Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Murder In Moscow: Xana Kernodle's Family Seeks Answers In The Wake Of The Murders
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. Zana's family,
- 0:06Speaker 1: for the second time, are making up flyers and passing
- 0:09Speaker 1: them out in the Moscow community in hopes that people
- 0:13Speaker 1: will come forward with information about how these kids were murdered.
- 0:17Speaker 1: And again, I wonder if a reward would help get
- 0:21Speaker 1: some people coming forward who might not want to talk yet. Now,
- 0:25Speaker 1: I know the other counter argument to that is a
- 0:28Speaker 1: reward will bring out more crazies, bring out more clowns.
- 0:32Speaker 1: But really, with a circus as big as this one,
- 0:35Speaker 1: how many more clowns can possibly show up? So I
- 0:39Speaker 1: think offering a reward might motivate some people to get
- 0:43Speaker 1: involved here that might otherwise stay quiet. Because if there
- 0:48Speaker 1: is no motivation for some scumbag to come forward, and
- 0:53Speaker 1: rat on their friend or their buddy or their associate, well,
- 0:56Speaker 1: why would they? Especially considering if they're a criminal as well,
- 1:01Speaker 1: the last thing they want to do is speak to
- 1:02Speaker 1: law enforcement if there's no benefit for them. So I
- 1:07Speaker 1: think our award here is a good idea, but obviously
- 1:11Speaker 1: I'm not an FBI agent or an investigator. I'm just
- 1:15Speaker 1: talking about it from a logical perspective. And we all
- 1:19Speaker 1: know that money talks. If there's money on the table,
- 1:23Speaker 1: people are going to be motivated to rat on their friends,
- 1:26Speaker 1: rat on their associates, and try and put a couple
- 1:28Speaker 1: of bucks in their pocket. And I hope beyond hope,
- 1:32Speaker 1: that's what we see here. Because inevitably, it's going to
- 1:35Speaker 1: be a tip. It's going to be a lead from
- 1:37Speaker 1: somebody who leads the investigators to this killer. And handing
- 1:43Speaker 1: out flyers like this, like Zana's family's doing, I think
- 1:46Speaker 1: is a great idea. Don't let anyone forget. Now, obviously,
- 1:51Speaker 1: with all of the coverage, it's going to be very
- 1:53Speaker 1: difficult for anyone to forget what happened here. But if
- 1:56Speaker 1: I was a family member, I think this is a
- 1:58Speaker 1: great way to go about it as well. Keep this
- 2:01Speaker 1: story in the press, keep it on the front of
- 2:04Speaker 1: everyone's mind, and keep working towards finding who's responsible here.
- 2:10Speaker 1: Today's article is from Law and Crime. Headline, Family of
- 2:14Speaker 1: Slain University of Idaho Student Mails Out Flyers Pleading for
- 2:18Speaker 1: Tips in quadruple homicide. This article was authored by Annette Levy.
- 2:27Speaker 1: The family of Zanna Kernodle, one of the four University
- 2:30Speaker 1: of Idaho students killed in a violent quadruple homicide nearly
- 2:34Speaker 1: six weeks ago, has mailed out 5,000 flyers to homes
- 2:37Speaker 1: in and around the city of Moscow, pleading for people
- 2:40Speaker 1: to come forward with any information or video that could
- 2:44Speaker 1: help provide clues. And how awesome would it be if
- 2:49Speaker 1: a print shop up in the local area, wherever they're living,
- 2:52Speaker 1: would step forward and offer to do this on the cuff?
- 2:56Speaker 1: Maybe get a fundraiser going and help them pay for
- 2:58Speaker 1: more flyers, something like that. Because it's a good idea. Honestly,
- 3:03Speaker 1: the more people who know, the more eyes on the situation,
- 3:06Speaker 1: the better. This is the second time Kernodle's family has
- 3:13Speaker 1: made flyers. The first batch was released one week after
- 3:16Speaker 1: the murders, on November 20th. These posters were handed out
- 3:20Speaker 1: door to door and posted around town, but mailing the
- 3:24Speaker 1: new flyers is expected to reach more people where they live.
- 3:29Speaker 1: And whatever it takes. Being Xana's family, if I were them,
- 3:34Speaker 1: I'd be doing everything in my power too, to keep
- 3:37Speaker 1: this story fresh, to keep people talking about it. And
- 3:41Speaker 1: when they put these up the first time around, some
- 3:44Speaker 1: clown had the audacity to go around and pull some
- 3:47Speaker 1: of them down. So sending them directly to people's houses
- 3:51Speaker 1: is a great idea. The killings of Kernodle, her boyfriend,
- 3:57Speaker 1: Ethan Chapin, and Kernodle's roommates, Maddie Mogan and Kaylee Gonsalves,
- 4:01Speaker 1: has left their families searching for answers and grieving the
- 4:05Speaker 1: lives of four young people who were stabbed to death
- 4:08Speaker 1: as they slept, In the early morning hours of November 13th.
- 4:12Speaker 1: It's still surreal to even talk about. How is it
- 4:15Speaker 1: that four college kids. Who are asleep in their beds.
