ID - 4 University of Idaho Students Murdered - Moscow # 37

[10ofRods]

KG had only been back for a few days though. Which begs the ?, why wasn't she there if classes were still going? I graduated from college 25 years ago so I guess maybe with virtual options now it may not be necessary. I don't remember leaving early until finals were complete. Also, the party kids always seemed to stay even after they were done. MOO

This has been a question of much discussion in my household. Two of us are college professors. Most classes at U of Idaho were being held in the real world. I noticed that K's name was not on the list of graduates at the recent graduation, so she must have had coursework to complete. In fact, I find it hard to believe she didn't have at least 9-12 units, given that she was graduating a semester early and had done an internship (rather than stay in Moscow and do coursework) during the summer. Maybe there were more online classes during the summer.

K arrives in Moscow around mid-August (August 11?) and the party at 1122 King Road is Sept 1. She is on body cam in August for a noise complaint (at 1122 King Road). Her mother says she came home about 10 days before Nov 12, so let's say around Nov 2. It doesn't sound like she was planning to come back again until graduation. It's possible she found shorter courses (accelerated courses) to finish her units, but units are units, and that would be an unusual way to finish out a degree (accelerated courses are usually lower division courses, for what I hope are obvious reasons).

Why did she leave early? Getting a paid internship during the summer is quite an accomplishment, and may have signaled a career change for her (University president announced her major as General Studies when he gave his press release regarding the tragedy). How did she find the internship? She had over 50,000 followers at the time of her death (and almost 60,000 now). That's a lot of social contacts. We know nothing about her online interactions with this growing group of people - nor do we know what aspects of her content on instagram drew that many followers. Was she networking nationwide?

Her lease must have been up in December, so why did she leave early? AND break up with her longterm boyfriend at around the same time? The break-up is said to have occurred about 10 days before she went back home (so let's say Oct 24ish).

This is a lot of change for even a young person. It's possible she had only lower division requirements to complete (say, an English course) and got permission from a prof to work from home (students ask for that all the time - but generally, they have to have a good reason, such as illness).

Anyway, at what point did she register for fully online classes, if she did (I'm finding plenty of GE classes that were fully online). Why would a student pay for rent if they didn't have to? She apparently intended to occupy (and party at) 1122 King Road for her last semester. What changed her mind?

I'm not disrespecting her goals of having fun during her last semester at university, I'm just curious about what changed during the semester, given that she signed a lease, apparently had classes on campus (why else be there?) and then changed midstream. She apparently gave no clues to her parents, other than excitement about wanting the next phase of her life to begin (which might be precisely what motivated her to move away from Moscow). Was she really going to backpack Europe by herself?

 

[layer]

You know what I've been wondering...With this house being described as having friends over and parties quite a lot, did the girl's have a cleaning service? Likewise, do these frat houses employ a cleaning service? If the common areas are routinely cleaned by a service, while the bedrooms are kept up mostly by the residents, the forensics may be less complicated regarding where certain people's DNA may show up.

True!
And you have just added a whole new set of potential suspects. The members of a cleaning service would know the details of the house layout, could possibly have become fascinated by the residents, could identify easy access points - windows, sliders etc, and might even have been provided the door keycode. Heck, they would even be skilled at cleaning their trail, and would have access to PPE that could have been used to avoid leaving evidence.

 

[Which_pancake]

You know what I've been wondering...With this house being described as having friends over and parties quite a lot, did the girl's have a cleaning service? Likewise, do these frat houses employ a cleaning service? If the common areas are routinely cleaned by a service, while the bedrooms are kept up mostly by the residents, the forensics may be less complicated regarding where certain people's DNA may show up.

IMO it would be unlikely for college students to pay for a cleaning service, but I don't know about the frats

 

[IspyWithMyBigEye]

It was in the news a week ago:

The car, which Francetich described as both "white" and "light colored," traveled west on Taylor Road sometime between 2:45 a.m. and 3:15 a.m., he said. Only a side view of the car is visible in the footage.

