Saturday, November 19, 2022

In Strong Similarity To Perugia, Student Deaths Send US Campus Town Reeling

Posted by Peter Quennell


Overview

Moscow is a campus town of the University of Idaho about 300 miles due east of Seattle.

It is not dis-similar to Perugia in having a huge student population (over 10,000) residing in a town with a total population only three times that size.

The killing by stabbing of four students may have been done while they were sleeping, though each fought back. Two other students in the apartment building were not even awoken. Someone else some hours later, their identity not yet made public, made the first police call.

For several days, the local police police acted very secretively. After they reversed themselves and announced they could not guarantee anyone’s safety, thousands of students poured out. As in Perugia, some may never return to that town again.

FBI from four offices are finally on the job. The new analysis below is a good one. More information pending. These are the house coordinates to cut and paste for Google Earth.

46°43’19.35"N 117° 0’38.60"W

[Mentions of “greek” below is explained here]

Posted by Peter Quennell on 11/19/22 at 10:18 AM in

Comments

As in the case of Meredith Kercher’s family, the four victims’ families will be going through total hell at this point. 

At least one obvious difference: although it is often claimed in the hostile commentary that Perugia police tried to wing it, Federal police in the form of crime processors were on the scene within hours.

Bear in mind that Italy essentially has only two police forces (regular at national and local levels) and carabinieri. US police efficiency suffers immensely in having EIGHTEEN THOUSAND police forces. Each one with its own rules and procedures and training.

Unlike in Italy, American police payscales vary enormously. Police in the wealthy coastal areas on average make more than twice as much as small-town cops in the center, though costs of living also are way higher and there are more shootings.

Idaho is the state where Greg Hampikian lives. Anyone betting that he won’t be brought in?

Posted by Peter Quennell on 11/19/22 at 10:52 AM | #

Sunday. A police press conference is scheduled for 3:00pm Pacific time. It may run live on YouTube channels if you would like to tune in.

In isolated parts of the US only about 1/2 of all murders are ever solved; let’s hope this is not one. From what we can see of it, the investigation is looking large & impressive, but the online chat is often weak and shoot-from-the-hip.

Here is an okay Court TV update:  https://tinyurl.com/5evnp87a

Some of the DNA etc processing will take the normal weeks. Many skipped town so FBI and local law enforcement are tracking some of them down.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 11/20/22 at 04:37 PM | #

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It’s just announced that an arrest has been made, six weeks after the crime. Bryan Kohberger (28) was taken into custody at 119 Lamsden Drive, Albrightsville, in Pennsylvania about 90 minutes drive west of New York City.

https://tinyurl.com/bdnmxtzu

A police press conference is scheduled at the Moscow Idaho Courthouse at 4 pm (two and a half hours from now). 

Media are digging hard, and new headlines are appearing almost every minute now. Our special interest here is in the devastating effect the killing of four students has had on the Moscow, Idaho campus town, remarkably similar to what Perugia went through. 

Kohberger is a post-graduate criminology student. He was studying for a PhD at a campus of the University of Washington State (not Knox’s UW) just 15 minutes away from the murder scene.

Did he even know any of those he allegedly killed? There is some weird info suggesting he maybe did not: https://tinyurl.com/yrn59vcr

A mental health counsellor, Melissa Kohberger, lives at the same Lamsden Drive address. His sister, judging by an image online. Did she not smell a rat?

***

Added: the local prosecutor and several police chiefs at the press conference spoke very precisely, and each emphasized the carefulness of their work, which promises well for the trial. Most social media was of help. Extradition to Idaho could take a few days.

The FBI and Pennsylvania police had been watching Kohlberger for at least three days while the arrest warrant was being readied. No mention of the sister; odd if she didn’t pick up any bad vibes.

***

Added. Both Perugia and Moscow were seeing students depart by the hundreds after the discovery of the victims; there was immense pressure on police in unfamiliar situations.

1. How the Perugia police attempted calming as described in Dr Mignini’s book:

  ...the attribution to me of the unexpected and startling words of Perugia Police Chief Arturo De Felice, who on the morning of 6 November 2007, that of the arrest, said that the case had been resolved with unparalleled speed.

This attracted heated criticisms of myself and of officers of the Mobile Police. This was one of the foundation lies of the Friends Of Amanda lobby, and in particular of the self-proclaimed “insightful” (former) FBI agent Moore and his unruly wife Michelle, who repeated them over and over again. p274

Two of the three were locked up. Guede was in Germany. De Felice was not fully wrong, or putting anyone at risk with his statement.

But the blustering Steve Moore never, never tells anyone - probably does not even know it - that the Perugia investigations actually went on for another eight months, with courts up to the Supreme Court repeatedly reviewing all actions, publishing the growing list of evidence, and insisting the three remain locked up.

2. How the Moscow Idaho police attempted calming as described in the Daily Mail.

[Monday] Moscow Mayor Art Bettge said the killings were a ‘crime of passion,’ only to later backtrack. He said that theory was one of several under consideration.

[Tuesday] Moscow Police called the killings an ‘isolated, targeted attack’ and added that there was ‘no imminent threat to the community at large.’

[Wednesday] Fry angered locals by backtracking on an earlier claim there was no danger to the wider community. He warned them to ‘please stay vigilant.’

Angry locals had a point. The ‘isolated, targeted attack’ and ‘no imminent threat to the community at large’ claims were simply made up with nothing to support them. Nobody was locked up. Residents COULD have still have been at risk.

We know about Kohberger’s incriminating DNA and the car. No more evidence will be revealed till Kohberger is back in Idaho, and - the opposite of Italy - the full scope won’t be revealed before trial.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 12/30/22 at 01:43 PM | #

Idaho case. Kohberger was flown back to Idaho yesterday, a long slow trip in a single-engine Pennsylvania police aircraft which had to land twice for fuel and bathroom breaks.

https://tinyurl.com/264juzfv

Today’s court proceedings including the judge’s reading of five charges were televised in full on media YouTube channels and Court TV. Here is the full police affidavit which led to the charges and denial of bail.

https://tinyurl.com/22btpmcc

Interesting for us that Idaho follows the Italy model: the court speaks only through its documents and sessions.

One thing that stands out in systems terms, talked about by the Pennsylvania State Police in their conference after the hearing to hold him, was the tactic of massive resources thrown into nabbing him at his parents’ house in the wee hours.

At least 50 officers were involved, their mission was kept secret even from them until just before the raid began, and every window and door in the house was left broken.

No suicide or hostage attempts were happening on their watch!

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/05/23 at 04:20 PM | #

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