The cops are investigating brutal murder of four University of Idaho students investigate possible links to a deadly stabbing attack on a sleeping couple in Oregon.
Moscow Police Chief James Frye was asked on Wednesday if his officers were “investigating a possible connection” to the “unsolved double stabbing” of Travis and Jamilyn Juetten about 400 miles from Salem in August of the last year.
This case, the journalist noted, also involved “two people stabbed in their homes in the middle of the nightlong knife, no suspects at this point”, much like the quadruple murder off campus in Moscow on November 13.
“Were looking at every avenue and we have other agencies reaching out to us with other cases and things that we’re going to follow up on,” Frye replied.
When pressed, he confirmed the Salem attack – in which Travis Juetten was killed while his wife survived despite being stabbed 19 times – was on his team’s radar.
“Actually, I received advice on this matter and passed it on,” Frye confirmed.
The Juettens were attacked by a masked intruder as they slept at 3am, police said at the time – with their family setting up a reward of $50,000 to obtain information leading to the arrest of the killer.
Friends said Travis, 26, died as he tried to fight back and stop his killer’s frantic attack on his 24-year-old wife, who survived.
“He saved his life”, a friend of the family says KOIN 6 News at the time. “He protected her from the attacker.”
As in the Idaho case, the killer struck while other people were home at the time, and a friend who was planning to make catsit for the Juttens, who were to fly to Hawaii the next day would have scared off the attacker, KOIN 6 said.
In Idaho, police say they still have no suspects in the shocking murder of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21 in the early hours of the November 13.
Madison Mogen, 21, top left, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, bottom left, Ethan Chapin, 20, center, and Xana Kernodle, 20, right were all brutally murdered.
The housemates’ dog was spared in the fatal attack.
University of Idaho students Xana Kernodle, right, and Ethan Chapin were dating at the time of their brutal murders.
The four victims shared this house with two other roommates, who were home during the brutal murders but spared.
Police said the four of them likely slept on the second and third floors of the house. Two of their roommates and one dog belonging to one of the roommates were spared by the killer.
Captain Roger Lanier said Moscow police did not believe the surviving housemates were involved in the murder. He also ruled out Kaylee’s ex-boyfriend Jack DeCoeur as a suspect – while investigating allegations that she had a stalker, which was later cleared.
Lanier also repeated that a man seen in security footage near the victims in a food truck the night they died was also ruled out.