Idaho cops have insisted officers looked at ‘massive amounts’ of footage in ‘critical areas’ in the hunt for a white Hyundai spotted near the scene of four brutal murders.
The head of Moscow police said there are ‘multiple groups’ scanning over the influx of clips as they try to track down the vicious killer.
He vowed his force would continue to work over the Christmas holidays as his team comes under huge pressure to finally make an arrest a month after the stabbings.
Moscow police chief James Fry said: ‘We will continue to keep up this pace [over the holidays].
‘We’ve given individuals time off when they need it. We’re bringing other people into those spots so the investigation can continue.
‘But we’re not going to stop investigating this. We have looked at massive amounts of video footage especially in the critical camera areas.
‘And we’ve looked at 24 hours prior to and 24 hours after those and now we’re extending that out even further to other cameras and other time frames.
‘We have massive amounts of people looking at this. Multiple different groups on different videos in different locations just because… you know we have investigators all across the nation reviewing these videos for us and sending us back information.’
Idaho cops have travelled at least 24 miles out of Moscow to collect surveillance footage in nearby towns after a white Hyundai was spotted near the scene of the vicious killings of four college students.
Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21 and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20, were stabbed to death in their off-campus home between 3am and 4am over a month ago.
Investigators have travelled to Troy, about twelve miles east of Moscow, where surveillance footage revealed a four-door white sedan drive by at about 3:45am on the morning of the murders.
Meanwhile the manager of the Food City store in Kendrick, about 24 miles east, told Fox News cops also asked for video surveillance from their property.
Idaho State Police requested video ranging from November 12 to November 14, as they combed through footage from dozens of businesses, including liquor stores, coffee shops, gyms and gas stations, within the town of Moscow and beyond.
Idaho police have said the four University of Idaho students were murdered in their sleep between 3am and 4am on November 13. (Pictured: Victims Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Maddie Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin)
On December 7 police announced the critical news that they were looking to speak with the occupant or occupants of a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra that they said was in the ‘immediate area’ of the victims’ home on November 13, when the slayings occurred
Idaho police investigators have travelled up to 24 miles out of Moscow to collect surveillance footage in nearby towns after a white Hyundai was spotted near the scene of the vicious killings of four college students
Police have not indicated how far they have travelled to find the vicious killer but told Fox News that ‘tips can come from anywhere in the country.’
On Thursday cops said they were ‘confident’ that a white Hyundai Elantra that was spotted near the scene where the University of Idaho students were savagely murdered holds ‘key’ information on the case.
Moscow Police Captain Roger Lanier said on Thursday that they had been sifting through a database of 22,000 registered white Hyundai Elantras that fit into their criteria that they are sorting through.
Lanier stressed the cops still needed help from public, saying the 22,000 ‘may not be all’ of the white Elantras in the area.
They told Fox News that the drive and possible occupants have yet to come forward.
‘We don’t know who owns the car, we need information from anybody that might connect us with who was in that car that night,’ Moscow Police’s public information officer, Robbie Johnson said.
‘So, that could be anything ranging from somebody who happened to be there to whatever you might imagine.’
Police said they’re investigating this surveillance video from an Exxon Mobil gas station in Moscow that shows the white car the morning of November 13
Police have said that the license plate of the vehicle is still unknown and could have been removed.
‘It’s not just one thing that we’re looking into about the white car, it’s many, many different things and just taking that further until we get the answers we need or find it is not taking us anywhere,’ Johnson said.
Families of the murdered students are struggling to come to grips with the devastating loss pleading with police to provide more information.
‘It’s sleepless nights. It’s feeling sick to your stomach. It’s just being left in the dark,’ Kristi Goncalves, the mother of 21-year-old victim Kaylee Goncalves, said in an interview with NBC’s TODAY show.
Goncalves recounted the day she learned something had happened to her daughter.
‘We’re running around for hours just not knowing what was going on, what happened,’ she explained.
‘We found out by people calling us. And the sheriff showed up about three hours later.’
Shanon Gray, an attorney for Goncalves, met with the Moscow Police Department earlier this week and said investigators have done a poor job communicating with families.
‘Families should never find out information from a news release, or an interview,’ Gray told CNN.
‘They should find that information ahead of time.’
Kristi Goncalves, the mother of 21-year-old victim Kaylee Goncalves, says a lack of information means ‘sleepless nights… feeling sick to your stomach… and just being left in the dark’
Kristi and Steven Goncalves worry they could lose vital evidence as the time since their daughter’s death surpasses the one-month mark
Goncalves described learning about the police interest in a white Hyundai sedan seen in the area around the time of the murders not from investigators, but from reading about it in a news release sent to her by someone else.
