Moscow police rule out link between University of Idaho murders and 2021 stabbing in Oregon

‘There does not appear to be any evidence to support the cases are related,’ police say

Police investigating the murders of four University of Idaho students ruled out a possible connection to a similar stabbing a year before.

Moscow Police issued a statement on Friday that the August 2021 fatal stabbing of Travis Juettern, 26, in Salem, Oregon, is not believed to be linked to the killings of Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen.

“There have been numerous media inquiries about a 1999 double stabbing in Pullman, Washington, and the 2021 double stabbing (with one death) in Salem, Oregon,” the statement read.

“While these cases share similarities ... there does not appear to be any evidence to support the cases are related.”

This week, similarities were drawn between the knife attack on Juetten and his wife, who survived the violence, and the 13 November quadruple murders that took place at the victims’ off-campus rental home located 400 miles away in Moscow.

Juetten’s mother had previously told The Independent that finding out who killed her son Travis Juetten in a brutal stabbing attack in his home in Silverton, Oregon – and also catching the killer of the slain students in Idaho – would be “the best Christmas present ever”.

“I want answers for all five of them,” Ms Juetten said of the victims.

“If law enforcement can work together and solve both cases that would be the best Christmas present ever.”

Juetten and his wife Jamilyn Juetten, 24, were woken at around 3am on 13 August 2021 when a mystery attacker entered their bedroom and stabbed them both multiple times.

Similar to the Moscow murders, other people who were home at the time of the incident were left unharmed. A friend was sleeping in another room as they were going to cat-sit for the couple the next day.

The friend was woken by the commotion and is believed to have scared off the attacker, before calling 911, reported KOIN6. The case remains unsolved.

Nearly two weeks after the murders near the University of Idaho campus, Moscow police continue to piece together what exactly took place on the night of the slayings.

Authorities have remained largely silent about any breakthroughs in the tragedy. They said it is believed to have been a targeted attack but have not explained the rationale behind the assessment.

Kaylee Goncalves’ father, Steve Goncalves, said that he was “a little in denial” about the killings and is focused on getting justice for his daughter despite the lack of information.

“I’ve been told it’s one [target], but then again, there’s the bigness like it’s purposely big. I’m hoping, but it confuses everyone, yeah, because nobody knows what that really means other than maybe somebody had a different kind of attack footprint,” Mr Goncalves said in an interview with CNN.

“We all want to play a part in helping, and we can’t move if we don’t have any real substantial information to work from.”