The mother of one of the four University of Idaho students slain in a brutal stabbing attack last month said she fears the case could go unsolved as investigators still work to identify a suspect more than four weeks after the attack.
"I can’t help but not," Kristi Goncalves, the mother of 21-year-old victim Kaylee Goncalves, said of thinking that the case could go unsolved. "I mean, in all honesty, that is a possibility. There’s a lot of unsolved murders."
In an interview with TODAY that aired on Dec. 15, Goncalves said the state of the investigation has her feeling "left in the dark."
"It’s sleepless nights. It’s feeling sick to your stomach," she said. "It's so many emotions that I’ve never, ever endured in my life, ever."
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Police said earlier this week investigators are working around the clock to review tips and submissions from the public to try to find the person suspected of killing Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle in a residence near the school's Moscow, Idaho, campus on Nov. 13.
Authorities believe the four victims were killed in the early morning hours while they were sleeping. All four victims had multiple stab wounds, and some had defensive wounds.
Goncalves recounted the chaos she experienced on the day she found out that her daughter and three of her friends were killed.
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"There was nothing you could do. Absolutely nothing," she said. "We were just running around for hours just not knowing what was going on, what happened, because we found out by people calling us. And the sheriff showed up about three hours later."
Robbie Johnson, a public information officer for the Moscow Police Department, told NBC News earlier this week the case is not growing cold.
“We’re in a really good place in this investigation where we have a lot of leads, a lot of places to go as far as investigation,” Johnson said. “We have a lot more to do, but we’ve collected a lot of evidence, and we’re continuing to move forward with that.”
Last week, police said they were interested in speaking with the occupant or occupants of a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra that was in the "immediate area" of the students’ residence during the early morning hours of Nov. 13.
Police have said the person or people inside of the vehicle may have "critical information to share regarding this case."
Goncalves said she and her family support the police and the work they are doing to solve the crime, but that she and her attorney have been critical of how the department is communicating with the families of the victims.
When asked if she found out about the white vehicle through a press release, Goncalves said she did, and that police did not even send it directly to her.
"My first thought just started being like, how long have they had this information? Where do they get this information? Was it on a camera?" she said. "The United States just found out the same time I did."
Goncalves said her family met with authorities on Monday evening, emphasizing they should not be finding out news through press releases, and that despite bringing five pages of questions in, they "came out with not much."
The Moscow Police Department declined to comment to NBC News on the family's allegations regarding communication.
Steve Goncalves, Kaylee's father, has also expressed frustration over what he called poor communication from the police department and from the coroner, Cathy Mabbutt.
"I got outraged by them not just coming out and saying this was a woman or a man because they should know by the amount of strength it took to deliver the injuries," he said in an interview with Fox News, adding the coroner told him the victims had "big open wounds."
Kristi Goncalves told NBC News the coroner also told their 17-year-old daughter graphic details of her sister's death over the phone.
"She asked, 'Are you sure you want to know this?' And my daughter, thinking that she did, for whatever reason, said 'Yes.' And she proceeded to tell her," she said.
The Latah County Coroner's Office did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
More than a week into the search for details surrounding the car, Goncalves said it is becoming harder to remain optimistic, but that the news the investigation is continuing gives her hope.
"We’re a month in and that’s all we got," she said. "I have to have hope, I have to have faith. I have to trust God that it’s in the right hands, and that the right people are doing it — the right people are leaving the investigation. I have no choice."
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