‘My first thought just started being like, how long have they had this information? Where do they get this information? Was it on a camera?’ Goncalves said.
The Moscow Police Department disputed Goncalves’ characterization, telling CNN that they had reached out to her attorney via email the same day they made their request to the general public seeking information regarding the white sedan.
Authorities are sorting through tens of thousands of registered vehicles that fit the criteria of one spotted near the residence the night of the attacks, the Moscow Police Department said in a news release Thursday.
‘So far, we have a list of approximately 22,000 registered white Hyundai Elantras that fit into our criteria that we’re sorting through,’ Chief James Fry said in a video update.
‘We are confident that the occupant or occupants of that vehicle have information that’s critical to this investigation.’
Goncalves said her family learned graphic details of their daughter’s autopsy when a woman from the coroner’s office called and asked her 17-year-old daughter if she wanted to know the findings.
‘She asked, are you sure you want to know this? And my daughter, thinking that she did for whatever reason, said yes. And she proceeded to tell her.’
Goncalves told NBC she was frustrated with interviews given by the Latah County coroner Cathy Mabbutt.
Authorities had asked for any information about a white Hyundai Elantra spotted near the scene of the murders — though it is unclear whether the white sedan caught in surveillance footage is the same vehicle
Kaylee and Madison were found on the top floor of the Moscow, Idaho home. College lovers Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were found in a second-floor bedroom while survivors Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke were sleeping on the first floor
‘Every time we turn around, there’s another, there’s a new – I don’t know if they’re new or they’re old – I’m just coming across them, and I’m just like, oh, my gosh, how many of these did she do?’ Goncalves said.
The killings of Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle, and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Chapin in the early morning hours of November 13 have shook the small college town of Moscow, Idaho, which had not recorded a murder since 2015.
No suspects have been detained yet, and the Moscow Police Department has faced scrutiny as it continues to withholds details about the case — leading to rampant speculation online.
Some are now pointing to new footage from a police stop that occurred near the student’s King Street home.
An officer’s bodycam captured the moment plain clothes officers made an unrelated stop in the area for three students suspected of underage drinking.
In the background of the video, several people can be seen moving quickly past police on Taylor Avenue, just two houses down from the scene of the crime.
It occurred just minutes before police said the students were killed.
True crime vlogger Olivia Vitale, who highlighted the video, said it was imperative police track down the potential witnesses, who may shine new light on the case.
‘Between the people with law enforcement and the people in the background of the bodycam footage, that is about half a dozen people, Vitale told Fox News. ‘The importance is they may have witnessed something unbeknownst to them.’
Internet sleuths have found bodycam footage showing a plainclothes officer stopping three students for underage drinking nearby
A group of people could be spotted walking hurriedly past police when the officers made the unrelated stop near the victims’ King Street home
While officials have previously said there is nothing of value in the bodycam videos of that night’s stop, it remains unclear if police questioned the people seen walking hurriedly in the background.
Authorities have insisted the fatal attack was ‘targeted,’ and in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, former Moscow Police Captain Paul Kwaitkowski, 64, suggested the killer may have been seeking vengeance.
Retired Moscow Police Captain Paul Kwaitkowski, 64, said it is likely the Idaho murderer knew at least one victim and may have been motivated by revenge
The retired Moscow police captain who spent 20 years investigating every local homicide in Idaho claimed the perpetrator responsible for the murders most likely knew at least one of the victims.
‘Somewhere along the line, something bad happened, something that pi***d someone off enough to go after these people.’
He admitted he doesn’t know who the target was, claiming as many as all four of the students could have been targeted or just one, with the others serving as collateral damage.
‘Why they were targeted, nobody knows yet,’ he added. ‘That involves deciphering all the digital data that [police are] going to have to go through.
‘You have 20 people looking at tens of thousands of pieces of information. That will lead them to something. But it’s going to take time,’ he said.
Kwaitkowski’s comments come amid the police’s uncertainty about whether or not the victims were targeted.
Officials said they initially believed the attack was not targeted, but weeks later recanted their statement in one of many contradictions that have left the public and the families of the victims frustrated over the investigation.
Kaylee’s father, Steven Goncalves, has since publicly aired his anger over the bungled police investigation into the gruesome murder of his daughter, who was revealed to have suffered ‘significantly more brutal’ injuries than her three friends.
