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The father of one of the University of Idaho stabbing victims said he believes either his daughter or her best friend was targeted in the violent attack, despite cops insisting they are unsure who was the intended victim.
Steven Goncalves, the father of 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, said he thought it was obvious that either his daughter or Madison Mogen, 21, was targeted in the attack because they were sleeping in the same bed on the top floor of the house – well out of the way of the killer’s entry point a floor below.
Goncalves’ comments come days after Moscow police retracted a previous statement made by detectives who said they were certain that one or two residents in the house were targeted. Police clarified that they were unsure whether the home itself was targeted, or if any of the victims were targeted.
Speaking to Fox and Friends, Goncalves’ explained that the room where his daughter and her friend were sleeping was out of the way of the killer’s entry point, but he ‘chose to go up there when he didn’t have to.’
Kaylee, Madison, their roommate Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death on November 13, likely while they were sleeping. Kaylee and Madison were sleeping on the third floor, and Xana and Ethan were on the second floor. Cops said the killer entered the house through a sliding glass door on the second floor, which was level with the backyard.
Two other roommates were in the house but were unharmed and unaware the attack occurred. They were sleeping on the first floor.
Steven Goncalves, the father of 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, said he thought it was obvious that either his daughter or Madison Mogen, 21, was targeted in the attack
Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, were murdered while sleeping on the top floor of the house
Speaking to Fox and Friends, Goncalves said it took little more than basic logic to understand that his daughter and her friend might have been targeted.
‘I’m not a professional, so I want to specify that, but they’ve said the entry point was the slider or the window. It was the middle floor. So, to me, he doesn’t have to go upstairs,’ he said. ‘His entry and exit are available without having to go upstairs or downstairs.Â
‘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.’Â
‘So, I’m just putting the dots together. As far as the investigators, they’re very tight-lipped, and they’re keeping everything close to their vest, and I understand that, and I’m probably not the right person to share all these things with,’ he said. ‘So, I’m just trusting that their case is super tight, and they don’t really need to reach out to the community, and all the evidence is right there in that home.’Â
Speaking to Fox and Friends, Goncalves said it took little more than basic logic to understand that his daughter and her friend might have been targeted
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Kaylee Goncalves, Steven Goncalves daughter. Steven has been outspoken in his criticism of the Moscow Police Department’s investigation
Survivors Dylan Mortensen (left) and Bethany Funke (right), and victims Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee’s shoulders), Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle
Cops have said some of the victims had defensive wounds, but it remains unclear who or how many. Goncalves said on Saturday that Kaylee and Madison appeared to have died in different ways.
‘I’ll cut to the chase – their means of death don’t match,’ Kaylee’s father, Steven Goncalves, told Lawrence Jones Cross Country. He has said that Kaylee and Mogen were sleeping in the same bed when the attack occurred.Â
‘Their points of damage don’t match,’ he added. ‘I’m just going to say it. It wasn’t leaked to me. I earned that. I paid for that funeral. I sent my daughter to college. She came back in a box, and I can speak on that.’Â Â
Asked by Fox and Friends about those comments and whether he had any thoughts about if his daughter or Madison was the target based on their wounds, Goncalves said cops had asked him not to specify.
‘I asked for permission to do just that, and they said no,’ Goncalves said. ‘I probably over-disclosed information that they wish I wouldn’t have said, but the story’s going cold.Â
‘There’s less people coming to Moscow. I’m not going to go sleep in my bed knowing that I could get up and I could go to town and I could do something, and I’m not going to go away. I hate to be a pain, but as a father, I just can’t even sleep thinking that I could be doing something.’Â
Kaylee and Madison were found on the top floor of the Moscow, Idaho home. College lovers Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were found in a second-floor bedroom while survivors Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke were sleeping on the first floor
On Wednesday night, detectives revealed they were not sure if the slain University of Idaho students were targeted by the killer, contradicting Chief James Fry who previously insisted they were.
‘We believe they’re targeted because we take a totality of all the circumstances we’re looking at,’ Fry had told reporters on November 20, a week after the murders. The statement was recently echoed by Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson.
But the department filed a correction, stating: ‘Detectives do not currently know if the residence or any occupants were specifically targeted but continue to investigate.’
Nearly three weeks after the grizzly murders, few answers have come out despite the father of one of the victims stating that the killer was ‘sloppy’ and left a ‘mess’ of evidence behind.
