BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Authorities investigating the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students while they slept in a house near campus are asking for exterior surveillance video to help solve the week felony.
The Moscow Police Department on Saturday evening asked businesses and residences in certain areas of the city for any footage recorded between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on November 13, the day of the murder.
Police said they received about 500 tips after the killings rocked the Idaho Panhandle community of 25,000. The leafy college town about 130 miles south of Spokane, Wash., last saw a homicide about five years ago.
Also on Saturday, police said a private driver who drove two of the women home was not involved in the crime.
Police have scheduled a press conference for Sunday afternoon to provide updates.
The four victims were members of fraternities and sororities: seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington. The women were roommates and Chapin was dating Kernodle.
Police said Chapin and Kernodle were at the Sigma Chi home at the University of Idaho camps and returned home around 1:45 a.m. on November 13. Police said Mogen and Goncalves were at a bar called The Corner Club in downtown Moscow, left the bar and stopped at a food truck, then also returned home around 1:45 a.m.
Police said Saturday that Mogen and Goncalves called a man they did not identify several times, and that this information is part of an ongoing investigation.
Additionally, police said a person wearing a hoodie and seen in video at the food truck near Mogen and Goncalves shortly before they returned home was not involved in the crime.
Police said two other roommates who were in the house the night of the murder returned home around 1 a.m. and slept through the attack, waking up later that day. Police said one of their phones was used to call 911 from inside the residence at 11:58 a.m.
Police say these two housemates were not involved in the murders.
Police said the victims were found on the second and third floors of the six-bedroom house.
Police said evidence led them to believe the students were being targeted, although they did not give details. Investigators say nothing appears to have been stolen from the victims or the home. Police said there were no signs of forced entry and first responders found an open door when they arrived.
Police also said online reports of victims being bound and gagged are not accurate.
Police seized the contents of three dumpsters to locate possible evidence, and detectives asked local businesses if they had recently sold a fixed-blade knife.
The Moscow Police Department said four detectives, five support staff and 24 patrol officers were working on the case.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has 22 investigators assisting in Moscow and another 20 agents assisting from outside the region.
The Idaho State Police provided 20 investigators, 15 soldiers, and their Mobile Crime Scene Team.
Keith Ridler, Associated Press