Cops investigating the brutal murder of four University of Idaho students are investigating 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 reporter noted, also involved “two people stabbed in their home in the middle of the night, with a long knife, no suspects at this stage”, much like the off-campus quadruple murder in Moscow on November 13.
“We’re looking at all avenues and we have other agencies coming 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 3 a.m., police said at the time – with their family offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest.
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 her life,” a family friend told 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.
Police said the four of them likely slept on the second and third floors of the house. Two of their roommates and a dog belonging to one of the roommates were spared 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 claims 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.