Plenty of Reasons

 Early in November, the nation was gripped by the drama coming out of Moscow, ID, where four students were killed in their beds.  The nation wants answers, and the parents want closure, and I understand all that.

Megan Fox looks at four reasons why the police have not publicly named a suspect or made an arrest.  

1) The crime scene is amazingly complex.  I have spent hours doing crime scene for a single murder in a fairly pristine crime scene.  I cannot imagine what a four-murder scene would be like to work.

2) Small town police departments don't often see this type of crime.  This isn't a criticism of the police in Moscow, but the simple fact is that they don't work this type of crime very often.  They know the theory, but putting it into practice takes experience.  They want to get it right, so they called in help, from the Idaho State Police and the FBI.  This is common practice.

3) Thanksgiving happened.  Moscow is a small, college town.  Many students left town after the murders, and the Thanksgiving break put many more out of town.  Investigation like this need basic, shoe-leather work.  Knocking on doors, taking statements, interviewing people.  When everyone leaves town, it gets more complex and slows everything down.

4) Don't let the killer know what the police know.  You don't want to publish a profile or release a name until you have the suspect in cuffs.  Save it for the arrest warrant. The last thing the investigators want now is more publicity.  There will be plenty of time for that later.

 “For the sake of the families who just lost four beloved children on the cusp of their adult lives, this is a developing story that should be handled with extreme care. Already, just nineteen days into the investigation, the parents are starting to question the forthrightness of the police and their emotions are raw going into the first holiday season without their children. It would be helpful for them if the true crime die-hards didn’t fan the flames of upset for clicks and views. I’ve spent the day going over the facts of this case and to me, it’s looking like very good police work in a very difficult situation.”

They are going to catch this guy.  It's just a matter of time.  I once worked a murder that took 22months between the deed and the arrest, then another year before the conviction.  We all have to be patient.