Idaho police insist horrific fatal attack on students was ‘targeted’

It’s been over two weeks and there is still no update on the murders of four University of Idaho students who were all fatally stabbed.

Idaho police maintain that at least one of the victims was targeted — but refuse to say which student was the focus of the attack.

“We still believe it was a targeted attack based on the evidence at the scene and how everything developed, what we know,” Idaho State Police spokesperson Aaron Snell told the Daily Mail. “We believe that’s accurate.”

That comes days after the Moscow Police Department revealed it had received “hundreds of pieces of information” suggesting one of the victims, 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, had a stalker.

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BEST PALS: Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen were murdered alongside two friends in a shocking quadruple murder in Idaho. (Maddie Mogen/Instagram)Photo by MADDIE MOGEN /INSTAGRAM

Authorities have yet to confirm the theory but Snell called it a “delicate” matter.

“That’s part of the ongoing investigation,” Snell told the outlet. “That’s a real delicate question and when we’re able to say that or if we’re able to say that, we’ll definitely do that.”

Moscow police chief James Fry initially claimed the slayings were not random but later walked back his statement after saying the wider community was not at risk.

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“The chief, he stands by that. One, if not all [was targeted], and there is evidence for that based on what we’ve seen at the scene,” Snell said.

Moscow police’s latest update was more about updating the public on what is unrelated to the ongoing murder investigation.

A February 2022 death was confirmed to be an overdose and not linked to the deaths of Goncalves, her best friend Madison Mogen, 21, and young couple Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20.

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This July 2022 photo provided by Jazzmin Kernodle shows University of Idaho students Xana Kernodle, right, and Ethan Chapin on a boat on Priest Lake, in Idaho. Both students were among four found stabbed to death in an off-campus rental home on Nov. 13, 2022.Photo by Jazzmin Kernodle via AP

Cops also shut down online reports of a red Mustang being processed as part of the murder probe, calling the information “not accurate” and “not connected to this incident.”

They added that detectives are on the lookout for “context to the events and people involved” in the murders, asking for anyone to report “any odd or out-of-the-ordinary events that took place” — even if it may seem insignificant.

As far as there being a “threat to the community,” Snell was blunt: “Yes, there is.

“I think we’ve been pretty consistent over the past week that yes, indeed, we know that somewhere in someone’s community, possibly this community, there is a person or persons who have committed multiple murders,” he added. “Our goal is to find that person and bring them to justice.”