Good afternoon everyone.
Thank you for joining us here for Crime
2 News 1st at 4:00 and Whitney Ward.
Well, tonight Snow has covered
much of the inland northwest and
as temperatures continue to drop
it will create the possibility for
some pretty icy roads out there.
So we begin tonight with our team
coverage as we track this storm.
Our Kyle Simchuk is in the storm
tracker right now as we look
at current road conditions.
First though,
we want to go straight to
our chief meteorologist,
Jeremy Lague as we talk about
what is headed here already
and what's still to come.
It's a big one,
especially as we head into the next.
Couple of days, big story here.
Notice it says Wednesday,
but our Arctic air is in place right now.
I always say you need three ingredients.
We're heading into the holidays
so baking is a good comparison.
You have the wrong ingredients
and your cookies are going
to turn out flat fall apart,
everything you name it.
I don't really know much
about making cookies,
but what I do know about is weather
and you need the right ingredients put
together for the right amount of time.
So baking is a pretty good analogy.
Today we got a little bit of snow.
What we were missing was a good chunk
of moisture and a bigger storm.
But as we head through the next couple
of days we actually have that in place.
Right now we sit at 23 degrees,
so it is cold.
That cold air is a big part of getting
an incoming storm to do its thing.
Notice a little bit of snow
works its way into North Idaho,
this storm kind of a north.
Idaho event,
we got a little bit here
in Eastern Washington,
but that little bit and it's relative is
really all we're going to get for now.
Notice a little bit more,
it's kind of sweeps the region
as the storm moves its way out.
Most of that stays in Idaho.
Tomorrow is kind of our dry day
and then look what sets up over
the Cascades by tomorrow night.
That is our next storm system.
That next storm system already has
winter storm watches in place.
Those winter storm watches remain in place.
For about now. Well, OK, hold on.
This one is our winter weather
advisory for today.
Sorry, mixed up my 2 graphics,
but basically Winter storm watch
in place for this Wednesday's
storm offers quite a bit of Snow,
5 to 10 is likely.
I think 6 to 8 is kind of more likely.
Here in Spokane,
I think a foot is possible in
Coeur d'Alene Sandpoint could be
looking at 18 inches or more.
This is Wednesday into Thursday.
I'll have more details on this major
winter storm coming up in the full forecast.
My goodness, Jeremy, thank you very much.
And that certainly falls in line with
what Jeremy was talking about for
the overall winter predictions this
winter weather just the beginning.
You can check out our chief meteorologist
Jeremy Lagoo's long range winter forecast,
which covers how the rest of the season
is likely to shape up as a third La
Nina Winter is upon us and you can find
that just go to our website, creme.com.
You can also find it on our Creme 2
YouTube channel or on Creme 2 plus.
And if you don't have Creme 2 plus,
it's really easy. You can download it.
Right now on Amazon Fire or Roku,
and as we continue to track this
current storm,
the conditions are making for very icy roads.
So our Kyle Simchuk is in the Creme
2 Storm tracker right this minute
and he's checking out how the roads
are looking right now.
Kyle, how does it look out there?
Things are a little slick, you know,
neighbor residential streets,
they have a lot more snowpack,
obviously on the road,
but when we look at arterials,
they're in a little better shape.
We're at 20th and Freya,
and as we were just coming down,
we did see a car that had slid off
the road and into someone's fence.
Freya always seems to be a
problem this time of year.
We checked in with the city.
They say that crews are officially in
winter operations and that means teams
are working 20 hours a day to monitor,
pretreat and plow roads.
And they're paying attention
to problem areas.
Like hills, like Freya and arterial streets.
Those are always on the
top of the priority list.
And the city has satellite locations
in four corners of the city,
and that saves crews time when they
need a refill on sand and deicer.
And as you can see here,
we're coming up on this wreck.
Someone just kind of went off
the road into this fence here.
Freya is pretty slippery right now,
even though it is a top priority.
We asked City communications manager
Kirsten Davis what citizens can do
to help snow crews take a listen
park on the odd side
of the street. That's super helpful,
especially in those neighborhoods where
there's a lot of on street parking
in the streets, maybe not as wide.
Think about if you were trying to
get an emergency vehicle to your
home and what that would look like.
Now, during a full city plow,
when there's four or more inches of
snow on the road, crews will work
24 hours a day and 12 hour shifts.
And that full city plow
used to take four days.
Now the city says it can be done in
three days thanks to new equipment.
Now getting back here on the road,
looking at Freya.
We're at 26th and Freya going up,
drivers definitely taking their time.
This road is slick and again,
one of the top priorities for the city.
We're going to keep monitoring
the roads throughout the show.
We'll check back in later, Whitney.
All right, Kyle. Thank you very much.
Good reminder that we all need to be very,
very careful as we head through the
next several days because it will
be very slippery for quite a while.
Also developing tonight,
these freezing conditions and consistently
low temperatures are causing delays for
the Thor Freya construction project.
It was expected to wrap up by last Friday,
but of course that has not happened yet.
So construction actually began back
in March and at the time it was
expected to take about six months,
while the city shared that the
weather is causing delays in the
final concrete pouring sections.
Low temperatures caused this concrete
to cure five times slower than normal,
so practice patience tonight.
We are also learning new details about
a violent crash that split a car in
two on Spokane South Hill last week.
