Idaho Murders Updates: A University of Idaho history professor is suing a cyber-sleuth for defamation after the would-be detective claimed that she was connected to the campus killings last month.
Characters on TikTok Ashley Guillard charged Rebecca Scofield, an associate professor and the head of the history department at the university in Moscow, Idaho, with killing four students. A number of videos that attempted to connect the teacher with the killings were posted to the platform, according to the lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Wendy J. Olson, the lawyer for Professor Scofield, said: “The statements made about Professor Scofield are false, plain and simple.” Even worse, these false statements put the Professor’s and her family’s safety in danger.
The statement continued, “They also exacerbate the trauma that the victims’ families are already going through and undercut law enforcement efforts to identify those accountable so that the affected parties’ families and the public can receive closure.” Professor Scofield sent Ms. Guillard cease-and-desist letters twice, but she persisted in making false statements despite knowing they were untrue.
Thus, it became necessary to file this lawsuit to safeguard Professor Scofield’s reputation and safety.
In a video response posted on Friday, Guillard declared, “I am not stopping,” and questioned why Scofield needed three attorneys to sue her “if she’s so innocent.”
On November 13, between three and four in the morning, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were fatally stabbed inside a three-story house. According to police, the victims were discovered on the second and third floors while the victims’ two female roommates on the first floor slept through the assault.
According to the lawsuit, Guillard began posting on November 24 and accused Scofield of being “involved in a relationship with one of the murdered students, K.G. [Kaylee Goncalves]” in the posts.
According to the lawsuit, Guillard “posted six TikTok videos to her account on or around November 28, 2022, in which she falsely claimed that Professor Scofield, the chair of the history department, was accountable for the deaths of the four students.” “It is falsely claimed in two of the TikToks that Professor Scofield gave the order to kill the four students. In three of the TikToks, it was either falsely implied or stated outright that Professor Scofield had dated K.G., one of the murdered students.”
According to the Idaho Statesman, Scofield began working for the university in 2016 and assumed the role of department chair in 2021. According to the lawsuit, Scofield had never taught or interacted with any of the victims when the killings occurred while he was in Portland visiting friends.
According to the complaint, “She fears for her life and the lives of her family members.” “She has incurred expenses, such as those related to installing security cameras and a security system at her home. She worries that Guillard’s defamatory remarks could inspire someone to harm her or her family.”
When it comes to the murders, there have been numerous rumours and theories that have spread, and Moscow Police have yet to identify a suspect. The police have even added a section called “Rumor control” to their routine press releases in an effort to dispel online rumours about the murders, the victims, or potential perpetrators.
In a press release on December 9, officials stated that “[a]nyone engaging in threats or harassment, whether in person, online, or otherwise, needs to understand that they could be subjecting themselves to criminal charges.” They also cautioned that law enforcement officers have been monitoring rumours on social media.