Idaho police are investigating whether one of the college students that were brutally murdered over a week ago had a stalker.
The Moscow Police Department said it had received ‘hundreds of pieces of information’ that suggested one of the victims, Kaylee Goncalves, had a stalker.
Investigators have not been able to verify any of these tips, MPD said in a news release on Tuesday.
A criminal profiler has also weighed in on the quadruple murder investigation, suggesting that the killer was ‘sloppy’ and likely a young man. The ex-FBI agent said he believed the murderer either knew one or more of the residents or was stalking them.
Roommates Kaylee Goncalves, 21, (second left), Madison Mogen, 21, (on Kaylee’s shoulders), Ethan Chapin, 20, (second right) and Xana Kernodle, 20, (next to Ethan) were stabbed to death on Sunday November 13 between 3am and 4am
A Moscow Police crime scene forensic is seen preparing to enter the residence where the four college students were murdered, on Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kylee Goncalves, 21, were victims of the brutal quadruple homicide at an off-campus university residence in the early hours of Sunday morning on November 13.
The night before, on the evening of Saturday, November 12, Miss Mogen and Miss Goncalves had been at a local bar in Moscow, Idaho. Chapin and Kernodle had been at a party at the Sigma Chi fraternity house on the University of Idaho campus.
Both parties returned home in the early hours of the morning. Chapin was not a permanent resident of the house but appeared to be staying at the residence that night.
The bodies of the four college students were later found on the second and third floors of the house.
Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin (left) were both killed Sunday along with friends Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves (right)
Jim Clemente, an ex-FBI agent, said he believed the murderer either knew one or more of the residents, or was stalking them
Jim Clemente, a former FBI profiler and behavioral analysis expert hypothesized to Fox News Digital: ‘This is probably more of a compulsive kind of person, that would put him at a younger age and maybe in the age group or just above the victims.’
The ex-FBI supervisory special agent also called the killer ‘sloppy’ and not ‘particularly sophisticated, criminally sophisticated or forensically sophisticated’.
Adding to his theory, Clemente said: ‘He killed four different people this way. He didn’t just sort of blanch and run after the first one.’
Clemente also said he believed the killer’s ‘decision to commit such a brazen crime’ meant that he likely had a relationship with one or more of the victims.
The killer entered the home in the middle of the night with six people at the residence. Clemente said this made it a ‘high-risk crime,’ unless he knew one or more of the residents. This was likely not a random location, Clemente added.
The former FBI profiler told Fox News Digital: ‘Now, that could be because he has a relationship or a past relationship with one or more of them, or it could be that he’s been stalking one or more of them.’
He also said that entering the occupied home during the night meant that the killer knew the victims’ routines.
On Sunday, law enforcement officers investigating the deaths asked for patience after a week passed with no arrests
Police said Monday they would hold a news conference to update the public on the investigation on Wednesday afternoon
Moscow PD held a press conference to update the public on their progress in the murder enquiry of four Idaho University students. Police Chief James Fry is pictured at the briefing on Sunday November 20
Tributes lay at the entrance to the University of Idaho where the four victims studied
Clemente said he believed that this could not be random killings because the murderer is risking entering a home where an occupant could have a gun, or where multiple residents could confront him.
The crime specialist said the killer had to know their routine, when they all went to bed, and when they would wake up.
It is understood that all of the victims were likely asleep when they were attacked. A coroner’s report also said that some of the victims had defensive wounds.
Moscow Police said on Tuesday that there had been much conversation about how to describe the weapon used and that the type used in the attacks is believed to be a fix-blade knife.
Police also said on Monday they would hold a news conference to update the public on the investigation on Wednesday afternoon.
On Sunday, law enforcement officers investigating the deaths asked for patience after a week passed with no arrests.
Police have said evidence leads them to believe the students were targeted, but have repeatedly declined to give details.
Anyone with information that could help detectives with the stalker tips are asked to contact Moscow police.
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