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Father of slain Idaho student says evidence points to killer targeting his daughter or her best friend

December 5, 2022 | | Print Article

It has been three weeks since the brutal slaying of four University of Idaho students, and the father of one of the victims, Kaylee Goncalves, says he does “not feel confident” in the way police are handling the investigation, which has yet to produce a suspect.

(Video: Fox News)

“I do not feel confident,” Steve Goncalves told “Fox & Friends” Sunday. “And that’s why I push the envelope and say a little bit more. I hate to be that guy, but, you know…everybody has a job and a role to play and this is my role as the parent.”

Kaylee, along with the friend she grew up with, Madison Mogen, 21, were discovered dead on the third floor of the Moscow, Idaho residence. The bodies of Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend, 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, were located on the second floor.

In light of the entry it is believed the murderer used, Goncalves believes Kaylee and her best friend may have been the targets of the perpetrator’s rage.

“[The killer’s] entry and exit are available without having to go upstairs or downstairs,” the grieving father explained. “Looks like he probably may have not gone downstairs. We don’t know that for sure, but he obviously went upstairs. So I’m using logic that he chose to go up there when he didn’t have to.”

Kaylee and Mogen were sleeping in the same bed the night they were killed.

In a Saturday interview with “Fox & Friends,” Goncalves stated the way his daughter and Mogen were killed “don’t match,” according to the New York Post.

“I’ll cut to the chase – their means of death don’t match,” he said. “Their points of damage don’t match.”

 

As American Wire News reported, last week, the Moscow Police Department walked back previous claims that the four students were targeted, after law enforcement officials and prosecutors had stated they were.

In a press release, the department stated, “Detectives do not currently know if the residence or any occupants were specifically targeted but continue to investigate.”

The clarification came after Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson stated unequivocally that “investigators believe that this attack was intended for a specific person.”

Moscow Police said Thompson’s statement was the result of a “miscommunication.”

The lack of transparency has shaken Goncalves. Police have instructed him not to comment on whether his daughter or her friends were targeted, Goncalves said.

“I probably over-disclosed information that they wish I wouldn’t have said, but the story’s going cold,” he revealed.

He has asked investigators to release the alibis of unnamed individuals to the public.

“There’s layers of separation,” he explained. “The communication is not the same as the boots on the ground.”

“All the officers that are out on the streets, those guys are working their tails off,” he continued. “But there’s a different person who does the communication. And that guy’s sitting with the lawyer and that guy’s sitting there telling him you’ve got to protect things that are beyond the case, like the town and the community and the college itself. Those don’t matter as much to me.”

“I mean, I definitely don’t want to hurt them, but I have an agenda,” Goncalves stated. “And I think it’s pretty clear it’s these two girls and that’s what I’m working for. And I’m not going to let that story fall apart just because they don’t want wanted posters, you know, on their next rush of students that come into town.”

The determined father urged the families of the other victims to speak out as he is, to keep the investigation moving forward.

 

“I have talked to, obviously, Maddie’s mother and her father, and I’ve talked to Xana’s father and he said, ‘hey, you can speak on our behalf and you can help push this narrative.’ So I feel confident there,” Goncalves said. “That’s as far as the real communications that I have.”

With respect to the Chapin family, he says he has yet to be able to “get on the same page” with them, “so I try not to mention that and stay within my lane of what is my role.”

“I’m not trying to just give it all to my daughter,” he stressed. “It’s just I can’t speak for other people.”

When asked if investigators are getting closer to naming a suspect, Goncalves replied, “Wish I knew for sure.”

“I did sit down with the investigator, the lead investigator, and I looked in his eyes and I got a sense that this guy was going to do everything in his power to get – to figure something out,” he said. “But if the evidence isn’t there, that’s the part that I’m concerned [about].”

Melissa Fine
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