Idaho murders: White car spotted in footage obtained by police one day after killings

Police obtained neighborhood surveillance footage that captured a white car near where four Idaho college students were murdered just one day after the killings

www.foxnews.com

ETA: IIRC, a similar vehicle can be seen on the police bodycam footage (incident involving students) on Taylor Road at 2:58.

I know LE are really interested in this white car, and reading its movements on the night of the murders it does make you wonder what it was doing out at that time, but it was 3 mile away from the murder scene and so far it hasn’t been spotted on anyone else’s CCTV, certainly not the house in Kings Road which picked up the Uber driver’s car.

So, while LE certainly seem keen to track it down, why exactly do they suspect it’s connected to the murders? Supposing the driver was out visiting an illicit lover, or collecting drugs? That is a possibility, and also a reason why hey wouldn’t come forward.

 

[IspyWithMyBigEye]

Was day and time of the attack carefully selected in advance? No classes on Sunday, fewer people around at 3am. An all-night party at the house could have spoiled the plan.

My guess is that he knew there was no all night party there that night…

 

[Montecore1]

I have seen several threads about why wouldn't he have used a gun with a silencer. Well first maybe he didn't have a pistol and especially not a silencer. A silencer does not completely muffle the sound of the muzzle blast, in fact you may be surprised how loud it is especially in a completely quite small room like they were in. Also a silencer gets louder with every shot as it gets excessively hotter with each round.

 

[hopewell]

Find the car, find the killer, IMO. Don't even have to physically locate it, though I'm sure that would be helpful from an evidentiary standpoint. Find the owner, find the driver, make an arrest. Unless reported stolen, which I feel we would know by now, it seems like it would be easy enough to find if the perpetrator is in any of the victims' circles (inner or remote/tangential), is a fellow student or faculty/staff member, is any local subcontractor or cleaner, or frankly is any resident of the town or its peripherals. But I don't think it is likely the perp is any of those things.

My opinion.

 

[Oakie]

When I was growing up we had a serial rapist who managed to find and rape 30 women in a 2 year span. There were over 8,000 tips. it was on the news nightly. Everyone was in absolute terror, hyper vigilant but this one guy could drive around, also in a Hyundai, and find new victims every several weeks or so. He would drive around park in parking lots, watch apartment complexes or homes, and figure out how to break in, always in early morning, 4am or so, often would climb up on balconies to break in through an upper level door or window. while victim was sleeping, and rape them. Then look at other notorious killers. I'm not sure if rules here allow them to be named, but most of the ones I can think of targeted strangers in their homes. So all this guesswork that killer would have been familiar with the house, would have had a key code, isn't what usually happens. A killer who does it for compulsion, very brazen and the high risk is part of why they do it. Take the guy who murdered a journalist on borad his homemade submarine. She was doing an interview for a newspaper and he thought he could get away with it. So most of the guesswork about this case seems to attribute traits of rational normal people, and motives that don't rise to this level of horrendous crime. Especially if LE is looking for a white Hyundai and hasn't been located it suggest this is someone not close to the victims and could have first seen them either on social media or cursing the area. But remembering the serial rapist he only lived here a short while so was familiar with the area, but had never been inside any of the houses or apartments, and could find new ones every several weeks and undetected for 2 years. This was before most security cameras but still for the Moscow murders its only one crime so far and random stalker could have found and targeted the house in less than a week, got in his car and drove off out of state.

I agree with this analysis; and further, as I have stated before, I don't think the car in the video was an Elantra, I think it was a Nissan Sentra. If so, the cops are stumbling down the wrong alley.

It may be that this is only solved with DNA....if it is ever solved.

 

[z0mer]

I know LE are really interested in this white car, and reading its movements on the night of the murders it does make you wonder what it was doing out at that time, but it was 3 mile away from the murder scene and so far it hasn’t been spotted on anyone else’s CCTV, certainly not the house in Kings Road which picked up the Uber driver’s car.

