CRIME SCENE TWO WEEKS AFTER GRAZY ATTACK
Cars possibly belonging to the four murdered University of Idaho students are towed away for impoundment for police investigation.
(Fox News Digital/Adam Sabes)
More than two weeks after the students’ deaths, police were seen helping to tow the vehicles from the driveway of the home on Tuesday.
Idaho State Police Communications Director Aaron Snell told Fox News Digital that the vehicles were being transported to “long-term secure storage” to “gather more evidence.” The vehicles were taken to a nearby city-owned maintenance shop.
During an interview Wednesday, Snell said the cars were pre-registered.
UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO HOLDS VIGIL IN HONOR OF FOUR MURDERED COLLEGE STUDENTS: ‘WE LOST FOUR BEAUTIFUL SOULS’
“I think all of those vehicles had been previously searched and are still part of the crime scene,” Snell said. “So as the possibility presents itself, there is additional evidence that we could get and need to still have access to those vehicles.”
Goncalves, Kernodle, and Mogen lived in the house off campus.
Ken Mains, a former FBI detective, told Fox News Digital that the vehicles probably weren’t towed until two weeks after the slayings because they probably weren’t thought to have anything to do with the crime.
A Range Rover believed to be Kaylee Goncalves’s and several other cars of unknown ownership were towed from the scene of the quadruple homicide in Moscow, Idaho.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
“I think, and I’m assuming here based on my experiences, they had a briefing and getting the vehicles was kind of discussed based on what I said earlier. It was an afterthought because they ‘probably’ have nothing to do with the crime or not. have forensic or investigative value,” he said. “However, someone was smart enough to say, ‘Hey, let’s take those vehicles, just in case.’ It is a smart and correct decision. It doesn’t matter if it’s two weeks later because they stayed.”
TIMELINE OF MURDERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE KILLING OF FOUR STUDENTS
He added that investigators will review all aspects of the vehicles for potential evidence.
“They will look for potential clues in those vehicles. Maybe a piece of paper with a number or name on it. Anything that helps guide them,” Mains said. “They are towing them to their impounded lot, so they can do a more thorough search where they can take their time and meticulously analyze any potential evidence.”
Mains added that the vehicles are needed for any event that is built in the future.
MURDERS IN IDAHO: IT’S BEEN TWO WEEKS SINCE FOUR COLLEGE STUDENTS WERE STABBED IN AN OFF-CAMPUS HOUSE
Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, along with the women’s two other roommates, in Kaylee Goncalves’ latest Instagram post, shared the day before the murders.
(@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
“If you turned the vehicle over to the family and then you have to go back and claim it for evidence processing, you’re in a world of trouble, not just from a forensic standpoint. A great opening statement that the police don’t know what they doing,” Mains said, adding that investigators should be able to obtain DNA samples even with the vehicles out for two weeks.
A memorial to students murdered at the University of Idaho is covered in snow on Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. The memorial is for the victims of a quadruple homicide that occurred Nov. 13 at an off-campus home.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
Former FBI special agent Jonathan Gilliam told Fox News Digital that investigators will want to look inside the vehicles for fingerprints and DNA evidence.
Gilliam said if the killer is someone the students knew, “there’s a chance they were in that car.”
The former FBI special agent said he believes investigators waited too long to tow the vehicles because cold weather may have broken down possible fingerprint evidence.
“So it makes sense that they were taken away. I think it’s a little bit late in the game because it’s very cold in there, and the environment might have broken down some of that evidence, like fingerprints, for example, and things like that,” he said. .
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Anyone with information about the stabbings is asked to call Moscow Police at 208-883-7054 or email tipline@ci.moscow.id.us.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz, Paul Best, Stephanie Pagones and Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
