Idaho police are probing a possible link between the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students and a similar case in Oregon where a husband and wife were stabbed in their beds by a crazed lunatic last year.
Moscow Police Chief James Fyre said they are looking at ‘every avenue’ to discover the mysterious killer who murdered roommates Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, on November 13.
Police believe the attack was ‘targeted,’ but have declined to give their reasoning behind that notion. Captain Roger Lanier said: ‘You’re going to have to trust us on that at this point because we’re not going to release why we think that.’
Authorities are checking if they can link the four students’ murders to Oregonian Travis Juetten, 26, who was also stabbed to death with a long knife in the middle of the night last year.
Moscow Police Chief, James Fyre, said they are looking at ‘every avenue’ to discover the mysterious killer who murdered roommates Madison Mogen (upper left), 21, Kaylee Goncalve (lower left), 21, and Xana Kernodle (right), 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin (middle), 20, on November 13
Authorities are checking if they can link the four students’ deaths to Oregonian Travis Juetten, 26, (pictured) who was also stabbed to death with a long knife in the middle of the night last year
Juetten was knifed 29 times by a masked man who broke into his Silverton, Oregon, home at 3am on August 13, 2021
Juetten was knifed 29 times by a masked man who broke into his Silverton, Oregon, home at 3am on August 13, 2021.
His wife Jamilyn, 24, was also attacked, but miraculously survived, despite suffering 19 stab wounds – one of which severed a muscle in her hand.
Similarly to the Moscow case – where two other roommates were left unharmed – a friend of the couple, who was staying with them because they had agreed to housesit while the couple took a vacation in Hawaii, was left injured.
In another echo of the University of Idaho murders, the killer was able to slip into the home undetected and took nothing from the property.
He also carried out the murder using a large military-style knife and cops were left baffled by the lack of any obvious motive or suspect.
Fyre said at a press conference that his team is ‘looking into any possible connection [to the] unsolved double stabbing,’ despite the two events happening nearly 400 miles and 15 months apart.
‘We have other agencies reaching out to us with other cases and stuff that we are going to follow up on those,’ he said at the press conference, where he confirmed Juetten’s case was on his radar.
‘I actually had a tip come in on that case and I forwarded it,’ he said.
Juetten, a cat-loving vegan who ‘wouldn’t hurt a flea,’ had no known enemies – much like the four University of Idaho students, his mother Myra, 66, exclusively told DailyMail.com.
![Fyre (pictured) said at a press conference that his team is 'looking into any possible connection [to the] unsolved double stabbing,' despite the two events happening nearly 400 miles apart](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/11/24/17/64910027-11466427-image-m-55_1669309952462.jpg)
Fyre (pictured) said at a press conference that his team is ‘looking into any possible connection [to the] unsolved double stabbing,’ despite the two events happening nearly 400 miles apart
The case, which is unsolved despite a $50,000 reward for information, is attracting renewed interest due to the eerie similarities to the Idaho slayings.
Juetten’s heartbroken mother told DailyMail.com she hopes the November 13 murders of four best friends will lead to a breakthrough in her son’s case.
She said: ‘Travis was a young man too. He was a beautiful young man and he was 26 years old when they came after him.
‘What I want is the police departments to work together to see if they can solve both these crimes because they’re horrendous.
‘For somebody to go into someone’s house, not take a thing, and just go in and stab somebody when they’re asleep in their bed in the middle of the night – these are crazy people.
‘To do this to beautiful people who had their whole lives ahead of them – to just come in and kill them…That makes no sense. It’s really tough.’
She added: ‘Nobody would want to do this to Travis – he wouldn’t even hurt a flea. He was a vegan. He wouldn’t even eat meat.
‘He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. I thought, who in the world would hate Travis so much, they would stab him 29 times. And why, why?
‘There’s no reason for it. I just can’t figure it out.’
Fifteen months after her son’s murder, Myra says she is frustrated by the lack of progress on the case and hit out at the Marion County Sheriff’s Department for refusing to give her any answers.
She said the only document she has been able to obtain is her son’s autopsy report – with even the 911 call deemed out of bounds by police.
