Ashley Guillard of Texas says she knows who killed four University of Idaho students in a crime that has stumped police. Her source of information? Tarot card readings. In videos posted on TikTok, the self-styled psychic unwinds a bizarre theory that the chair of the university’s history department orchestrated the killings after a romantic entanglement with one of the students. She shared the professor’s photograph and branded her the killer in TikTok videos that have been viewed 2.5 million times. Now Rebecca Scofield, the historian at the center of Guillard’s allegations, has filed a defamation lawsuit against her. The lawsuit, which follows two cease-and-desist letters sent to Guillard, says the claims have damaged her reputation and put her and her family’s safety at risk, reports the Washington Post.
“Professor Scofield has never met Guillard,” says the complaint in Idaho District Court. “She does not know her. She does not know why Guillard picked her to repeatedly falsely accuse of ordering the tragic murders and being involved with one of the victims." The Moscow Police Department has not identified suspects in the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. They are believed to have been asleep when someone entered an off-campus house and stabbed them to death Nov 13. A weapon has not been recovered. The police department maintains a “rumor control” section on its website and decries the spread of misinformation. Scofield’s suit accuses Guillard of seeking to benefit from huge interest in the case, charging she has “decided to use the community’s pain for her online self-promotion.” Guillard, whose TikTok bio says “Ashley is God,” said she got into tarot card reading after a “spiritual journey” in 2015. After a follower asked her to look into the Idaho case, she did a reading that “was alluding to a teacher being involved.” The cards led her to “history.” She viewed the University of Idaho history department website and saw Scofield atop the page. Another reading told her the history chair was involved, Guillard said.