Spokane County Court documents that
were filed today say the driver in this
crash is now being investigated for
driving under the influence of cannabis.
Crime 2's Amanda Rowley has
the latest details tonight.
The driver
of this car, now split into two,
survived the violent crash,
but now Spokane Police are
investigating him for driving while
under the influence of cannabis.
Spokane County search warrants filed
today detail what led up to the crash,
along with the driver's
comments at the hospital.
The crash happened on Friday morning near
the South Hill rose hours on 29th Avenue.
Court documents say a Spokane Police
officer was parked when he spotted
the white Acura driving on 29th.
Ave The officer confirmed the
car was speeding at 67 mph
in a 30 mile per hour zone.
That's when the officer turned on his
lights in an effort to stop the driver.
The officer said as the Acura approached the
intersection of 29th Ave and South SE Blvd,
the driver swerved to avoid another
car that turned eastbound onto 29th.
The Acura then came back across
the lanes and hit the sign pole,
ripping the car in two.
Kathy Brooks told us that.
Morning.
She can't believe she wasn't hit.
As he passed me, he just lost control
of the car and went flying into the
pillars, and I mean his cars in half.
Police interviewed the driver
at Sacred Heart Medical Center.
He told police he didn't really remember
what happened and kept asking questions.
When the officer asked the
driver about drinking,
the man said he does not like alcohol
but admitted he probably smoked weed,
the driver also said.
He hadn't smoked that day and may
have last smoked the night before,
also claiming he smokes a bowl a day.
The officer reported the driver
was repetitive and forgetful,
but it is not clear if it was
related to head trauma from
the crash or something else.
Police filed the search warrant for
a blood sample to determine the blood
alcohol level and quantity of any drugs
that may have impaired his ability to drive.
In the search warrant.
Police state there is probable
cause to charge the driver
with attempting to elude.
Police vehicle and DUI,
but charges have not yet been filed.
Amanda Rowley,
KREM 2 news.
Tonight we have new information on the
murders of four University of Idaho students.
Police shared a new timeline now for
the night those students were killed.
Detectives are now saying the surviving
roommates had arrived home just after one AM.
45 minutes later, the victims,
Ethan Chapin and Zana Kernodle,
arrived at the home on Kings Road.
Now, thanks to new digital evidence
that was collected by investigators,
we know that Kaylee Gonzalves and Madison
Mogan arrived home separately at 156.
The Moscow police say community
members have uploaded now almost
500 digital media submissions
to help in their investigation,
and they are encouraging people
to continue sending them anything
that might help any tip at all.
Police also have collected 113
pieces of physical evidence.
All of them have now been sent
to the Idaho Police Crime Lab.
Moscow police also clarified there
does not appear to be any connection
between two other stabbings across
the Pacific Northwest those incidents.
Included a 1999 double stabbing in Pullman
and a 2021 double stabbing in Salem,
OR meanwhile,
tonight we are hearing from Zanna,
Kernodle's father for the first time.
He told our CBS affiliate in Phoenix that
Zanna fought back against her attacker.
Bruises and this you know,
maybe turn by the knife or whatever.
She said she's tough kid.
Whatever she wanted to
do she she could do it.
Her father was too distraught to
be on camera remembering the life
of his daughter but he said he
was struggling just to understand
how this could have happened.
He said Zanna was just hanging out
at home with her boyfriend Ethan,
one of the other victims in the attack.
We he also shared this quote saying
she didn't really worry about
the drama and stuff that much.
She was never into that.
He said she just liked.
Having fun and was never
about materialistic things?
And as we look ahead to
this coming Wednesday,
the University of Idaho will be holding
a candlelight vigil for the four victims
starting at 5:00 PM that is on Wednesday.
There will also be a remote option for
people who cannot make it in person.
The exact location has not yet been released.
They are currently working on that.
Last week a memorial service was also
held for Ethan on the West side,
and on Friday there will be a memorial
service for all four of the victims.
A separate memorial for Maddie
and Kaylee is in the works,
but has yet to be announced.
And today, students are back at
the University of Idaho campus.
As students are coming back,
they'll see an increased presence in
local security and in law enforcement.
However, last week,
the university president said
students who want to stay home,
they can they can finish
their classes online.
Some students say,
though they do feel safer coming back to
Moscow and getting back into a routine crime.
2 spoke with students who say
it's been difficult to ignore the
realities of what happened there.
Coming back,
I feel a lot safer with, you know,
I see Idaho State patrol out,
I see Moscow PD,
I see the Hells Canyon security.
I feel a lot safer now.
I really enjoy being here
at this campus. I feel safe here.
It's been a little confusing.
I think it's taken everyone by
surprise and it's just been kind
of getting through it for me,
getting through my classes and just kind of,
yeah, trying to push through.
The school president says the
university will be flexible now in
the final two weeks of the semester.
The university is still planning to hold
its graduation ceremonies coming up
on December 10th and as we mentioned,
law enforcement still asking
for any information that might
help them solve this case.
That tip line has been set
up alongside the FBI. It is
208-883-7180. You can also send an e-mail.
That address is underneath that
number at the bottom of your screen.
You can send tips that way as well.
And. Of course, we are continuing to
track this investigation very closely.
For the latest, remember you can
always go to our website kremp.com.