Idaho Killer Was 'Random Stranger Like Gainesville Ripper'—Criminologist

The killer or killers behind the murders of four University of Idaho college students in November could be "a random stranger," according to what criminologist Dr. Casey Jordan told Dr. Phil C. McGraw in his signature show.

Talking about the high-profile case during Dr. Phil, Jordan—a professor of justice and law administration at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury—said that she initially thought the killer or killers must have been someone known to the victims, but has changed her mind since.

"To go in, get out, take the knife with him, and leave no trace [...] I would have guessed this was inner-circle, somebody who knew these girls—I think Kaylee or Maddie were probably the target if [the attack] was indeed targeted—and I would have thought [police] would have a suspect by now, that they would have an arrest by now," Jordan said.

"As time goes on, I am more and more convinced that this could be a random stranger. Something like the Gainesville Ripper that we saw in Florida 30 years ago. As time passes, the odds of that being true do increase."

The so-called Gainesville Ripper was Danny Rolling, a serial killer who stabbed to death five students in the north-central Florida city over four days in August 1990. All victims lived on the same road, but attended different universities: four were University of Florida students, while one was a student at Santa Fe Community College.

Rolling was arrested in early September 1990, thanks to a tip from the public. While he was arrested for a supermarket robbery committed 10 days after the bodies of the first two students were found, Rolling confessed to killing a total of eight people, including the five college students. He also confessed to raping several of his victims before murdering them.

In 1994, Rolling was sentenced to death, and in October 2006, he was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison for the murder of the five students.

With the exception of Manny Taboada, who was Tracy Paules' roommate, the five students murdered by Rolling were all young women. The other victims' names are Sonja Larson, Christina Powell and Christa Hoyt.

Unlike the case of the five murdered Gainesville students, Moscow police said there was no sign of sexual assault on the four University of Idaho college students' bodies.

The four—Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle—were found dead in a rental home in King Street on Sunday, November 13. The coroner found that all four victims were likely asleep when they were attacked, and some presented defensive wounds.

Investigations into the high-profile case have entered their fourth week now without police naming a suspect. Police officers have also not found a weapon yet.

Moscow police is looking to talk to the occupant of a 2011 to 2013 Hyundai Elantra without a license plate that was spotted in the immediate area of the King Street residence in the early hours of November 13.