The owner of the property in Moscow, Idaho, where four college students were killed is “cooperating” with police as they continue their investigation.
During an interview with KREM-TV in Spokane, Washington, Moscow Police Chief James Fry was asked about the owner of the 1122 King Road residence and if they have been in communication with detectives during the investigation.
“We have spoken with them and they are cooperating,” Fry said in response. No information at this time has been released about the identity of the owner of the residence.
The comments by Fry come amid the ongoing investigation into the November 13 quadruple homicide of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 20.
Angela Palermo/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service/Getty
As the investigation has continued for more than a month, police have not been able to successfully identify a suspect or person of interest. “No suspect(s) has been identified and only vetted information that does not hinder the investigation will be released to the public,” the Moscow Police Department said in a press release on Tuesday.
Police have continued to hold most information about the case from the public, and during the interview with KREM, Fry explained that doing so is normal in most investigations.
“You always hold back information on any case you work, but one this big you hold back because you want to have an unbiased jury pool,” Fry said. “It’s not just about today, it’s about in a year from now or whenever we make an arrest and go to trial. We want to have that pool of people who can look at the case and not have all the facts to that to make the decision to find this person guilty.”
While speaking with Newsweek on Wednesday, former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer said that this case is “not cold at all” citing the thousands of tips police are receiving as well as the pieces of evidence collected from the crime scene.
Coffindaffer also explained that since there is a “finite amount” of individuals who are focused on DNA, sifting through all the evidence may take time.
Fry was also asked by KREM if investigators have already received DNA results from a lab.
“We don’t want to rush that,” he said. “We’re just waiting for them. We have to be patient too, we would love to have all that information immediately but like I’ve told people, real life and the movies are a little bit different. You know, the movies, at the end of the hour they have all that information. We don’t get that quite that fast, but we’re going to be patient for that.”