COMES NOW, Dr of Chaos, local to Moscow, Idaho, to post occasionally on local social and geographical aspects related to the BK case. I have read a fair portion of the postings (you folks write faster than I can read) and have reviewed the site policies, which seem to boil down to: I shall be ok if I write MOO all the time (there are more MOOs at this site than John Dutton’s ranch). I have noted that a few other local people have posted here. So, to begin:
“The shopping is better in Moscow” (although I recall the quote of BK as reported in the press used “Idaho” instead of “Moscow”). One hears this statement so often, from Moscow and Pullman people alike, that it has practically become a local mantra. Pullman is somewhat shopping-challenged; the downtown area is separated from the university (WSU) by a creek valley that is not an attractive walk for students. Downtown Moscow by contrast has that “college town” feel; it is lively, has many student-oriented businesses (coffee shops, bars, sidewalk café restaurants, second-hand clothing, cute bookstore, bike store, backpacking/climbing store, etc.), and is an easy flat walk just a few blocks from the east edge of campus (UI). Main Street in Moscow is closed off to cars during the warmer months for a superb farmers market on Saturday mornings, with artisan booths, food trucks, and sometimes live music, along with booths featuring excellent local produce.
More important to the case at hand, the west end of Moscow has an indoor mall, with the tail ends of the mall capped by a small Target on the west and a terrific grocery store, WinCo, on the east. The WinCo store has been mentioned in postings here; what is noteworthy is that the store not only has the best prices in the region, it has a large collection of organic produce as well as bins full of bulk dry goods, like beans, nuts, and grains. We can surmise that our vegan criminology grad student spent some quality time here; there is nothing like it in Pullman. Moreover, the store is open 24/7, as has been pointed out in these threads. We can imagine that our insomniac vegan criminology student might have been here during odd nocturnal hours (but would have had to take long detours in the grocery aisles because many aisles at those hours are blocked by pallets full of goods being restocked on shelves).
The point is, BK had every innocent reason to be in Moscow often, even during weird hours. Many people from Pullman shop at WinCo.
So, what becomes important to the case are BK’s actual locations during those 12 occasions when his phone accessed cellular resources used by 1122 King Road, as described in the PCA, along with his car movements on the night of the murders when his phone was silent. We have seen the phone/location question debated here and elsewhere at length, with the answer being that “cellular resources used by 1122 King Road” can mean anything from “he was in Moscow” to “he was driving past 1122 King Road”. We will have to await the trial for a definitive answer. However, MOO MOO MOO, the defense legal team has telegraphed how damning the phone and video cam data are by their vigorous efforts to get that evidence suppressed.
But what really inspired me to post here is the recent list of records that the state has declared it intends to present as evidence in the trial:
022425-REDACTED-States-Motion-inLimine-RE-Self-Authentication-Records.pdf
The list is a treasure trove of information. Realize that the list is not for a search warrant, nor a list of things merely found with a search warrant, for either of which we would not know whether or not the information obtained was relevant to the case. Rather, this is a list of records that the state has obtained, reviewed, and concluded that they are relevant evidence.
Now, what could possibly be the relevance of shopping records of the female victims at the mall stores in Moscow, along with camera surveillance video, particularly at the Ulta makeup store, Jo Anns (fabrics, crafts, and gifts), PetCo, and Marshalls (clothing, gifts, kitchen/household stuff)?
I put that question to my partner, who frequents those stores. She replied instantly: “Creepy guys go to those stores to stare at and hit on women.”
The social media records and shopping records of the victims appearing on the list, we can surmise (MOO MOO MOO), place victims and suspect at the same places and same times on various days before the murders. For what other possible reason would these records be introduced in a murder trial, other than to document previous contact (possibly surreptitious stalking, unknown to victims) between suspect and victims?
Of course, any local person will see just about anyone else in WinCo a couple of times a year just by coincidence. Everyone goes there. MOO, the shopping records in the “Self-Authentication” list in the linked MiL above are not plausible as coinkydinks but rather will reveal a sinister buildup to Nov 13, 2022. Prepare to have your degree of creeped-out-ness taken to a new level in the trial.
In my next post (in a couple of days), I will explain how the local landscape might have affected the suspect’s escape from the crime scene.