Police chief didn’t know door where students were killed was open: report

The police chief of the college town where four University of Idaho students were slain last month has admitted that he was unaware that a neighbor reported seeing the door of their home wide open on the morning of the murders.

Moscow Police Chief James Frye appeared taken back when asked about an unnamed neighbor’s claim that the door wasn’t shut about 8:30 a.m. Nov. 13, the day Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, are believed to have been killed in the early hours.

“I’m not even sure where that came from, to be quite honest,” Frye told the Daily Mail on Thursday, adding that it was the first time he had heard anything about an open door.

The chief also said he could neither confirm nor deny the report.

“I don’t even know the answer to that one. If I did, I would probably comment on that but I don’t know the answer whether the door was open,” he told the outlet.

Goncalves and Mogen were believed to be in the same bed on the third floor when their bodies were discovered. Kernodle and Chapin, who were dating, also were together in a bed on the second floor.

Two other roommates, who lived on the first floor where the door was allegedly left ajar, survived the massacre.

On Wednesday, police said they were searching for the occupants of a white Hyundai Elantra who may have “critical information” related to the shocking crime, which left the community reeling.

Despite assistance from the FBI, authorities appear to have no suspects, have not publicly released a profile of the possible killer and have not found the murder weapon, believed to be a large knife.

Frye has insisted that the case isn’t turning cold.

Meanwhile, police have released new body cam video that was recorded on the day of the killings near the three-story home.

The footage — which was unrelated to the murders and obtained through a public records request — captured plainclothes officers stopping three students suspected of underage drinking about 2:50 a.m., Fox News reported.

They were reportedly stopped about a tenth of a mile from the off-campus home on King Road where the four students were killed.

The three University of Idaho students who were stopped were not involved in the crime, police stressed.

“Investigators working on the current homicide case are aware of the footage, they have reviewed it and all the details associated with it and have determined it is not related,” police told Fox News in a statement.

In the video, the Sigma Chi fraternity — where Kernodle and Chapin had attended a party shortly before they were killed — can be seen in the background.