- 4:18Speaker 1: In a place like Moscow. Are brutally murdered. In those beds.
- 4:24Speaker 1: By an unknown assailant. And roughly two months into it.
- 4:27Speaker 1: We have no idea what's going on. Now flip the script.
- 4:31Speaker 1: And look at how quick they caught the guy up
- 4:33Speaker 1: in Stockton recently. Who was shooting homeless people. But yet
- 4:37Speaker 1: here we are. Two months in and nothing cooking it
- 4:41Speaker 1: looks like. The posters show photos of Kurnodal, Chapin, Mogan,
- 4:46Speaker 1: and Gonsalves and include information about the tip line and
- 4:50Speaker 1: how people can submit video and photo evidence to the FBI.
- 4:53Speaker 1: 60 FBI agents and analysts have been assisting the Moscow
- 4:58Speaker 1: police with the investigation along with Idaho State Police. So look,
- 5:03Speaker 1: they have a lot of resources. I'm not going to
- 5:05Speaker 1: beat that horse, but They have the resources available to
- 5:08Speaker 1: them at this point. The question is, even with all
- 5:12Speaker 1: of these resources, will it be enough? We think it's
- 5:17Speaker 1: very important and we appreciate that support from the family,
- 5:20Speaker 1: said Aaron Snell, public information officer for the Idaho State
- 5:24Speaker 1: Police and spokesperson for Moscow Police in an interview with
- 5:28Speaker 1: Law and Crime this week. Snell reiterated the family's plea
- 5:32Speaker 1: that video and photo evidence be submitted for review by
- 5:35Speaker 1: detectives and agents assigned to the case. They're adamant that
- 5:39Speaker 1: there's video out there, there's some kind of evidence out
- 5:43Speaker 1: there that's going to explain this away. And my gut
- 5:47Speaker 1: feeling is, we still haven't heard the whole story about
- 5:50Speaker 1: what went down at the frat house. And until we
- 5:53Speaker 1: have some context there, and we have a better understanding
- 5:56Speaker 1: about what happened, how long they were there, when they left...
- 5:59Speaker 1: It's going to be very difficult to discern what really
- 6:02Speaker 1: went down here. We want additional leads as well, Snell continued.
- 6:08Speaker 1: Anybody that had looked at some of their past social
- 6:10Speaker 1: media posts or past pictures and thinks something's out of
- 6:14Speaker 1: the ordinary, something's odd, we want that information, Snell continued.
- 6:18Speaker 1: I think we've been consistent in saying that. The activity
- 6:21Speaker 1: that might have been done within those pictures or those
- 6:24Speaker 1: videos that people may or may not want to submit
- 6:27Speaker 1: to the police... That's not what we're interested in. We're
- 6:30Speaker 1: interested in the context of the crime. That way we
- 6:33Speaker 1: can piece together aspects of this case to get a
- 6:35Speaker 1: better picture. So again, pleading for people to hand over video.
- 6:40Speaker 1: And if you were drinking in that video, you might've
- 6:42Speaker 1: been smoking a bone in that video, whatever. They're not
- 6:45Speaker 1: looking to bust you for that. And I know people
- 6:48Speaker 1: have a hard ass time believing the police when the
- 6:50Speaker 1: police tell them they're not looking to bust them. And
- 6:53Speaker 1: that's a whole different conversation we can have about the
- 6:56Speaker 1: trust between law enforcement and the community. But when you
- 7:00Speaker 1: have college kids who are worried about getting thrown out
- 7:02Speaker 1: of school, maybe or facing criminal charges, if they hand
- 7:06Speaker 1: over videos or pictures, of course, they're going to be
- 7:09Speaker 1: hesitant to do that. Now, the police coming out and
- 7:12Speaker 1: saying this, that's a good thing. Maybe it'll give some
- 7:15Speaker 1: some of these kids some comfort to come forward. And
- 7:18Speaker 1: I hope that's the case. But when you don't have
- 7:21Speaker 1: a lot of trust with the community, this is the
- 7:23Speaker 1: sort of roadblock that you run into. The homicide sent
- 7:27Speaker 1: shockwaves through the city of Moscow and caused some University
- 7:31Speaker 1: of Idaho students to either flee the campus or opt
- 7:34Speaker 1: to finish the semester online. Snell said no suspects have
- 7:39Speaker 1: been identified despite hundreds of interviews being conducted. Police are
- 7:43Speaker 1: following leads through nearly 15,000 tips that have been submitted.
- 7:48Speaker 1: Agents and investigators are also combing through thousands of pieces
- 7:52Speaker 1: of video and other evidence submitted to police as they
- 7:55Speaker 1: search for any clues that could lead to a break
- 7:58Speaker 1: in the case. Some have raised concerns that the case
- 8:01Speaker 1: is going cold. However, Moscow Police Chief James Fry has
- 8:05Speaker 1: said that that is not the case. And I agree
- 8:08Speaker 1: with that. I don't think this is going cold necessarily.
