White Hyundai Elantra found abandoned in Oregon may hold breakthrough clues to Idaho college murders of four students as officials seek to impound car and finely probe it in case with yet to result in any suspects or arrests. In update police say the discovered vehicle is not the one being sought.
Is it the lead cops have been looking for? Idaho police are investigating a white Hyundai Elantra found abandoned in Oregon for a possible link to the unsolved slayings of four college students last month.
Aware that Moscow, Idaho, officials were on the lookout for a vehicle fitting that description, Eugene police called the department to alert them to the car, which was badly damaged and had no license plates.
Idaho police have appealed for help finding a white 2011-2013 model Elantra seen in the ‘immediate area’ of the off-campus home where the friends were stabbed to death in the early hours of Nov. 13
The Eugene Police Department told Fox News someone had called 911 to report a person sleeping in the car over the weekend.
Units made contact with the individual, but soon learned he was homeless and not the car’s owner.
Update: Moscow PD say the Hyundai Elantra located in Eugene, Oregon is not believed to be connected to the murders. https://t.co/Nnc776HwfL
— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) December 21, 2022
‘We are aware of the vehicle and are investigating it.’
Idaho police said they had narrowed their search to 22,000 models of the car, which they were sifting through in order to speak with the owner.
The lead about the Hyundai came after police said they have received more than 10,000 tips since the investigation began on November 13.
Eugene is roughly 450 miles from Moscow, where the killings have shaken the rustic college town.
Moscow police public information officer Aaron Snell told Law&Crime: ‘We are aware of the vehicle and are investigating it.’
While in a fellow up, Snell denounced the found vehicle being the one that Idaho officers were looking for.
Said Snell, ‘The vehicle was involved in a collision and subsequently impounded. The vehicle is registered out of Colorado and the female owner is not believed to have any relation to any property in Moscow, Idaho or the ongoing murder investigations. The public is asked to stop contacting the owner.’
Moscow authorities released a stock photo of the Hyundai model last month, and asked the public to alert them if they spotted a car fitting that description.
The vehicle seemingly matches a speeding white car caught on video by a surveillance video near a Moscow gas station that was discovered after a worker poured over footage for clues. The speeding white car was captured roughly at the same time during the early morning hours of the grizzly murders on November 13.
Cops have said they want to interview the occupants of the vehicle.
Police have not named a suspect in the murders of Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
The college friends were stabbed to death between 3 and 4 a.m. Nov. 13.
Meanwhile, the FBI has beefed up its manpower on the case, adding 30 agents to help tackle the puzzling crime.