She told DailyMail.com she lives in fear that the brutal killer could come for her other son Tyler – a firefighter in the city of Clatskanie, Oregon.
The mom-of-two said: ‘Every time they [Moscow PD] say they have to protect the investigation, I keep thinking it’s like déjà vu of what I’ve been hearing for a year and a half.
‘”We’ve got to protect the investigation.” It drives me crazy,’ she said. ‘My family is very happy they [Moscow PD] will look and see what they think – they’re law enforcement. I’m not law enforcement and I see what I see.
‘Like I said, [Marion County, Oregon] have given me nothing – the only thing I have is my son’s autopsy report. I can’t get the 911 call, I can’t get anything from these guys.
On Sunday detectives were seen combing through woodlands surrounding the house in which the four students were fatally stabbed
The house in Moscow, Idaho, where the four students were killed was surrounded by various law enforcement personnel, including federal authorities, on Sunday
‘I have all my brothers and sisters living up in the Silverton area, so many nephews and nieces. There’s a killer on the loose,’ she continued. ‘I am terrified they will come after one of them. My other son is a firefighter for Clatskanie – who’s to say this guy won’t come after him?
‘It’s terrifying for me as a mom – I worry about it every single day.’
She added: ‘Unless they pressure Marion to look into the tip they got, Marion’s not going to do anything about it.
‘There’s always that possibility [that it’s the same person]. If you think about it, there’s only nine hours [driving] difference to where they are. If you look at the details of the cases, they [the killer] broke in early in the morning, both on the 13th, and stabbed my son 29 times.
‘I don’t know how many times these kids were stabbed but it was a horrible murder. In my son’s case, there were two other people in the house, one was stabbed and one was unhurt.
‘There was nothing found outside, no sign of forced entry. There’s been no suspects in a year and a half and you think, that’s got to be impossible.
‘My son was stabbed primarily in the torso and the fatal stab wound was to the heart. Most of it was to the torso and it was an overkill – they wanted him dead,’ she said. ‘My son was a good kid. Just like these kids. My heart goes out to these parents because they’re in for a long, rough road.’
Myra says the holiday season is one of the hardest times of the year and told DailyMail.com she is heartbroken for the parents of Madison, Kaylee, Xana and Ethan who will now also have to endure the holidays without their loved ones.
She said: ‘It is really hard. Really hard and my son’s birthday is coming up. He’s a December baby and it is so hard. That’s why my heart goes out to these families because they don’t have Thanksgiving with their loved ones and they’re still in shock.
‘It’s way too early for it to have worn off. When reality hits…Right now, they’re so focused on catching the killer but when it hits them, it’s tough.
‘I know they’re frustrated because they don’t get a lot from the police. It’s tough.’
Myra said she would like to talk to the families of Madison, Ethan, Xana and Kaylee if they want and hopes both cases will be solved quickly.
She said: ‘It’s something that I can’t even tell you how it feels to get that call – you’re just in utter shock and disbelief. It’s like, this can’t happen to my son – he was a good kid.
‘I’m sure their parents feel the same way. They were just good young adults starting out their lives. It is horrendous,’ she said. ‘But anything I can do now, I will do. I’d be happy to talk to the parents – I know how they’re grieving, I know how their hearts break.’
She also said she was struggling to hold on to hope that her son’s case will be solved, saying: ‘It’s hard to keep the faith after a year and a half. It’s very, very hard sometimes. But maybe this will help Travis’ case – I just don’t know.
‘Travis was a good kid and I can’t for the life of me figure out who in the world would do this.’
EXCLUSIVE: Woman who lives near scene of Idaho murders says her adorable mini Australian Shepherd was FILLETED and skinned weeks before quadruple-slaying, sparking fears the same creep is behind both attacks
Jim and Pam Colbert hold the collar of their dog Buddy who was found skinned near their home a month ago in Moscow, Idaho
An elderly couple’s Mini Australian shepherd was found filleted and skinned just three miles away from where four students were brutally murdered weeks later, sparking fears the same warped creep may be behind both attacks.