- 8:12Speaker 1: nowhere near cold yet. This is still cooking, folks. Whenever
- 8:15Speaker 1: you have this kind of evidence pouring in and you
- 8:18Speaker 1: have these kinds of tips pouring in, that means the
- 8:21Speaker 1: case is still active and ongoing. This case will be
- 8:24Speaker 1: cold when the file is on a detective's desk and
- 8:28Speaker 1: they shove that file under other files of murders that
- 8:31Speaker 1: are coming in fresh. That's when it's cold. Veteran retired
- 8:36Speaker 1: Houston police homicide detective Phil Waters took issue with claims
- 8:40Speaker 1: the case is cold in an interview with Law and
- 8:43Speaker 1: Crime's Sidebar podcast. There's a criteria which you name a
- 8:47Speaker 1: cold case, Waters said. I think people are just using
- 8:50Speaker 1: that terminology. A lot of the media uses that terminology
- 8:54Speaker 1: because it sounds, you know, sophisticated. Waters investigated high-profile homicides
- 9:00Speaker 1: for 33 years. He explained when and how a case
- 9:03Speaker 1: is labeled cold. We had to have a case for
- 9:06Speaker 1: three years and had to have had all active leads exhausted,
- 9:10Speaker 1: where we've just hit the wall and there's nothing left
- 9:12Speaker 1: that we can do, Waters said. I wish that would
- 9:16Speaker 1: quit being thrown around out there because that's not a
- 9:18Speaker 1: good thing for the families, Waters continued. They need to
- 9:21Speaker 1: be more encouraged about what law enforcement is doing and
- 9:25Speaker 1: what they're accomplishing at this point. And again, we're hoping
- 9:28Speaker 1: and praying that they get a suspect. Well, that's true.
- 9:32Speaker 1: But there's some blame to be placed on the investigators
- 9:35Speaker 1: here for not having that sort of open channel of
- 9:40Speaker 1: respect and communication with the family, at least with the
- 9:45Speaker 1: Gonsalves family. Now, we know that the Chapin family has
- 9:48Speaker 1: come out and they have a different take on it.
- 9:51Speaker 1: But whenever you have any family of a victim that
- 9:54Speaker 1: feels like they're not being treated with enough empathy or
- 9:58Speaker 1: not given enough respect, that's a bad look for the
- 10:01Speaker 1: investigators and it's something that needs to be addressed. Meanwhile,
- 10:06Speaker 1: Snell said detectives have yet to identify a suspect or
- 10:09Speaker 1: suspects in the case. He said the picture of what
- 10:12Speaker 1: happened that night is becoming more clear through interviews and
- 10:15Speaker 1: results from the crime lab, but he would not elaborate.
- 10:20Speaker 1: Snell did say that police are sorting through registrations for
- 10:23Speaker 1: nearly 22,000 white Hyundai Elantra vehicles between the years of
- 10:28Speaker 1: 2011 and 2013. Police have said a car matching that
- 10:33Speaker 1: description was in the immediate area of the crime scene
- 10:37Speaker 1: at the night of the killings and that they are
- 10:39Speaker 1: confident the person or people in the car that night
- 10:42Speaker 1: have information about what happened. Snell would not say how
- 10:46Speaker 1: close the vehicle was to the home on King Road,
- 10:49Speaker 1: But another spokesperson told media last week the car was there.
- 10:53Speaker 1: So if that's true and the car was there, as
- 10:56Speaker 1: this source says, that increases the likelihood that the person
- 11:00Speaker 1: or persons in that vehicle might have been involved, in
- 11:03Speaker 1: my opinion. Earlier this week, Moscow police said they were
- 11:09Speaker 1: looking at a white Elantra found with front end damage
- 11:12Speaker 1: and no license plates on a street corner in Eugene, Oregon.
- 11:16Speaker 1: Police investigated and found the car was registered out of
- 11:19Speaker 1: Colorado and ruled the female owner out of having any
- 11:23Speaker 1: connection to the case. I can't even begin to imagine
- 11:28Speaker 1: what Maddie's family is going through or Zanna's family or
- 11:31Speaker 1: Ethan or Kaylee's family is going through. Imagine making these
- 11:34Speaker 1: flyers up knowing that she's never coming home, that you're
- 11:38Speaker 1: never going to see her again, and that there's some sick,
- 11:41Speaker 1: disgusting animal that's going to enjoy their holiday this year
- 11:45Speaker 1: while you and your family are grieving like never before.
- 11:49Speaker 1: So I really hope beyond hope that the investigators are
- 11:53Speaker 1: about their business and the confidence that they're displaying and
- 11:56Speaker 1: that they're talking about really comes to fruition and that
- 12:00Speaker 1: they all get a fantastic Christmas present by this piece
- 12:03Speaker 1: of shit being arrested. All right, folks, that's going to
- 12:07Speaker 1: do it for this one. If you'd like to contact me,
- 12:09Speaker 1: you can do that at BobbyCapucci at ProtonMail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I
- 12:17Speaker 1: at ProtonMail.com. You can also find me on Twitter at
- 12:21Speaker 1: B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that I discussed can be
- 12:27Speaker 1: found in the description box.