More information on the tragic mass murder in Moscow Idaho last Sunday as been slowing dribbling out. It seems that the information raises as many questions as it answers.
Here are the points of interest I have found:
University of Idaho victim’s friend says dorm door-lock code wasn’t usually activated. I’m not too surprised. When my family lived in Moscow we always locked our doors. But I know people that leave the keys in the ignition of their vehicles when at home.
Over the last few days, police officers have come knocking at a local home improvement store to inquire about potential sales of a Ka-Bar knife – as they continue to try to locate the murder weapon. They appear to be specifically looking for a knife “with a smooth edge on one side and a serrated edge on the other.” But the picture they provide is of a knife without any serrations. My reading on Ka-Bar knives seems to indicate that Ka-Bar’s an not typically serrated.
Autopsies were conducted on November 17th. The Latah County Coroner confirmed the identity of the four murdered individuals and their cause and manner of death as homicide by stabbing. The coroner stated that the four victims were likely asleep, some had defensive wounds, and each was stabbed multiple times. There was no sign of sexual assault. This same posting tells us, “At this time in the investigation, detectives do not believe the two surviving roommates … are involved in the crime.” Also, there are over 128 people in law enforcement involved in the investigation. This includes the Moscow Police, Latah County Sheriff’s Office, Idaho State Patrol, and the FBI.
The 911 call that led to the discovery of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle’s bodies was not made by their roommates, I don’t really trust parts of this report. It could just be former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman wanted another 15 minutes of fame and speculated on things for the camera.
One of the University of Idaho murder victims called the same person seven times shortly before she was killed, her sister claims… “Kaylee calls [the man] six times between 2.26am and 2.44am. From 2.44 to 2.52 Maddie calls [the man] three times, then Kaylee makes a final call to him at 2.52am,” Alivea said. If this was after the attack started, why didn’t they call the police? See also this report which identifies the person the victims called as “Jack”.
Fuhrman is working in Moscow now?
No. He is 70 years old and has been retired for quite a while now. According to Wikipedia he lives in Eatonville, Washington. This is a small town south of Tacoma and directly west of Mount Rainier.
Welcome back! We haven’t heard from you in quite a while.
“with a smooth edge on one side and a serrated edge on the other.”
Hmmm, Aircrew Survival Knife?
Aircrew survival knife blade probably too short from what “they” are describing. OTOH description may be a misdirection.
Sounds to me like they’re describing one of those cheap Chinese “survival” knives that are knock offs of the style of knife depicted in the Rambo series of movies.
Ka-Bar is actually a knife company that makes all sorts of knives, bladed implements and accessories: kabar.com/category/all-products. What most people generally associate with the name is the US Marine corps fighting knife from the WWII era designed by Ka-Bar, which indeed, has a smooth, unsharpened spine, not serrated.
Basically, as with anything weapon related, it appears as if they don’t know what they’re talking about. They claim they’re looking for a Ka-bar style “Rambo” knife, but those are two distinctly different types of knives.
“…it appears as if they don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Agreed.
Ka-Bar Big Brother
Doesn’t mean they still don’t know what they’re spouting off about, but such a product does exist.
I’m guessing that they can get a rough estimate of the blade length and blade profine from the autopsy.
Depth of any stab-type wounds would offer an approximate minimum blade length to achieve the damage.
Type of tissue damage might inform the serrated-back knife theory, if the cuts were clean on one side and ragged/jagged/irregular on the other.
Unfortunately, if that’s all they have, that information probably does a much better job of excluding possible murder weapons, than it does in proving that a specific XYZ-type knife must have been used (unless XYZ is so generic as to be only somewhat useful).
Since KA-BAR has made a lot of different types of knives over the years (both folding and fixed blade), and since both Camillus and Ontario have had the contract for the USMC fighting knife (which is not serrated), this information appears to me to be almost completely useless without additional context / information.