Father of murdered Idaho student retains lawyer and considers suing inept Idaho police

The father of one of the University of Idaho stabbing victims has hired a lawyer to try to force evidence out of tight-lipped police who have been investigating the massacre for three weeks.

Steven Goncalves, the father of 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, said he’s grown frustrated with the Moscow, Idaho, police department’s minimal transparency in the case. He said he hoped a personal attorney will be able to force the hand of investigators to release evidence they have to the public.

His comments come as Moscow Police Chief James Fry broke down in tears during an interview with Fox News as he explained that he and other members of the force are fathers too and that the nature of the murders ‘affects us.’ He also vowed the case ‘is not going cold.’

Goncalves has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with the Moscow Police Department’s investigation, which he said has ‘messed up a million times’ in a recent interview with Fox.

He has hired his own private investigator to look into the grisly slayings, and just this week said he believed either his daughter or her best friend, Madison Mogen, 21, was targeted in the attack because they were sleeping in the same bed on the top floor of the house – well out of the way of the killer’s entry point a floor below.

Steven Goncalves, the father of 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, said he’s grown frustrated with the Moscow, Idaho, police department’s minimal transparency in the case

Steven Goncalves with his daughter Kaylee, 21, who was stabbed to death in her bed

Moscow Police Chief James Fry broke down in tears during an interview with Fox News as he explained that he and other members of the force are fathers too and that the nature of the murders ‘affects us’

Goncalves explained to FOX News that there were legal means of obtaining evidence, but that he needed a lawyer to full take advantage of those avenues.  

‘There are things that we can request and things we can do to get to the truth faster,’ he said. ‘You have to fill out forms to get this evidence released to you. I don’t know how to do that.’

‘There seems to be confusion everywhere you look. It’s just absurd the kind of stuff that’s going on right now.’

Among his frustrations with the department’s lack of transparency was their refusal to reveal the alibis of certain people they say they’ve cleared of suspicion.

‘If you don’t share your alibi, then you’re scared your alibi isn’t strong enough to share with the community because that gives them a chance to peer review it,’ Goncalves said. 

He also told FOX he was upset the department wouldn’t explain why they thought there was no connection between stabbings that recently occurred in both Washington and Oregon.  

‘Don’t treat us like we’re a bunch of little kids,’ he said. ‘You’re saying it’s not related. Then tell us why it’s not related.’ 

‘They’ve messed up a million times. But I don’t get to say that because what experience does Steve have?’ he added. ‘He doesn’t know. He’s just a dad who woke up one day and had his life turned upside down.’

Speaking to Fox and Friends, Goncalves said it took little more than basic logic to understand that his daughter and her friend might have been targeted

Kaylee Goncalves, Steven Goncalves daughter. Steven has been outspoken in his criticism of the Moscow Police Department’s investigation

Survivors Dylan Mortensen (left) and Bethany Funke (right), and victims Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee’s shoulders), Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle

Speaking with Fox, Chief Fry insisted that his department was still rigorously investigating the murders. 

‘This case is not going cold. We have tips coming in, we have investigators out every day interviewing people. We’re still reviewing evidence, we’re still looking at all aspects of this,’ he said.’ I said early on that no stone will go unturned, and I mean that. We are going to continue. This case is not going cold.’

Fry fought back tears as he explained the toll the investigation took on the officers involved. 

‘I’m a dad with daughters, and it’s tough,’ Fry said. ‘We’re human. We don’t go to these and just turn it off. It affects us. But we have a job to do, and we’re going to continue to do that job, going to continue to push forward.’

Kaylee Goncalves was stabbed to death in her bed on November 13. Her father thinks she or her friend Madison may have been targeted

Speaking with Fox, Chief Fry insisted that his department was still rigorously investigating the murders

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Kaylee, Madison, their roommate Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death on November 13, likely while they were sleeping. Kaylee and Madison were sleeping on the third floor, and Xana and Ethan were on the second floor. Cops said the killer entered the house through a sliding glass door on the second floor, which was level with the backyard.

Two other roommates were in the house but were unharmed and unaware the attack occurred. They were sleeping on the first floor.

Speaking to Fox and Friends earlier this week, Goncalves said it took little more than basic logic to understand that his daughter and her friend might have been targeted.

‘I’m not a professional, so I want to specify that, but they’ve said the entry point was the slider or the window. It was the middle floor. So, to me, he doesn’t have to go upstairs,’ he said. ‘His entry and exit are available without having to go upstairs or downstairs. 

‘Looks like he probably may have not gone downstairs. We don’t know that for sure, but he obviously went upstairs. So I’m using logic that he chose to go up there when he didn’t have to.’ 

‘So, I’m just putting the dots together. As far as the investigators, they’re very tight-lipped, and they’re keeping everything close to their vest, and I understand that, and I’m probably not the right person to share all these things with,’ he said. ‘So, I’m just trusting that their case is super tight, and they don’t really need to reach out to the community, and all the evidence is right there in that home.’

Ethan and Xana (seen above) were killed on the second floor, while the other victims were found dead on the third floor of the house

Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, were murdered while sleeping on the top floor of the house

Kaylee’s family (above) previously said they learned that her injuries were worse than the other victims’. The family say they are tired of waiting for answers from the cops in Moscow 

Cops have said some of the victims had defensive wounds, but it remains unclear who or how many. Goncalves said on Saturday that Kaylee and Madison appeared to have died in different ways.

‘I’ll cut to the chase – their means of death don’t match,’ Kaylee’s father, Steven Goncalves, told Lawrence Jones Cross Country. He has said that Kaylee and Mogen were sleeping in the same bed when the attack occurred. 

‘Their points of damage don’t match,’ he added. ‘I’m just going to say it. It wasn’t leaked to me. I earned that. I paid for that funeral. I sent my daughter to college. She came back in a box, and I can speak on that.’  

Asked by Fox and Friends about those comments and whether he had any thoughts about if his daughter or Madison was the target based on their wounds, Goncalves said cops had asked him not to specify.

‘I asked for permission to do just that, and they said no,’ Goncalves said. ‘I probably over-disclosed information that they wish I wouldn’t have said, but the story’s going cold. 

‘There’s less people coming to Moscow. I’m not going to go sleep in my bed knowing that I could get up and I could go to town and I could do something, and I’m not going to go away. I hate to be a pain, but as a father, I just can’t even sleep thinking that I could be doing something.’ 

Kaylee and Madison were found on the top floor of the Moscow, Idaho home. College lovers Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were found in a second-floor bedroom while survivors Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke were sleeping on the first floor

On Wednesday night, detectives revealed they were not sure if the slain University of Idaho students were targeted by the killer, contradicting Chief James Fry who previously insisted they were.

‘We believe they’re targeted because we take a totality of all the circumstances we’re looking at,’ Fry had told reporters on November 20, a week after the murders. The statement was recently echoed by Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson.

But the department filed a correction, stating: ‘Detectives do not currently know if the residence or any occupants were specifically targeted but continue to investigate.’

Nearly three weeks after the grizzly murders, few answers have come out despite the father of one of the victims stating that the killer was ‘sloppy’ and left a ‘mess’ of evidence behind.