So, while LE certainly seem keen to track it down, why exactly do they suspect it’s connected to the murders? Supposing the driver was out visiting an illicit lover, or collecting drugs? That is a possibility, and also a reason why hey wouldn’t come forward.

The CCTV did spot another white/light coloured sedan around 02:45-03:15 at Taylor Ave heading towards the home.

Idaho murders: White car spotted in footage obtained by police one day after killings

Police obtained neighborhood surveillance footage that captured a white car near where four Idaho college students were murdered just one day after the killings

www.foxnews.com

You can also see a car on the police body cam at 02:58.

 

[IspyWithMyBigEye]

The white car in the background of that video, though. I hope the link will be allowed. This makes me think LE has a very good idea of who is responsible and they are waiting for them to slip up. What they are releasing to the public and what they are not is just a cat and mouse game, IMO

What was the car doing to make it look so suspicious?

 

[TIGER0822]

I am going to defend JD.
An alibis of sleeping is perfectly reasonable at 3am. Not picking up the phone to ten calls (what I consider possible harassment) is perfectly reasonable. Not having the dog attacked is reasonable, the murderer was out to get humans. MOO. I fell terrible for him.

 

[TIGER0822]

If there was a second person involved, imo they just dropped off and picked up, and did not participate in the knifing.

Actually, now that I think about it - it's possible that the driver might not have known the perp intended to kill. What if driver is told that perp is going there to slash tires/vandalize the house/steal something/drug buy? And driver doesn't find out perp's true intentions until picking him up? Driver is now going to be terrified that either they'll be arrested, or perp will kill them.

If he didn’t know on drop off, he would likely known on pick up. The killer and the car have likely been splashed with blood. In addition he would likely have heard of it on the news.

 

[ObsessedNightOwl]

Agree with the poster who said someone knows something. Someone noticed odd behavior, or an absence, or stained clothes, or cuts. Maybe a car being obsessively cleaned. Or a comment that seemed “off.” Clothes and shoes someone usually wears that are missing. Unexpected absence from work. A phone left unattended in someone’s room. A change in demeanor before and after. Browsing history. Following case updates. Buying bleach. Someone knows, hope they have the courage to come forward.

Exactly....you would hope if someone sees something they say something.....and I am sure many people have already thru the tip line.

Could be just a matter of time until the killer (or killers) make a mistake or say the wrong thing to the right person. All MOO.

 

[indicolite22]

I know LE are really interested in this white car, and reading its movements on the night of the murders it does make you wonder what it was doing out at that time, but it was 3 mile away from the murder scene and so far it hasn’t been spotted on anyone else’s CCTV, certainly not the house in Kings Road which picked up the Uber driver’s car.

So, while LE certainly seem keen to track it down, why exactly do they suspect it’s connected to the murders? Supposing the driver was out visiting an illicit lover, or collecting drugs? That is a possibility, and also a reason why hey wouldn’t come forward.

A white car was spotted at around 3am on Taylor Road (0.3 miles from the house), traveling in the direction of the house. A home owner from Linda Lane gave the related camera footage to LE a day after the murders. LE later stated that a white Hyundai Elantra (not officially confirmed to be the same car) was in the immediate area of the house during the early morning hours and asked for the occupants to come forward.

 

[gitana1]

This has been a question of much discussion in my household. Two of us are college professors. Most classes at U of Idaho were being held in the real world. I noticed that K's name was not on the list of graduates at the recent graduation, so she must have had coursework to complete. In fact, I find it hard to believe she didn't have at least 9-12 units, given that she was graduating a semester early and had done an internship (rather than stay in Moscow and do coursework) during the summer. Maybe there were more online classes during the summer.

