First Published:
2:52 PM PST, December 5, 2022
The father of one of the four University of Idaho students slain in their Moscow, Idaho, home is raising money to hire a private investigator to look into the killings, frustrated that more than three weeks have gone by without any named suspects or persons of interest in the case.
“I do not feel confident” in the police investigation, Kaylee Goncalves’s father says. “And that’s why I push the envelope and say a little bit more. I hate to be ‘that guy’ but everybody has a role to play in this and this is my role as a father.”
Goncalves may have been the killer’s prime target, as the 21-year-old was reportedly subjected to a more brutal attack than Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle or Ethan Chapin, all of whom were stabbed to death on Nov. 13. Goncalves and Mogen were killed while in Mogen’s third-floor bedroom.
Some have questioned if the doors to the rooms were locked when the killer arrived at the house. A handprint could be seen next to evidence tape on the window of the house on King Road, and experts say it could be a significant piece of evidence.
Meanwhile, tributes for the victims continue to pour in. Twenty-three loved ones of Mogen, including her great-grandmother, got tattoos of wings that are similar to the tattoo she had herself. The two surviving roommates who slept through the attack have broken their silence, providing letters to be read aloud at a memorial service at an Idaho church.
“I know it will be hard not to have the four of them in our lives but I know Xana, Ethan, Maddie and Kaylee would want us to live life and be happy,” Dylan Mortenson wrote.
“I wish every day that I could give them all one last hug and tell them that I loved them,” Bethany Funke wrote.
Only one-third of students have returned to campus in the wake of the murders.
