Law&Crime Sidebar - Idaho Student Murders: Victim's Dad Breaks Silence, Reveals Undisclosed Information

Episode Date: December 5, 2022

Legendary homicide detective Fil Waters joins Law&Crime's Sierra Gillespie to discuss reports that Kaylee Goncalves' injuries were "significantly more brutal" than her best friend Maddie Mogen when they were killed in an upstairs room of a Moscow, Idaho home.LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. The two surviving roommates of the Grizzly Idaho quadruple homicide finally break their silence at an emotional memorial service for the four victims. We hear from homicide detective Phil Waters about the latest in this investigation. It's now been nearly one month since the gruesome murders of four University of Idaho students shook the nation. For the first time, the group's two surviving roommates break their silence about the attack. Now, the facts of the unsolved case remain pretty scarce, but we do know students' 21-year-old

Kaylee Gonzalez, 21-year-old Madison Mogan, 20-year-old Zana Carnotel, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin arrived to an off-campus home at about 1.45 a.m. on November 13th. Gonzalves and Mogan had visited a bar that night and later a food truck in downtown Moscow, Idaho, while Cheapen and Carnotle went to an event at a Sigma Chi fraternity on campus. Now, hours after their arrival at home, at 1158 a.m., a surviving roommate called 911 to report an unconscious person. Upon their arrival, investigators found all four students brutally stabbed to death, two on the second floor and two more on the third. But Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funk, the two roommates on the first floor, were left untouched. At a service held over the weekend,

an Idaho pastor, read letters written by Mortensen and Funk, reading in part quote, Maddie Kaylee, Zana, and Ethan were truly all one of a kind. They all lit up any room they walked into and were gifts to this world. And another quote, my life was greatly impacted to have known these four beautiful people. Now, let's bring in famed homicide detective Phil Waters. Thanks for joining us. Now, what do you find of these remarks from the surviving roommates, especially after they were all ruled out as suspects? Well, good morning, Sierra. My first take on this from the beginning was that, and what I commented on was that it is as important to eliminate suspects as it is to find the right one. And in this case, I don't, again, my commentary is based on

what I'm reading and there are many, many things these detectives know that we do not know. So based on the people that have been ruled out at this point, we have to take at face value that the detectives have done their due diligence to, for whatever reasons, eliminate those people as suspects. And when we have, the father has come out and made statements about he's not confident in the police investigation. Some of the other family members and himself are talking about these people that have been eliminated were eliminated too quickly, in his view. And I understand that, certainly. I think the biggest problem with this entire investigation from the beginning has been the, I guess, the pitfalls of something like this when you have a department

and you have an administration that is not used to this kind of an event occurring in their city. And so the communication becomes very convoluted. It leaves the appearance that the police are not competent, that they're not saying the things they should be saying or they're saying some things they shouldn't be saying, and then they say something and they retract it. So it's all a big, to address specific issues within the investigation, it all kind of begins at the beginning, right? And when all those miscommunications start to occur causes family members, a lot of angst,

and starts them questioning the police and what they're doing and are they confident in what they're doing and so forth and so on. So it's a multi, multi-layered investigation and the results of which and the things that are being released become multi-layered as well and the responses to those. So yeah, I think something really important to note here too is that investigators likely know way more than we know at this point. They're keeping some things close to the vest for their investigation. Is that something that you would say is accurate? Well, yeah, and that's important. I know in my experience, I've had multiple fatality scenes. And of course, those are very high profile. There are just certain parts of the investigation, and there's evidence in the investigation that

is not going to be revealed to the public. And you have to maintain the integrity of that investigation. What you don't want happening is releasing something that you should not have as the detective in the investigation. And then we find out later that that bit of information that was released did compromise the integrity of the investigation and caused it to slow down or stop or hinder the apprehension of a suspect. So I mean, I understand the criticism, but then again, having been on the other side of it, and I understand completely how these families feel, how the public feels, I get it. But I can tell you that there are just certain aspects. that have got to be, as you put it, held close to the best.

