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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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One of the slain University of Idaho students who reportedly had more brutal injuries may have "enraged" the killer, according to a former FBI profiler.
Mystery still surrounds the killings three weeks ago of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were found stabbed in an off-campus rental house by police in Moscow, Idaho.
Police, who have yet to name a suspect in the November 13 slayings, said they believe it was a "targeted" attack. But amid growing public frustration, they have revealed few details about their ongoing investigation.
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Earlier this week, it was reported that Goncalves had injuries that were "significantly more brutal" than Mogen's.
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The friends were killed in the same room on the house's third floor, prompting speculation that Goncalves was the killer's target. But Gregg McCrary, a former FBI profiler, told NewsNation that may not be the case.
"We have to be careful that we don't overinterpret the information," McCrary said in the interview.
One theory is that Goncalves' "excessive" wounds indicate she was the target. But McCrary said he worked on other cases of multiple murders where the victim subjected to the most violence was not the target.
"It was the person who had put up the most resistance and enraged the killer, so...the killer inflicted more wounds on that person, even though that person wasn't specifically targeted," he said.
"So we could be dealing with anything like that. So it's important not to get tunnel vision on a given hypothesis, important to have multiple competing hypotheses and then let the evidence sort that out and support one and maybe dismiss the other."
In a news release on Monday, the Moscow Police Department responded to "statements and speculation" about the case, including victim injuries.
"With the active criminal investigation, law enforcement has not released additional facts to the family or the public," the police department said. "We recognize the frustration this causes and that speculation proliferates in the absence of facts. However, we firmly believe speculation and unvetted information is a disservice to the victims, their families, and our community.
"The Moscow Police Department is committed to providing information whenever possible but not at the expense of compromising the investigation and prosecution," the release said.
According to investigators, Goncalves and Mogen went to a local bar, stopped at a food truck and then got a ride home at around 1:56 a.m.
Chapin and Kernodle were seen at the Sigma Chi fraternity house, just a short walk from the rental house, and made it home around 1:45 a.m. On Monday, police appealed for information about the couple's whereabouts between about 9 p.m. on November 12 and 1:45 a.m. on November 13.
Police have also said that two roommates who were in the house at the time of the killings slept through the attack.
The two had also been out in Moscow that evening but returned home by 1 a.m. In the morning, police said they called friends to come over because they believed one of the victims found on the second floor had passed out and wasn't waking up. One of their cellphones was used to make a 911 call requesting aid at 11:58 a.m., and responding officers located the slain students on the second and third floors.
Police have said the roommates and people who were in the residence when the 911 call was made are not believed to be involved in the crime.
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