Parents are ordering deadbolts, teens are asking for guns and the streets are empty in Moscow. There is a killer - or killers - on the loose, more than three weeks after four college students were murdered in their beds.

Locals tell The Independent’s Sheila Flynn how fear is deepening as time goes by without any arrests and with little information from police.

Residents this week are getting increasingly frustrated with the perceived lack of progress - and clear lack of information - about the investigation into the four students’ murders.

The uncertainty is fuelling fear, which in turn fuels the very rumours that authorities and victims’ families are trying to quash.

“The fact that they came out and told us this was a targeted event, and then to backpedal that and say, ‘Well, you know, stay vigilant and stay aware,’ and then have [Moscow Police Chief James] Fry tell everybody that, ‘Well, you know, we just don’t know ...’ From one message into another, it just makes everybody so uneasy,” says Matt Johnson, 42, who owns Moscow Tattoo Company.

The Independent’s Sheila Flynn has the story:

Police investigating the murder of four University of Idaho students offered an update on the one-month anniversary of the brutal stabbings.

The captain said the case was far from “going cold” and that the department continues to receive a good amount of viable tips every day. He urged the public to only listen to information made available through the department’s official channels.

The footage captured what appears to be a white sedan driving along Highway 8 at 3.45am on 13 November.

Investigators previously revealed that University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were stabbed to death in their beds at around 3am or 4am that morning.

The gas station is just a four-minute drive from the student rental home on King Road where the murders took place.

For the last week, police have asked for the public’s help in tracking down the occupant or occupants of a white Hyundai Elantra in connection to the case.

The Independent‘s Rachel Sharp has the story:

“We have literally an army of analysts sorting through videos that have been submitted to the FBI tip website,” Moscow Police Department Captain Roger Lanier said. “We’ve been trying to use those videos to garner new information. There is hours and hours of video.”

Moscow Police Department said that they had found out through interviews that Goncalves had complained of a stalker.

“We obtained information through some of our interviews that Kaylee had made some comments about having a stalker, so that’s where that came from,” Captain Lanier said.

“So far we have not been able to corroborate that, but we are not done looking at that piece of information.”

It marked perhaps the most substantial update in the more than three weeks since the investigation started.

Detectives did not reveal whether the owner of the white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra is believed to be a suspect but said that “the occupant(s) of [the] vehicle may have critical information to share regarding this case.” The licence plate is unknown.

The car was “in the immediate area” of the rental home on King Road in the early hours of 13 November. The murders are thought to have taken place between 3am and 4am.

“If you know of or own a vehicle matching this description, or know of anyone who may have been driving this vehicle on the days preceding or the day of the murders, please forward that information to the Tip Line,” the department said in a statement.

Despite more details becoming available in the two weeks since the murders took place, key pieces of what happened in the early morning hours of 13 November remain missing.

Police have revealed the victims’ last steps, yet the timeline becomes blurry as the second part of the night of the murders progresses.

The pair walked straight down Main Street to a red brick building that used to host the now-defunct Garden Lounge; a favourite food truck, Grub Wandering Kitchen - fondly called Grub Truck by its many local fans – often parks outside on Main Street.

Goncalves and Mogen ordered, laughed and chatted with friends as they got their pasta carbonara; according to police, they got a lift home from a “private party” and returned to King Road around 1.56am.

Kernodle and Chapin returned to King Road at around 1.45am. The young couple had gone to a party across the road at Sigma Chi.

The other two roommates at King Road – who have still not been named by authorities – had gotten home first, around 1am, and fallen asleep, according to police.

A timeline of the events

Mogen and Goncalves both made multiple calls to the same number around an hour after they got home.

Goncalves’ sister said the unanswered calls were placed to her ex-boyfriend, who’d dated her sister for years before they amicably split, still sharing a dog named Murphy. He has been ruled out as a suspect.

Authorities believe a killer or killers fatally stabbed Chapin, Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen between 3am and 4am.

Their bodies weren’t found until nearly nine hours later, around noon on 13 November.

Each individual so far linked to the murder investigation has now been ruled out as a potential suspect.

Goncalves’ former long-term boyfriend, with whom she shares a pet dog Murphy, is also not being considered a suspect.

In a twist on 6 November, however, Moscow Police Chief James Fry told Fox News that “cleared” suspects could be reinterviewed.

Two weeks on from the murders, the killer or killers remains at large with police admitting that they still don’t have any suspects on their radar and with not a single arrest yet made in the case.

Officials are exploring the possibility that there is more than one perpetrator – but have given no further update on whether the investigation is leading them to or from that theory.

The lack of substantial information from police has led to rampant speculation by experts unaffiliated with the case as well as internet sleuths – confusing the true facts about the investigation.

Investigators have admitted that they are stumped by the killings in the small, notoriously safe college town and still have no suspects or persons of interest on their radar.

For a month now, officials have given little in the way of updates on the case – this silence and absence of information only serving to trigger an avalanche of online rumours and conspiracy theories among internet sleuths.

With each piece of information revealed or theory debunked, dozens more questions emerge.