Idaho murders: Tips reach 10,000 as police comb through ‘hours and hours of digital content’

Idaho murders: Tips reach 10,000 as police comb through ‘hours and hours of digital content’
Oliver Helbig/Getty Images

(MOSCOW, Idaho) — About 10,000 tips have been submitted so far in the unsolved murders of four University of Idaho students, police said Monday, but investigators still don’t have a suspect.

Roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, were all stabbed to death in the girls’ off-campus house in Moscow in the early hours of Nov. 13.

Investigators are still combing through “hours and hours of digital content,” including surveillance videos submitted by residents and business owners, Moscow police said in a statement Friday.

“There is a massive amount of digital content to review with a robust team dedicated to handling digital submissions,” police said. “Other members of the investigation team are dedicated specifically to email tips, while another team is assigned to Tip Line calls.”

Among the videos under review is this surveillance video from a Moscow gas station that shows a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra near the victims’ house when the crimes occurred.

Authorities are “confident” that the person or persons in the Hyundai Elantra has “information that is critical” to the case, Moscow police Capt. Roger Lanier said last week.

“We have many tips that have come in on the 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra,” Moscow Police Chief James Fry said in a video Monday. “But what we’re asking is, anybody else who still hasn’t sent in a tip, if you own one or if you know someone who was driving one the day before [the crimes] or the day after, please send that tip in.”

Police have released this white Hyundai Elantra stock photo.

Police said the investigation won’t slow down over the university’s winter break.

Much of the case remains a mystery, including a motive and how two other roommates survived.

The surviving roommates, who police said are not suspects, were at the house and likely slept through the murders, according to police. They were on the ground floor while the four victims were on the second and third floors.

Lanier said last week that police “do have a lot of information” in the case that they’re choosing not to release to the public.

“We’re not releasing specific details because we do not want to compromise this investigation,” he said in a video statement.

Authorities urge anyone with information to upload digital media to fbi.gov/moscowidaho or contact the tip line at tipline@ci.moscow.id.us or 208-883-7180.

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