‘It’s quite difficult’: Tips, misinformation surging amidst Idaho homicide investigation
MOSCOW, Idaho — It’s been eight days since the bodies of four University of Idaho students were discovered at a home on King Street, and detectives are dealing with loads of misinformation.
Law enforcement’s latest efforts have been sifting through surveillance videos from downtown Moscow, and any doorbell cameras in the area of the crime scene.
“We have requested anybody in the neighborhood around the house if they have any ring doorbell cameras, security cameras, if they also observed anything off that night,” said Aaron Snell, spokesperson for Idaho State Police.
The surveillance has played a role in the 700 leads and nearly 100 interviews conducted by law enforcement, but still haven’t led to a suspect.
“At this time, I can say we do not have any identified suspect and all options are open,” Snell said.
Detectives remain hard at work, combing through the property, looking for any new evidence or leads.
For the first time, they closed off the back parking lot as crews to look for more evidence.
Law enforcement is also sifting through misinformation coursing through on social media.
“From a public relations standpoint, it’s quite difficult,” Snell said. “What’s happening is information is getting out and people are upset. It’s hard to trust when you don’t really know what the correct information is.”
Snell praised his team for its lack of impact on the investigation itself, but addressed frustrations it’s causing in the community.
Lot of people want to speculate, a lot of people want to come out of retirement to tell us how to do our job. But ultimately we have the best people from this agency, from ISP, from the FBI. So if you want better techniques I don’t know where you’d want to go to except these agencies,” Snell said.
They also acknowledged that information has been slow to reveal itself, but they are releasing what they can while maintaining the integrity of this investigation.
“This is a criminal investigation and we have to be careful with what we’re allowed and can release,” Snell said.
Snell says the best information will be available on the city’s website, and there is a lot of evidence to process.
READ: Moscow Police: FBI now accepting tips, skinned dog unrelated to murder
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