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By late afternoon on November 13, 2022, the hunt for the Idaho student killer is underway. The victims friends and family members have learned what happened to their loved ones and many of them have been brought to the Moscow police station for questioning so investigators can start piecing together the full picture soon. Dylan Mortensen tells them about the man Kaylee Gonzalves saw watching her one day a few weeks before while she was walking her dog and the man who followed her around the grocery store about a week after that. Finally, Dylan describes the day they all came home to find their front door wide open and the washing machine turned on. It's starting to seem like the killer had stalked the victims before the night of the attack. And since most of the victims are young women, investigators wonder if the killings were sexually motivated. That question becomes a little more complicated when the medical examiner informs them that none of the victims showed signs of sexual assault. But that doesn't mean that the crimes don't have any sexual motive. Based on the nature of the injuries, it's determined that the killer used a non serrated, single edged, very sharp weapon. In other words, a knife. Not only that, but the killer used a lot of force while stabbing the victims. According to some criminologists, this kind of stabbing indicates a sexual motive. It's something known as picarism, which is a sexual fetish where someone is aroused by penetrating the skin with a sharp object. As a killing method, picarism is often a substitute for sexual assault. It's a compelling idea. But before investigators run too far with this theory or any others, they need to collect more evidence. And around 4pm on the 13th, they discover something crucial. Officers from the Moscow police and Idaho State police are processing the crime scene together. MPD Corporal Brett Payne is surveying Maddy Mogan's third floor bedroom. When Corporal Payne examines the bed, he spots something on the floor and grabs it. It's a leather knife sheath. The sheath belongs to a certain type of knife called a K Bar knife and is stamped with a US Marine Corps emblem. Corporal Payne calls over ISP Lieutenant Darren Gilbertson, who is a Marine Corps veteran. Gilberton recognizes the style of knife immediately because During World War II, Ka Bar became the official fighting knife of the Marine Corps. People use Ka Bar knives for different things, but they're mainly known as a weapon. They're even advertised as self defense alternatives to guns. There are different versions out there and, and since this one is a Marine Corps branded Ka Bar, investigators hope it will narrow down possible links back to the killer. Gilbertson points out something else. Apparently Ka Bar knives are known to break at the tip during combat, which makes him think there may be a piece of the murder weapon buried in one of the victim's wounds. Which could help them identify the exact knife model and narrow things down even more. However, when the medical examiner takes a closer look at the victims bodies, they don't find anything. But that doesn't slow the investigators momentum. They begin tracking down all the K bar knives that have been purchased in the area. It's a bit of a tricky process because even though it's a Marine Corps K bar, a person doesn't have to be a marine to get one. And since the sheath looks pretty new. That makes them think that the killer bought the knife recently rather than being issued one during an actual enlistment. So police officers visit every business in town that sells combat knives. Unfortunately, none of them carry the KA Bar knives, which means the killer must have bought it online. And without an actual suspect, investigators don't have any way of tracking that. It's not a total dead end, though, because they still have the sheath, which they can test for fingerprints and DNA. They send it to the Idaho State Crime Lab, then wait for the results. They cross their fingers that they hear back soon because the mood in Moscow is getting pretty distressing. The public wants answers, but they're not getting them. Authorities haven't told the public anything about the ninth sheath or any of the other evidence found at the scene. This includes a shoe print outside Dylan's door, which corroborates her claim of seeing a man in the house that night. Again, the police don't want to reveal anything that could help the killer cover their tracks or that could possibly result in false tips from the public. But this strategy backfires a little, and soon the situation in Moscow becomes dire.

