Dec. 1 (UPI) — Moscow, Idaho police now say information that four murdered University of Idaho students were targeted was a “miscommunication.”
Police said detectives don’t currently know if the residence or any occupants were specifically targeted.
In a Facebook post, police said the Latah County Prosecutor’s office had earlier stated the suspect or suspects “specifically looked at this residence and that one or more of the occupants were undoubtedly targeted.”
But police said, “We have spoken with the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office and identified that this was a miscommunication.”
Police found the four murdered students Nov. 13. All four died of multiple stab wounds.
Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.
Just two days after the victims’ bodies were found Moscow Police said they died in a targeted attack.
In a Nov. 16 news conference, police said there may be a threat to the community, seeming to contradict their statement of a targeted attack.
University of Idaho students held a vigil for the four murdered students Wednesday night.
Kaylee Goncalves’ father Steve Goncalves spoke at the vigil about his daughter and her lifelong best friend Maddie, who was also murdered.
He said they became friends in sixth grade.
“Then they started looking at colleges, they came here together. They eventually get into the same apartment together. And in the end … they died together in the same room, in the same bed,” Goncalves said.
Police removed five vehicles from the crime scene Wednesday “to continue processing evidence” in the case.
