Food truck ‘mystery man’, roommates and ex-boyfriend all ruled out as suspects in Idaho university murders

Investigators initially seized on surveillance footage from food truck

Idaho police have ruled out an ex-boyfriend, a mysterious man captured on a food truck’s web camera, and two college roomates as suspects in the shocking 13 November murder of four University of Idaho students.

Families, friends, and community members are still searching for answers in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, in what police believe was an attack with a “large knife.”

Initial efforts focused on investigating a man captured in surveillance footage as Mogen and Goncalves stopped in the early morning at a food truck shortly before returning to the shared home where the three women, who lived together, and Chapin, who was dating Kernodle, were killed.

Police also questioned the women’s two roommates who were home when the slayings took place, as well as what officials described as an “ex-boyfriend” of one of the victims.

“At this time+ in the investigation, detectives do not believe the two surviving roommates or the male in the Grub Truck surveillance video are involved in this crime,” the Moscow, Idaho Police Department said in a Facebook update on Friday. “Additionally, online reports of the victims being tied and gagged are not accurate. The identity of the 911 caller has not been released.”

“Currently, there are no suspects in custody, and the weapon has not been found,” officials added.

The Moscow police said they’ve seized the contents of three dumpsters in their investigation, and have conducted 38 separate interviews as they hunt for information.

The Idaho State Police and FBI are assisting with the case.

Previously, police have said they collected DNA from the crime scene, as well as nail clippings, in their efforts to gain more clarity as to what happened in the early hours of Sunday, 13 November, as the students returned from a night out that included stops at a bar and a party in the small college town.

Officials have said there were no signs of forced entry in the home where the women lived.

Police were not called until roughly eight hours after the students were believed to be killed.

Idaho State Police spokesman Aaron Snell said on Thursday that the two surviving students who were in the house could be “the key to this whole thing”.