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N rakuten.com after the murders at 1122 King Road, the Moscow Police Department and Idaho State Police are working hard to keep the details of their investigation under wraps. But this creates new problems for them. In the documentary One Night in Idaho, the College Murders, journalist Lorne Patterson explains that larger police departments have someone called a public information officer whose job is to relay vital information to the community. But the Moscow Police Department is small, so when reporters contact the station asking for information, there's just one police officer trying to field everything. Suffice to say reporters aren't getting the information they want, which means the public isn't getting the answers they want. So they start filling the gaps themselves based on the word of mouth. People know that two of the housemates survived. They also know that the other friend showed up the next morning to check things out. Pretty soon, people are flooding social media to play armchair detectives. People share a ton of criticism about how the friends handled things. Not only that, there's speculation about whether any of them were involved themselves. This is hard enough considering the trauma the friends are already going through. And to make matters worse, they're also worried that the killer isn't done and will come after them next. By now, the university has told students they can start taking classes from home. And a lot of students, especially the victim's friends, take them up on the offer and leave town. To try and widen the investigation, detectives shift their focus from the night of the murders to gain a better understanding of the victims lives leading up to the attack. And one thing that sticks out to people is the fact that all the victims were involved in Greek life. Not only that, but at the time of the murders, the victims to sororities were the only ones on campus that were currently suspected, both for issues involving alcohol, drugs or hazing. Investigators start to wonder if the murders were alcohol or drug related. They speak to countless people to try and figure it out. The victim's close friends have even started to wonder if something happened at the Sigma Chi party that Zanna Kernodle and Ethan Chapin had gone to that made someone want to target one or both of them. But ultimately, the Greek life element goes nowhere. Everyone the investigators talk to says the victims were well liked. No one can think of any reason someone would want to hurt them. Some of the victim's friends start to wonder if the killer was someone totally random. Since Maddie and Kaylee went out to the bar that night, they think maybe they ran into someone who followed them home. That's when Kaylee's sister Olivia steps in. Olivia's frustrated with how little the police are telling her family about what happened. So she takes matters into her own hands. Olivia begins collecting valuable information. She starts by looking through the call logs on Kaylee's phone. And that's how she discovers that after Kaylee and Maddie left a bar called Corner Club on the night of November 12th, they got a ride to a popular food truck called the Grub truck. Olivia pieces together that they took a ride share and she gets in touch with the driver. The driver says he picked them up from the Corner Club at 1:45am and brought them back to the grub truck. Afterward he took them home and they arrived at 1122 King Road at 1:56am but this isn't all. The driver also tells Olivia that the grub truck has a security camera. So Olivia goes there and asks to see the footage. Once she watches it, she she confirms the rideshare driver's timeline. Then Olivia hands over everything to investigators, including the footage and Kaylee's call logs. It's worth noting that later on, the grub truck footage goes public. In the video, Kaylee and Maddie can be seen talking to a man who appears to be about their age. He has a hoodie on so his face isn't visible in the footage. At some point, Kaylee and Maddy walk out of frame and and the man follows. This sparks immediate speculation over whether this man is their killer caught on tape. But investigators speak to him pretty soon after Olivia gives him the footage and they clear him of any involvement from there. Based on these pieces of evidence, as well as other digital evidence, including the victim's text messages and social media posts and multiple pieces of witness testimony, detectives pieced together a timeline of the victim's final hours. Around 1:45am A friend drops Zanna and Ethan off at the house. Kaylee and Maddie arrive home at 1:56am Around 2am, Dylan and Bethany return home. Between 2:26 and 2:52am Kaylee calls her ex boyfriend a few times. At 3am most of the housemates are asleep or in bed. And here's a crucial discovery from Zanna's phone activity that night. At 4am, Zanna receives a DoorDash order and at 4:12 she's scrolling TikTok. Then between 4 and 4:20am Dylan hears troubling noises and opens the door to see a strange man. Based on this timeline, investigators think Zanna's doordash could have arrived when the killer was already in the house. Or maybe the delivery driver had something to do with the murders. Investigators subpoena doordash records to figure out who the driver was. When they speak with the driver, they confirm that she didn't have anything to do with the crimes, but she was at the house when the killer was there. It sends a chill down investigators spines to think that the killer was lurking inside the house, possibly in the midst of attacking Kaylee and Maddie. While Zanna and the doordash driver were completely unaware of what was going on and what was about to happen next. Unfortunately, the driver isn't able to provide a detailed description of anyone suspicious. This only adds to detectives frustration. However, this witness isn't the only lead they're chasing. Soon someone discovers a piece of evidence and it breaks the case wide open. Foreign what did you think of episode two of our five part Idaho Murders Night Watch series? Drop your thoughts and theories in the comments and stay tuned for part three. See you next time. If you haven't already, subscribe to our YouTube channel Rimehouse Daily and follow us on social media Rimehouse 247 for real time updates. Because the pursuit of justice never stops, Twisted Tales with Heidi Wong is perfect for spooky season. Dive into the real events behind the world's most terrifying blockbusters and beyond. Twisted Tales is a crime house original. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes out every Monday.