Idaho police: Oregon sedan not connected to students’ deaths

Posted at 11:56 AM, December 21, 2022 and last updated 10:25 PM, July 6, 2023

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho police say they’ve determined that a white sedan found in Eugene, Oregon, is not connected to the Nov. 13 stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students.

Idaho Student Killings crime scene

This Nov. 19, 2022 photo shows the home where four University of Idaho students were killed in Moscow, Idaho. (Court TV/Brian Primm)

The Moscow Police Department announced Tuesday that it was working with law enforcement in Eugene to determine if the Hyundai Elantra left on the side of the road there after an injury crash was connected to the Idaho case. Later that day, Moscow police said they determined the vehicle was not related to the case and asked members of the public to stop contacting the vehicle’s owner.

Relatively few details have been released about the homicides of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. The four friends’ bodies were found at a rental home across the street from the university campus, and the killings have left the small town of Moscow, Idaho, deeply shaken.

The Moscow Police Department is working through nearly 12,000 tips in an effort to solve the case. Investigators are also still looking for any information about a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra that was seen near the rental home around the time the students were killed. So far, the law enforcement agency has identified over 22,000 vehicles matching that make and model.

“If you know of, or own, a vehicle matching this description, or know of anyone who may have been driving this specific vehicle on the days preceding or the day of the murders, please forward that information to the Tip Line,” the department wrote in a press release Tuesday.