Yeah, exactly, just to maintain the integrity of that investigation. So a lot of things here are still a question mark. I mean, this is an unsolved case nearly one month after it actually happened. But there are some things that we do know for a fact that all of the victims were on the second or third floor, but the two surviving people, the roommates were on the first floor. But we also know there was no sign of forced entry. Now, we've heard a lot of back and forth about whether the house was targeted or if someone inside was. So does this make you think that one of the four victims inside was, in fact, the target?

That word, target, has been bandied about quite a bit. Clearly, this is a big time, whodunit. It's not a smoking gun, right? So when I use the term targeted, it is apparent to me. And again, I'm just speaking with what I have read and what I know and what we all know, that the person who did this, was focused on those four individuals. Now, was there somebody within that group that they were more focused on? I think that yet remains to be seen. But today, how I think it's Kaylee, had more, the wounds were much more extreme than on the young lady she was with. And what I read is that they

were in the same room together. Now, I may have misread that, but I believe that's what I've read. And that could mean a couple of things. Number one, it could mean that the attack was on the other young lady first, and Kaylee woke up and began to fight. And so when that happens, that ratches it up the attack, and the attacker had to put Kaylee down because she was, and I don't know if she's one of the ones that had defensive wounds on her or not, but there has been information put out there that there were some defensive wounds on some of the victims.

So that could mean that, that she woke up, And that's why the attack on her is more vicious because she was fighting. So that, again, that ratchets up the attack. And that may explain why she's got more extreme wounds on her. Now, the other side of that is, of course, that she was the target among these people. And that's why that attack was more vicious. And the other young lady was attacked secondarily. But then that doesn't explain why do we go upstairs and kill the couple that was from all

intensive purposes that we know wasn't aware of what was going on on the second floor so again it causes a lot of questions and i would in a stabbing i'm sure the detectives have done this you should be able to see some sort of transfer of blood you should be able to get an idea of where the attack started and there where and then where it went to and plot the path of this suspect through that through that structure and get a pattern of the of the way it unfold and that would be some of that may be realized with DNA testing and so forth and so on because if we have mixtures of victims blood in those two separate bedroom areas then it might give an indication of the order of things that occurred right you brought up so many good points there some that we can in fact confirm

idaho investigators have said that there were defensive wounds on some of the victims and actually cayley and mattie we know that they were very good childhood friends actually their parents saying that they were sleeping in the same bed at the time of this attack. That hasn't been confirmed by investigators, but from their parents. Now, let's focus on another bombshell that could be part of this case that Kaylee Gonzalez, she may have had a stalker. When her father spoke to Good Morning America, he had this to say. I mean, did she ever talk to you about a potential stalker or somebody that made her uncomfortable?

She did. Okay, and Phil, back to what you were saying now. that Kaylee Gonzalez's injuries are said to have been more severe than Maddie's. So could that really mean that she did have a stalker? Could this actually lead investigators in that direction? Well, Sierra, as I've said, yes. I mean, the short answer to that is yes. But these are things that are great unknowns, at least to the public.

And the detectives in this case may have that answer. They may have some of these answers. So the, I think I have read where the detectives have determined that the stalker aspect of this thing has not been verified, so that has not been confirmed. So this is something that the father is sharing. Thankfully, he is sharing that because it just gives another aspect of the investigation for the detectives. So again, what she targeted specifically by a person who was stalking her, that remains to be seen in anything that I might comment on or anybody else that's commenting on this case. it would be pure speculation. And the detectives are the ones that are going to have at least some feeling or indication that that may be the case or it may not be the case. So clearly these four

young people were in the sense that they're the ones that were slain. We keep using the word targeted. Well, obviously they were targeted. I mean, that's kind of an obvious observation. So, but the stalking aspect, again, that's just something that's further into the investigation. hopefully will come to light. Yeah, still a lot of unanswered questions to this unsolved case. The nation is their eyes are on Idaho and we're hoping to find some more answers

to those questions soon. Phil, thank you so much for joining us here today and we hope to talk to you again soon. All right, Sierra. Thanks, everyone. And remember to subscribe to Long Crime Network's Sidebar podcast on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you listen.

I'm Sierra Gillespie and I'll see you next time. can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.