Video footage discovered through investigation shows that the brutally murdered University of Idaho students were with a mystery man before their murders.
The mystery man was lingering nearby the group of 4 just a few hours in what cops are calling a targeted kill.
Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves appear to be captured in a Twitch livestream shot outside a food truck in the town of Moscow, shortly before they were found fatally stabbed at an off-campus house Sunday.
Authorities said, “We are currently looking to speak with other people in the video.”
The video shows a man walking behind the two women and hovering nearby as they chat with each other and check a cellphone.
“They’re in the process of identifying the other people who were there … and what sort of contact did they have,” Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said.
The food-truck video, posted to Twitter by KHQ-TV reporter John Webb, shows two of the victims apparently waiting for late-night eats on a crowded street. The grainy footage shows the unidentified man a few feet away while the two women chat and check the phone.
It’s not clear if they speak with the mystery man at any point, and although police are seeking to ID him, there is no suggestion the figure was involved in a crime. However, from video footage it just looks like the man lingered around and watch the two girls.
The footage was apparently shot just before Mogen, 21, and Goncalves, 21, were stabbed to death alongside 20-year-old Ethan Chapin and 20-year-old Xana Kernodle.
Their killer or killers were still on the loose Wednesday although cops have said there was no imminent threat to the community.
Thompson acknowledged that statement could seem to contradict the little information released so far released in the slayings.
“Obviously, there’s no way police can say that there’s no risk, but what they’re seeing indicates there’s not a risk that this person will randomly attack people,” Thompson said. “I don’t think they’re going to foreclose the possibility that it could be one or more people, but right now they don’t know who is responsible.”
Authorities have said the murders appear to be targeted and were done with an “edged weapon,” likely a knife, that has yet to be located. Police are trying to piece together a timeline of the activities leading up to the killings.
