Police investigating the murders of four University of Idaho students are not immediately ruling out a connection between the crime and a preceding police visit at the crime scene regarding a noise complaint.
Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were stabbed to death in the early morning hours of 13 November inside the young women’s off-campus rental home at 1122 King Road. More than six weeks after the murders, the killer remains at large.
Bodycam footage has now emerged of Moscow police officers responding to a noise complaint on 1 September at their residence. In the bodycam, obtained by NewsNation, officers repeatedly ask to talk to people who lived in the house, while several young adults are seen leaving the home.
Loud music and partying can be heard as officers then proceed to dump cans of beer left behind in the parking lot.
Two men who answered the door told officers that they believed the residents were females but did not know them personally. Eventually, authorities got Mogen on the phone and warned her to tell people partying inside the home to turn down the volume.
In a statement to The Independent, Idaho Stae Police said on Tuesday: “Investigators are aware of prior contacts at the residence and throughout the neighborhood. At this time, we are not counting anything out and continue to investigate anything that might have relevance to the case.”
Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle lived in the six-bedroom home with two other University of Idaho students who were inside the property at the time of the attack but are believed to have slept through it. It is unclear whether any of them were inside the home at the time.
Neighbours of the victims had previously called the residence a “party house,” saying that they would often see groups of young adults gathering at the home several times a week.
“There were parties that were kind of loud,” Jeremy Reagan, a third-year law student who lives near the scene of the murders, told Fox News about a week after the attacks. “As I would take my dog in and out to go to the bathroom [and] I would see people in the windows almost every night, probably four or five nights a week ... it was kind of a party house but then again this whole neighbourhood is a party neighbourhood.”
Moscow police have reiterated that there were no signs of forced entry.
Meanwhile, investigators are still on the hunt for the occupant or occupants of a mystery white car which was spotted near the student home around the time of the murders.
Police have identified around 22,000 vehicles that fit the description of the car and are combing through the information for clues.
Moscow Police said that a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra with an unknown licence plate was seen “in the immediate area” in the early hours of 13 November.
“Investigators believe the occupant(s) of this vehicle may have critical information to share regarding this case,” police said in a statement nearly two weeks ago.
The four victims were stabbed to death in their beds with a fixed-blade knife at around 3am or 4am on 13 November. There were no signs of sexual assault.
Two surviving roommates were also out that night and arrived home at around 1am, police said. The two women, who lived in rooms on the first floor of the home, are believed to have slept through the brutal killings and were unharmed.
The horrific crime scene went unnoticed for several more hours, with police receiving a 911 call at 11.58am on Sunday, reporting an “unconscious individual” at the home.
The two other roommates had first called friends to the home because they believed one of the second-floor victims was unconscious and would not wake up. When the friends arrived, a 911 call was made from one of the roommates’ phones.
Police arrived on the scene to find the four victims dead from multiple stab wounds.