K arrives in Moscow around mid-August (August 11?) and the party at 1122 King Road is Sept 1. She is on body cam in August for a noise complaint (at 1122 King Road). Her mother says she came home about 10 days before Nov 12, so let's say around Nov 2. It doesn't sound like she was planning to come back again until graduation. It's possible she found shorter courses (accelerated courses) to finish her units, but units are units, and that would be an unusual way to finish out a degree (accelerated courses are usually lower division courses, for what I hope are obvious reasons).

Why did she leave early? Getting a paid internship during the summer is quite an accomplishment, and may have signaled a career change for her (University president announced her major as General Studies when he gave his press release regarding the tragedy). How did she find the internship? She had over 50,000 followers at the time of her death (and almost 60,000 now). That's a lot of social contacts. We know nothing about her online interactions with this growing group of people - nor do we know what aspects of her content on instagram drew that many followers. Was she networking nationwide?

Her lease must have been up in December, so why did she leave early? AND break up with her longterm boyfriend at around the same time? The break-up is said to have occurred about 10 days before she went back home (so let's say Oct 24ish).

This is a lot of change for even a young person. It's possible she had only lower division requirements to complete (say, an English course) and got permission from a prof to work from home (students ask for that all the time - but generally, they have to have a good reason, such as illness).

Anyway, at what point did she register for fully online classes, if she did (I'm finding plenty of GE classes that were fully online). Why would a student pay for rent if they didn't have to? She apparently intended to occupy (and party at) 1122 King Road for her last semester. What changed her mind?

I'm not disrespecting her goals of having fun during her last semester at university, I'm just curious about what changed during the semester, given that she signed a lease, apparently had classes on campus (why else be there?) and then changed midstream. She apparently gave no clues to her parents, other than excitement about wanting the next phase of her life to begin (which might be precisely what motivated her to move away from Moscow). Was she really going to backpack Europe by herself?

Was she not living at n Moscow at the time of her death?

I haven’t been following closely enough.

 

[hopewell]

<modsnip - quoted post was removed for rumor>

The house plan could be found online (Zillow, etc) once the address was known. The address could be found pretty easily via social media since location markers in many of the apps they used in their public profiles were in real time. Indeed, a person anonymously stalking them online from afar could know exactly where they were at pretty much any time.

If the perp was local, the car would've almost certainly been identified by now. Maybe not found, but identified.

<modsnip - rumor>

My opinion.

 

[gliving]

Wondering, did the killer/s know who owned the Range Rover parked out front? Otherwise it adds a variable to his/her plan. Or maybe it didn't make a difference to them.

 

[Ghostwheel]

Hello newly registered here but been a fan of WS for a long time and have been following this thread, some really on point threads...good job sleuths

Could the infamous "white Elantra" be somewhat of a red herring from LE? Sure it was seen in the area and they would like to review all leads, However, maybe they know who the murderer is, need to build a stronger case and the seemingly urgency of wanting to speak with the Elantra driver is just not to make him think the investigation isn't hot on his trail?

I suspect they have a line on the car and owner, just not proof on the occupants at that time in question. They are hoping that there might be someone who saw the cars occupants and can ID them. They may have the license plate and are not releasing it to avoid harassment for the owner. If owner not involved, need no harassment, if owner is involved, need to not scare them into running. JMO.

 

[Montecore1]

In the "Like, I told Adam everything" video...wasn't that hoodie guy aka JS walking with them? In the timeline when was that video taken? After the food truck and before the Uber?

 

[Counttrarian]

Something that is interesting, the status of the door locks (locked vs unlocked, all digital vs. 'analog' etc.) are important facts that LE knows but we do not.
Seems that even media from the same interview source isn't completely clear:
Father of Idaho murder victim was asked to fix lock at home in week before the killings

Locks on Idaho college house were fixed weekend before killings, victim’s mom says

University of Idaho victim's father says Xana Kernodle had 'bruises,' put up a fight against killer

University of Idaho murder victim Xana Kernodle's father said the 20-year-old had 'bruises' and was 'torn by the knife' while putting up an apparent fight with her attacker.

www.foxnews.com