Police may have finally gotten a break in the murders of the four Idaho University students after a Moscow gas station employee said that she may have spotted the white Hyundai Elantra that investigators believe is connected to the fatal stabbings speeding away from the scene. Following that, police collected surveillance footage from the gas station on Tuesday.
The video surveillance could potentially be of immense importance to the investigators because, just last week, Moscow police said they were searching for the occupants of a white Hyundai who may have “critical information” regarding the killings of four University of Idaho students last month.
A Breakthrough?
The white Hyundai Elantra that police believe is connected to the fatal stabbings was seen speeding away from the area, according to a night shift worker at the Mobil station on White Avenue and Highway 8.
The night assistant told Fox News that after thoroughly scrutinizing security footage from the night of November 13 for days, she finally came upon a white Hyundai Elantra traveling westbound on White Avenue at roughly 3.45 a.m. on the night of the murder before turning down a side street.
The worker, who requested anonymity fearing for her safety given that the murderer or murderers are still at large, claimed that on Monday night she saw the vehicle and sent a snapshot to a police tip address.
“I had a weird feeling to go get on the cameras,” the clerk, who was not working the night of the murders, told Fox.
The vehicle, according to her, was moving quickly down Interstate 8 before turning onto a side street.
Authorities have previously asked the public for any information about a white Hyundai Elantra seen nearby the off-campus house where the students were stabbed. Police have earlier said that they believe Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle were all killed between 3 am and 4 am on the night of November 13.
It’s still unknown if the Hyundai Elantra that was captured on the gas station’s video cameras is the one police are looking for.
Police Still Clueless
The gas station employee claimed that after authorities requested any information regarding the Hyundai Elantra earlier this month, she had spent days sifting through the gas station’s security footage.
Police Captain Roger Lanier said on Monday that they think “the occupant or occupants may have seen something” that could assist in identifying the murderer.
“I was just sitting here on the graveyard shift, really bored, and I decided to look through the surveillance footage,” the overnight manager told DailyMail.com. “I just thought I would find something. I’m really intuitive.”
She stated that police had visited the Mobil station to view the tape a second time on Tuesday morning.
It is not known if tracing the white Hyundai Elantra will help them solve the case but Idaho State Police have now collected a total of eight hours of security footage from the gas station to sort through. The investigation into the students’ killing has been going on for a whole month without any suspects in custody.
When asked if they had found anything significant, one detective said “not yet.”
Police said they are unsure of the car’s license plate and whether they think anyone inside was either involved in the killings or saw anything that would help the investigation. After obtaining the videos, authorities went back to the police station, according to Fox. They have not made any comments on their findings.
Frustration has grown with law enforcement over their failure to identify a suspect a month after the killings. The Moscow Police Department, Idaho State Police, and the FBI are collaborating to find the suspect.
Captain Roger Lanier of the Moscow Police stated on Tuesday that the probe “is not cold.”
“We get tips every day that are viable,” Lanier said.
“We get dozens and dozens of tips, we sort through and we prioritize them and for sure some of them are not good tips, they’re not even relevant to the case,” he continued.
Investigators also retrieved surveillance footage from a 76 gas station on Main Street, just a short distance from the police headquarters on the day after the murders.
