MOSCOW, Idaho – Kristi Goncalves, the mother of killed University of Idaho Student Kaylee Goncalves, said police investigating the horrific crime cleared some people “very quickly”.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, was one of the four students murdered in a rental house in Moscow near the university campus on November 13. Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were the other victims. The police are still looking for the attacker.
“I just feel like there were a few people who were cleared very quickly who maybe shouldn’t have been,” Kristi Goncalves’ mother told NewsNation in an interview.
She added that she “knows nothing about these individuals”, but she believes the police may have cleared them too early in their investigation. It was unclear if the Goncalves family was referring to anyone in particular, but relatives said they were supportive of Kaylee’s former boyfriend.
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“I just know that these were people who definitely should have been looked into,” she told the outlet.
Her husband and Kaylee’s father, Steven Goncalves, told NewsNation in the same interview that he didn’t know what would stop authorities from “sharing someone’s alibi.”
detectives with the Moscow Police Departmentwho is handling the murder investigation with the help of local and federal authorities, “does not believe the following people are involved in this crime” at this time: the two surviving roommates of the victims who lived on the first floor of the house where the attack happened, a man seen in video footage of a food truck that Goncalves and Mogen ordered in the early morning of November 13, a private party that brought the two young women home to around 1:45 a.m., a man whom Goncalves and Mogen called several times in the early morning hours of November 13, anyone present in the house when 911 was called the next morning at 11:58 a.m., and a sixth tenant of the house who moved earlier in the year.
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“Just because the police say something doesn’t mean it’s necessarily true. So sometimes if you have someone you suspect or you don’t have enough information or evidence…you can simply say that everyone is exonerated. That does not mean [police] can’t change your mind and turn around and arrest someone,” the former New York City Police Department Det. sergeant. Joseph Giacalone told Fox News Digital.
“So why publish a list of individuals that detectives don’t believe are involved in this crime?”
Giacalone said the quadruple murder could be “one of the biggest cases” he has seen on social media.
“Sometimes people take it too far. … Look, we don’t want to see anyone get hurt. We don’t want to see anyone retaliate against. people,” Giacalone said. He added that while social media and the real crime community are “awesome,” speculation can be detrimental to the investigation and to innocent people.
Police can’t rule social media rumors, but they can try to control the narrative, the former NYPD detective said.
In their obituary, the de Goncaleves family described the 21-year-old as strong, fair, tough, dedicated, beautiful and loving.
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“During all his years of study, Kaylee maintained incredible grades and made friends everywhere she went. She was outgoing, quirky, infectious, and a little silly (sorry Kaylee, that’s right!),” they wrote. “She constantly loved to prank her friends and family. She loved adventure. She was a hard worker, always having a full-time job in addition to her studies, even in high school. Kaylee loved the finer things in life and was very proud to buy those things for herself.”
Sunday will mark three weeks since the students were stabbed to death, likely while they slept, and police have yet to name any suspects in the case.
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Moscow police continued to describe the brutal killings as “an isolated, targeted attack”. University of Idaho students who left campus for the Thanksgiving holiday were given the option to stay home and learn remotely instead of returning to campus with a suspect still at large. Police have also yet to announce the motive for the quadruple murder.
Authorities are asking anyone with information about the killings to call 208-883-7180 or [email protected].
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