Parents are ordering deadbolts, teens are asking for guns and the streets are empty in Moscow, locals tell The Independent’s Sheila Flynn.

Sheila writes: “Moscow Lock Shop can’t keep up with the demand for deadbolts.”

A student estimated that about 50 per cent of the student body left campus before the Thanksgiving break, while a local tattoo shop owner told The Independent that he is offering to check people’s homes before they close their doors for the night.

Read Sheila’s full coverage of the case that has stumped police and left locals desperate for answers:

While the public and grieving families have grown frustrated over the lack of information being released and the conspiracy theories fueled by internet sleuths, respectively, a retired NYPD sergeant told Fox that Moscow Police have revealed plenty.

“Investigators have given out too much information,” Joseph Giacalone, a 20-year police veteran and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice told the network.

Mr Giacalone went on to criticise Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt, who appeared in several interviews with media outlets across the nation and divulged what Mr Giacalone described as speculation.

The Independent’s Andrea Blanco has the story:

Jeremy Reagan, a third-year law student who lives near the scene of the murders that shocked the university town of Moscow last week, told Fox News that the victims would often host self-contained gatherings and added that people went in and out of the house “pretty frequently.”

“There were parties that were kind of loud,” Mr Reagan said.

“As I would take my dog in and out to go to the bathroom [and] I would see people in the windows almost every night, probably four or five nights a week ... it was kind of a party house but then again this whole neighbourhood is a party neighbourhood.”

After University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen were brutally murdered, their loved ones have tried to navigate grieve amid rampant rumours about the circumstances surrounding the killings.

“All the noise out there is really harming the families,” a friend of Kristi and Steve Goncalves, Kaylee’s parents, told The Independent. “And it’s taking the police down trails that are not real and taking them away from the ones that are.”

Police have issued similar pleas updating their social media posts repeatedly to address specific inaccuracies circulating.

They shot down reports that the skinning of a nearby pet dog was related to the murders; then they said a report of a man waiting in a woman’s car was “unfounded.”

The Independent’s Sheila Flynn has the story:

Following a press conference on Wednesday marked by a lack of notable developments, the Reddit subchannels MoscowMurders and IdahoMurders have amassed more than 43,000 members who discuss the case on a daily basis.

In the forums, people from across the country are weighing in on the investigation into the slayings of Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen inside their off-campus rental home in Moscow.

Some posts contain information that is entirely speculative and has already been debunked by authorities, while other users have reminded that police are doing their jobs and the case is “not a 60-minute CSI crime show.”

The Independent has the story:

“There [were] other friends that had arrived,” Moscow police Chief James Fry said at a press conference last week.

“Honestly, I’m not quite sure [how many] at this time.”

The call originated from the cellphone of one of the victims, which was passed around as several individuals spoke with the dispatcher.

In the call, it was reported that there was “an unconscious individual.” Police have said that the two surviving roommates ‘summoned friends” to the house because they believed one of the victims had passed out.

The University of Idaho will host a vigil at 5pm local time on 30 November for the slain students, who were murdered in the early morning hours of 13 November.

The vigil was originally slated to be held last week but was postponed after students fled the town, fearful that a murderer is still on the loose.

With no arrests made and no suspects named 12 days into the investigation, it remains to be seen if terrified students will return after the Thanksgiving break.

All four victims are believed to have been killed at around 3am or 4am on the morning of 13 November.

The attack was brutal with each victim stabbed multiple times.

Police were not called to the home until 11.58am on Sunday.

Police said that the roommates slept through what happened and when they woke up on the Sunday, they called some unidentified friends to the home because they believed that one of the victims on the second floor “had passed out and was not waking up”.

After the friends arrived on the scene, one person in the group made the 911 call from the cellphone of one of the roommates.

In the call, the individual reported an “unconscious individual”.

The roommates and the unidentified friends were still on the scene when officers arrived.

It is unclear what the roommates and “other friends” had discovered prior to placing the call and what led them to describe a victim as merely “unconscious”.

Following Moscow PD’s urging to the public for evidence submissions on the portals made available, more than 260 digital tips have been received, the department said on Friday.

“Detectives are also seeking additional tips and surveillance video of any unusual behavior on the night of November 12th into the early hours of November 13th while Kaylee and Madison were in downtown Moscow and while Ethan and Xana were at the Sigma Chi house,” the department said in a press release.

Police have asked residents of the area to submit video even if it does not appear suspicious to them.

Idaho police have confirmed that an unharmed dog was found at the crime scene of the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students.

The Moscow Police Department released a statement on Monday saying that officers responding to the fatal stabbings at 1122 King Road on 13 November located a dog at the residence.

The pet was unharmed and turned over to Animal Service, police said. It has since been released to a “responsible party.”

The dog – Murphy – was shared by Kaylee Goncalves and her former long-term boyfriend.

It was not disclosed whether police believe that the killer, who is still at large, spared the dog’s life or never came into contact with it.