Idaho police still trying to clear up whether or not murders were targeted

Investigators in Idaho continue to confuse residents with their statement about the murder of four University of Idaho students last month.

A day after a prosecutor indicated the bloodshed was not targeted, police walked that back in a statement of their own. Moscow, Idaho police said they still believe the murders were targeted, but aren’t sure “if the target was the residence or its occupants,” according to CNN.

Students Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21, were found stabbed to death Nov. 13 in their shared off-campus home in the college town of Moscow, which had not had a murder since 2015.

On Wednesday, Moscow police released a statement saying the prosecutor in Idaho’s Latah County erroneously said this week that “the suspect(s) specifically looked at this residence” and “that one or more of the occupants were undoubtedly targeted.”

How definitive the prosecutor’s statements were, however, reflected a “miscommunication,” Moscow police said in Wednesday’s release.

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On Thursday, a police spokesman tried to make things clearer.

“We remain consistent in our belief that this was indeed a targeted attack but have not concluded if the target was the residence or its occupants,” Idaho State Police spokesman Aaron Snell, who also has been speaking for Moscow police, told CNN.

Police said at the start there was no imminent threat to the rest of the community. But the next day they said they actually weren’t sure if that was the case. Then they returned to publicly sharing that they believed the victims were targeted.

But then the prosecutors comments this week led to more confusion and had to be cleared up.

Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have conducted more than 150 interviews have been conducted and more than 1,000 tips from the public have been received, police say.

No suspect has been identified and the murder weapon – believed to be a fixed-blade knife – has not been found.

Authorities said they have not ruled out the possibility that more than one person may have been involved in the stabbings.