Moscow home where University of Idaho students died set to be destroyed

The home where four University of Idaho students were killed in November remains on track to be razed ahead of suspect Bryan Kohberger’s scheduled murder trial this fall.

Students will return to the U of I campus in late August for the start of the fall semester. The university plans to demolish the large, off-campus King Road residence before that time, a U of I spokesperson told the Idaho Statesman, representing a target within the next seven weeks.

“We hope to have the house down before school starts,” Jodi Walker, the university’s spokesperson, said by email. “We don’t yet have a date for demolition. We continue to work through the process.”

That process includes removing the victims’ remaining personal items, as well as those owned by their two housemates who went unharmed in the Nov. 13 knife attack that drew international attention to the rural college town. A nearly seven-week manhunt ended with the Dec. 30 arrest in eastern Pennsylvania of Kohberger, who now sits 1½ miles away from the home at the Latah County Jail awaiting his trial set to start in early October.

The four victims were U of I seniors Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21; and junior Xana Kernodle and freshman Ethan Chapin, both 20. The three women rented the home just north of new Greek Row, while Chapin was Kernodle’s boyfriend and stayed over for the night.

Kohberger, 28, was a graduate student in Washington State University’s criminal justice and criminology program in Pullman, Washington. Moscow and Pullman are located about 9 miles apart on the Idaho-Washington border.

Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. Prosecutors this week announced their intent to seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

Work starts toward ‘healing step’

Crews began work Tuesday at the now boarded up six-bedroom, three-bathroom home, prepping it to be destroyed, Walker said. The families of the victims will be able to reclaim the cleared-out items if they wish, she said.

On Wednesday afternoon, about a dozen officials from the university, a remediation firm and a trucking company walked the perimeter of the fenced-off property. Two work trucks and a box truck parked just outside the front door of the home sat idle in the driveway.

Following the homicides that rattled the community and the university, the owner of the home donated it to U of I, the university announced in February. The U of I planned to destroy the home by the end of the spring semester, Walker said at the time, as previously reported by the Statesman.

The spring semester concluded in mid-May, with commencement held on May 13. Demolition of the King Road property ran into delays, including from a backlog of university projects that involve the same employees, Walker said.

The start of work at the home this week is the first step toward its removal, she said.

“This is a healing step and removes the physical structure where the crime that shook our community was committed,” U of I President Scott Green wrote in a February email to students and employees. “Demolition also removes efforts to further sensationalize the crime scene.”

The university has not said what it will do with the property once the home is removed, and students may be asked to be involved in the site’s future development, Green said in the memo. A memorial to the four students as part of a garden on the campus is in the planning stages.

“We will never forget Xana, Ethan, Madison and Kaylee, and I will do everything in my power to protect their dignity and respect their memory,” he added.

Statesman intern Daniel Ramirez contributed.