Sleuths spin Web of ‘lies’
Online harass of ex-con over Idaho slays
The wife of a convicted killer in Idaho says he had nothing to do with the murders of four college students there — despite what Internet sleuths are claiming.
James Curtis Leonard’s name has popped up on online forums and in YouTube videos as amateur de- tectives attempt to solve the case of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death at their home in the town of Moscow last month.
But Leonard — who was found guilty of shooting dead a man outside his Genesee home in 2007 — “had nothing to do” with the college slayings, his wife insisted to The Daily Mail.
“There’s a lot of crazy stuff going on, but my husband had nothing to do with what happened up there,” she said. “People on the Internet are trying to pin the murders on him,” she said. “I had to get off that social-media s--t.”
Police said Leonard, 39, is not connected to the student slayings.
Leonard — who in 2009 copped to involuntary manslaughter as part of a plea deal for a sentence of 15 years’ probation — was arrested on Tuesday and held on $100,000 bail for allegedly beating and stalking his wife, who has come to his defense.
She said she has filed a police report over the harassment that has come from the armchair investigators’ accusations.
“I told police that we are tired of all the threats, harassment and allegations,” she told the Mail.
“Our family has been in danger because of all these false statements being made on the Internet.”
His wife said Leonard — who claimed he acted in self-defense in the 2007 case — was home with her when Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were killed in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, according to the Mail.
The couple lives in a trailer park about a mile from the scene of the murders.
His past crimes are “not linked at all” to the quadruple slaying, Leonard’s wife told the outlet. “This is really pissing me off.”
Nearly a month after four students were killed, police have yet to name a suspect, which has fueled online speculation.
Amateur detectives have become so intense that local police threatened to charge some with harassment if they continue.