Figures seen walking in background of video taken near Idaho crime scene
While authorities have dismissed the significance of bodycam video showing cops stopping suspected underage drinkers on the day of the Idaho student murders, eagle-eyed online sleuths have noticed a detail they may have missed.
Several shadowy figures can be seen walking in the background of the footage, which was shot around 2:50 a.m. Nov. 13, about a tenth of a mile from the home where the four University of Idaho students were murdered, Fox News reported.
Three students who were stopped by plainclothes officers were not involved in the brutal crime and the footage was of no evidentiary value to investigators, police have stressed.
But online sleuths have noticed people walking two houses down from the off-campus King Road home where Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and his girlfriend Xana Kernodle, 20, were killed between 3 and 4 a.m., according to the news outlet.
The bodycam clip is stamped 3:12 a.m.
It was unclear if local law enforcement or the FBI have identified or interviewed the people captured walking in the dismissed videos, accord to Fox News Digital.
The news outlet said it has made several inquiries about the images but that it had not received a response.
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“During the timeframe of the murders, there were people in the general vicinity,” crime vlogger Olivia Vitale told Fox News Digital.
“Between the people with law enforcement and the people in the background of the bodycam footage, that is about half a dozen people. The importance is they may have witnessed something unbeknownst to them,” added Vitale, who has more than a million followers on TikTok.
Pat Diaz, a former Miami-Dade homicide detective-turned-private investigator, concurred with the online sleuths’ assessment.
“If they haven’t yet, they need to locate them ASAP. That is a great lead. Someone knows something,” Diaz told Fox News Digital.
Joseph Giacalone, a professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired NYPD sergeant, told the outlet that investigators can also use cell tower data to track which phones were in the area at the time.
“They can see what phone numbers are attached to a specific cell site,” Giacalone told the outlet. “Since we know there are two cops standing there who probably have cellphones, they can narrow down other people within that general vicinity.”
When asked by Fox if any search warrants have been served outside the King Road home and whether there are unnamed persons of interest, Moscow police spokesman Robbie Johnson said: “That is not information that is being released at this time.”
On Monday, police Capt. Roger Lanier said investigators were sifting through “hours and hours and hours” of video.
“Those videos are from all over town, gas stations and specifically the area around King Road. It does take a lot of time,” he said.
“We have literally an army of analysts who have been sorting through videos that have been submitted through the FBI.gov Moscow upload site,” Lanier added.
