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Man Arrested In Connection With Murders Of Four University of Idaho Students

   DailyWire.com
Flowers, notes and stuffed animals sit along the University of Idaho's entrance sign on Pullman Road in Moscow to honor the four students stabbed to death in an off-campus home on Nov. 13.
Angela Palermo/The Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

A SWAT team arrested a criminology grad student in Pennsylvania Friday in connection with the Nov. 13 murders of four University of Idaho students, according to reports.

The 28-year-old man was arrested Friday morning in the Pocono Mountains in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, some 2,400 miles from the crime scene, ABC News reported. Law enforcement sources told the outlet that authorities have known who they were looking for and had tracked the suspect to Pennsylvania. Once found, a SWAT team entered the building where the suspect was staying and took him into custody.

The suspect is reportedly a grad student studying criminology at Washington State University. He is from Albrightsville, PA., according to reports. The Daily Wire is not naming the suspect in keeping with a policy to deprive mass killers of the notoriety they often crave.

Police in Moscow, Idaho, have not confirmed the arrest, but have announced a press conference for Friday afternoon to “give an update of the ongoing investigation.”

In a press release on Thursday, police maintained that no suspect or suspects have been identified, and that a cleaning crew would be coming in to clean the off-campus residence where the crime occurred.

“Starting Friday morning we’re going to be bringing in a professional cleaning crew to go to the residence,” Moscow Police Chief James Fry said in a video statement Thursday, according to ABC News. “Part of the reason we’re doing that is because of the biohazards, as well as chemicals that were used during the investigation.”

On Friday, an unnamed man was arraigned on unknown charges in connection to the quadruple homicide, local NBC-affiliate KHQ reported.

As recently as Thursday, police were still looking for the occupants of a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra that was seen in the immediate area of the off-campus residence where the murders took place in the early morning hours of November 13. The occupants have not been named as suspects, but police do believe they may have critical information regarding the case.

An abandoned white Hyundai was found in Eugene, Oregon, but it is still unclear whether the vehicle is connected to the Idaho murders.

“We are definitely aware of the vehicle and investigators are currently working on it,” Moscow Police Department spokesman Aaron Snell told Fox News last week after the abandoned vehicle was found in Oregon. Police in Eugene confirmed to the outlet that they provided the Moscow Police Department with information about the damaged Hyundai.

Police responded to a call around noon on November 13 about an unconscious person at an off-campus residence. When they arrived, they found the four students stabbed to death.

It’s been more than a month since Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Ethan Chapin, 20; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Madison Mogen, 21, were murdered – and police still have not named any suspects or found the murder weapon.

Authorities have said they do not believe that the two surviving roommates – who apparently did not hear the murders take place – are involved in the crimes. They also do not believe a man observed in surveillance video outside a food truck visited by Goncalves and Mogen the night of the murders was involved, nor was a driver who drove the women home.

Police are still looking for any outside surveillance video taken between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on November 13 – the morning of the murders – from local businesses and residences in the area. They’ve requested all videos, even if there doesn’t appear to be any motion in them. Police are also asking for any tips or surveillance video about “any observed suspicious behavior” on the night of the murders, particularly in the areas where the students had been.

Police still contend that the attack was “targeted” but do not know whether “the target was the residence or if it was the occupants.”

This article has been updated.

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