Cold-case expert claims Idaho police made a ‘major misstep’ in probe

Moscow Police Department made a ‘major misstep’ when they removed personal items from the home of the four murdered Idaho students without giving family members a chance to walk through the gory scene before it had been disturbed. This is the assertion of renowned cold-case specialist Sheila Wysocki (pictured right) who became a household name in the world of private investigators when she solved the murder of her own college roommate some 30 years after the crime took place. She has since brought justice to the families of many victims whose crimes languished unsolved for decades.

Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com Wysocki, 60, described the removal of items as ‘a major misstep’ and expressed concern that the inexperienced police force had mishandled the crime scene and lost a valuable and irrecoverable opportunity. She explained, ‘As painful as it is, it can be the difference between solving the case and not and the police having good information or not.’

‘The police are going to say they don’t want to traumatize the family. Well, they’re already more traumatized than you can ever imagine and when it’s potentially the difference between solving it and not solving it I know every single mother, or father, that I’ve ever worked with would walk into the crime scene regardless. I think it’s a major misstep that they didn’t give any family members that opportunity. I just must hope they have taken hundreds and hundreds of good crime scene photographs.’ 

The house at 1122 Kings Road where childhood friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, both 20, were brutally murdered remains a crime scene and under police control, according to Moscow Police Captain Anthony Dahlinger. 

An officer sits guard at the door and yellow crime scene tape is still wreathed around the house and the tree line behind it. But three weeks after the grisly murders Moscow Police Department officers were seen boxing up and removing items from the home. 

At the time police said that family members had been asking for the items back and stated that the belongings were no longer needed in the hunt for the murderer. Chief of Police James Fry drove the U-Haul truck into the driveway himself while his officers loaded box after box of the four victims’ belongings. 

Speaking on the day of the removal, Idaho State Police Public Information Officer Aaron Snell admitted that it was not something police usually do but the hope was that it would help the families with ‘the healing.’ He said, ‘We don’t want to keep holding on to items that really aren’t needed for the investigation.’ But according to Wysocki it was a decision that could prove disastrous as, she said, nobody, not even the most seasoned detective, can spot the sort of detail in a student’s room that a parent can. 

She said, ‘They have better insights into their child although they’re living away from home. They know their child better than any officer working this case and they would be able to look and say, “He or she would never do that,” or “that’s out of place,” or “something’s missing.”‘

According to Wysocki the fact that the house was known as a ‘party house’ significantly increases the burden on officers tasked with collecting forensic evidence. She said, ‘They will have to have brushed for every single fingerprint in that house – every single one and matched them to whomever. That’s a monumental task.’ Wysocki also voiced concern at the relative inexperience of the first officers on the scene – the lead investigator has only been a police officer for two years. Pictured:  Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen. 

She said, ‘Idaho is going to be remembered for this case and how they handle it may be the subject of a class 15 years from now because they did this wrong, or that wrong.’ But she pushed back at the suggestion that, as the investigation enters its seventh week, the case could be considered ‘cold.’ She explained, ‘A case goes cold when police decide that there’s no more evidence. Right now, they have thousands of tips to follow up. This case is very much open and active.’ According to Wysocki the ‘CSI effect’ leads to unrealistic expectations and public impatience. Pictured: Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. 

Wysocki said, ‘Everybody seems to think that DNA and fingerprints come back immediately, you get the perpetrator and it’s done. You wrap it up, you bring it to a jury. But DNA takes more than a minute to come back and as far as fingerprinting is concerned, they can go through thousands, but the perpetrator may still not be in the system.’ Right now, she said, the pressure on the police is unimaginable. She said, ‘Think about it. They go to the grocery store, and someone knows they’re a police officer working that case and there’s pressure there because the person who’s checking him out is going to ask if they’re close to solving it yet.’

‘Their family members feel it, their best friends try to help them navigate it. The ripple effect of a crime of this magnitude is immense. Make no mistake this entire community is forever changed. As far as the families are concerned, I’m the call they don’t want to be making in 20 years when it’s still not been solved. We don’t know what police and EMTs did in those first moments of arriving on the scene or how they’ve processed it since, but the fact that they changed it before the families got a chance to see it, that was a big mistake. You just have to hope they’ve done everything else right.’

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