Pam and Jim Colbert’s dog Buddy was killed and brutalized after being let out of the home she shares with her husband Jim in Moscow, Idaho, on October 21.
Pam, 78, says her 12-year-old dog who’d been rescued from a puppy mill, only had fur left on his legs and face.
She has been left badly shaken by the attack on her animal, which was first discovered by the Colberts’ neighbor Barbara Sayler.
Pam and others now fear the warped creep who disemboweled her pet may also be behind the slayings of students Ethan Chapin, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Madison Mogen, 21, a mile away on November 13. Cops haven’t linked the dog slaughter to the murders, and are investigating both incidents separately.
Recalling the horrific discovery, Pam told DailyMail.com: ‘We called the Sheriff’s Department and the supervisor said that Buddy had been skinned.
‘It was like a deer someone had hunted,’ Pam Colbert said. They cut him around the neck and just skinned him. His little legs had fur and his little face had fur, but the rest of him was just skinned.
‘The other side of him was as though they had filleted him like they were about to eat him. It was terrible. Unbelievable.
‘They cut him like you filet a fish. We found his collar, but we didn’t find the pelt.’
A Latah County Sheriff’s Deputy sent to take photos for a report confirmed Buddy’s killer was human,
Commenting on her pet’s killing, and the quadruple murder, Pam added: ‘Everybody is very nervous and scared. This is something awful and evil.’ She and Jim, 73, have lived in their home for 39 years – and have now taken to locking their doors for the first time.
The Colberts says the students’ deaths and the skinning of their dog have shocked the entire community leaving everybody feeling nervous
The area near Pam and Jim Colbert’s home where Buddy was found skinned
The horrible incident happened only a few miles from where four University of Idaho students were slain in their beds while they slept
Jim Colbert, 73, is pictured sitting on his armchair with his loving ‘Aussie’ Buddy in his arms
Explaining the sequence of events ‘We let Buddy out, and somebody must have been waiting out there. Bud never leaves the yard, but this person grabbed Buddy.
‘We always leave our doors open, and he didn’t come back in. Later that night, Jim went out calling him and couldn’t find him. Friends came up and started looking for him and eventually found him.’
Pam and Jim, 73, live in a home set on 10 acres of land in the quiet rural community and managed to get a group of friends together to come and help search for their pet, a Mini Australian Shepherd dog.
They adopted the dog five years ago. Disturbingly, Jim found a mutilated rabbit with its scalp and ears sheared off close to his home shortly before Buddy’s death.
He explained: ‘It had the head sliced right open, and you could see the brain.’
Although one police deputy initially believed it to be the work of an animal, another officer with a local force quickly determined that something far more sinister was at work.
An investigation continues.
‘We’re not that many people out here. Somebody had to be waiting. We don’t have any enemies. It really was horrible. And now with the students killed, it all got brought back up,’ Pam explained.
The killing of little Buddy occurred only weeks before the murders of four students in the home they shared, just a mile down the road from where the dog’s death occurred.
‘Our next door neighbor, Clint, put it online after I called him to tell him what happened to Buddy. His dog went crazy that night and tore apart his bed which makes us think Buddy must have made a noise.
‘We always left our doors open – not any more. None of it makes any sense,’ she explained.
‘One Deputy came out and he said that they are taking it very seriously and that this kind of stuff just doesn’t happen.’
Colbert says the students and the skinning have shocked the entire community leaving everybody feeling nervous.
Local sleuths on Facebook are attempting to connect the killings to the story of a man who found his neighbors’ dog skinned alive a mile away from where they were last seen
Clint Hughes posted that his neighbors’ ‘sweet little dog was skinned like a deer. No animal did this. Our dog is bigger and was so anxious about the same time that he tore his bed up into a thousand pieces. Also, our cat has been missing for the last couple of days.’
It was also noted how the four students were killed with a knife – believed to have been a Rambo blade – which may also have been used in skinning the dog, although no official link to the murders has been made by those in law enforcement.
Many murderers are known to have begun their criminal careers by abusing animals, before moving on to human targets.