Idaho murders: Forensics expert questions ‘urgency’ in removing victims’ personal belongings from crime scene

MOSCOW, Idaho — Just hours after Moscow, Idaho, police personnel removed some of the victims’ personal belongings from the crime scene, law enforcement and forensics experts began weighing in about the decision to do so, with some warning there’s no turning back. 

“I worked as a death investigator for a long, long time. It’s important for families to have something to hold on to – they need those things,” said longtime forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan. “But, you don’t want to do anything that is going to be to the detriment of the case. Because you cannot predict what is going to happen months from now, a year from now, when this person is caught and they go to trial.”

On Wednesday, Moscow Police Chief James Fry and other law enforcement officers packed some, but not all, of the victims’ belongings from inside the crime scene at 1122 King Road. 

More than three weeks ago, on Nov. 13, University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, both 20, and Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21, were discovered fatally stabbed on the second and third floors of the home. 

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The case remains unsolved, and the murder weapon has not been recovered, police have said.

Officials previously noted that the items that were removed from the crime scene “are no longer needed for the investigation” and would be taken to a secure location for the family to collect. 

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Morgan, one of the nation’s foremost forensics investigators, told Fox News Digital Thursday he felt police had released the items from the crime scene too soon. 

Speaking generally, Morgan explained that an offender who is using a knife to assault or kill someone will leave remnants of “cast off” while carrying out the stabbing motions. 

“As they withdraw [the knife], droplets of blood travel through the air,” he explained. “Now, sometimes these droplets can’t be fully appreciated. You can’t see them necessarily. And that droplet may deposit itself on just some kind of arbitrary item in a room.”

But once the item has been removed from the spot where it sat during the course of the crime, he said, “you can never go back and place that item in its original…