Idaho college murders: Home where students were killed to be demolished at end of semester

Idaho college murders: Home where students were killed to be demolished at end of semester

The off-campus house is set the be torn down just as fall semester ends.

BySasha Pezenik, Julie Scott, and Kayna Whitworth

December 15, 2023, 3:36 PM

The home where four Idaho college students were found slain last year will finally be torn down later this month, the University of Idaho announced Thursday.

Demolition is set to begin Dec. 28, as the school's fall semester ends. It comes after the school had stayed the wrecking ball's strike multiple times amid objections from some of the victims' families. They had voiced concerns that tearing it down prematurely might destroy evidence for a later trial.

Now, the school said, their decision to tear down the house during winter break is being made “as an attempt to decrease further impact on the students who live in that area.”

“It is the grim reminder of the heinous act that took place there,” University of Idaho President Scott Green said in a statement Thursday. “While we appreciate the emotional connection some family members of the victims may have to this house, it is time for its removal and to allow the collective healing of our community to continue.”

One of the victims' fathers said he remained upset Thursday.

“It's going to be another rough Christmas,” Steve Goncalves, whose daughter Kaylee Goncalves was one of the victims, told ABC News.

The King Road home in Moscow, Idaho, was the site of a grisly quadruple homicide last November, where University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were found stabbed to death.

The Chapin family said in a statement it supported tearing down the house.

“We’re supportive of the decision to take down the King Street House — for the good of the University, its students (including our own kids), and the community of Moscow,” they wrote.

Bare spots are seen on Nov. 29, 2022, in the snowy parking lot in front of the home where four University of Idaho students were found dead on Nov. 13, in Moscow, Idaho.Ted S. Warren/AP, FILE

Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Bryan Kohberger, then 28, a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University, broke into the home and committed the killings.

After a six-week hunt, police zeroed in on Kohberger as a suspect, tracking his white Hyundai Elantra and cellphone signal data, and recovering what authorities said was his DNA on the button snap of a KA-BAR knife sheath found by one of the victims' bodies at the crime scene.

He was arrested on Dec. 30 and indicted in May, charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

After the killings, the property owner donated the home to the school, which announced in February the site would be torn down as a “healing step” that “also removes efforts to further sensationalize the crime scene.”

Then, in July, the university announced a sudden halt to the high-profile demolition, saying it would pause plans for the house “until October” — which was, at that time, when Kohberger's capital murder was set to start.

That pause came amid objections from some of the victims' families who expressed concern that eliminating the home before Kohberger's trial could cause unanticipated problems for prosecutors as they work to secure a guilty verdict.

The Goncalves family said further, in a statement, “The family has stressed tirelessly to the Prosecution and the University of Idaho the importance (evidentiary and emotionally) that the King Road house carries but nobody seems to care enough. It’s like screaming into a void. Nobody is listening and everyone tells you how sorry they are for the decision but the families’ opinion isn’t a priority. Victims' families have a voice and should be heard and listened to!”

Four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death at the large, off-campus rental home on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022, as seen here in May 2023.Angela Palermo/Idaho Statesman/TNS via Getty Images, FILE

Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial in August — indefinitely delaying when proceedings would start. In early September, the university announced it would hold off on tearing the home down until at least the end of fall semester.

Ahead of demolition, Kohberger's defense will be able to access the house, as they continue preparing their case for trial. No date has been set or the trial.

Kohberger's defense has “indicated they want to take photographs, measurements and possibly gather drone footage of the house,” the university said.

Construction crews will begin tearing down the home in the early morning of Dec. 28, and may and take several days to completely clear the site. The school says King Road will be blocked off to traffic during demolition and debris removal.

“Ultimately, this shouldn't matter from a legal perspective. But the university just handed the defense an issue that will be argued and litigated for years to come,” said ABC News legal contributor Matt Murphy, a former prosecutor in Orange County, California. “Out of respect for the victims, their families, as well as the due process rights of the defendant, they should have waited.”

FOLLOW THE PODCAST: “The King Road Killings: An Idaho Murder Mystery” from ABC News, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your preferred podcast player.

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