Idaho house where 4 students were killed is set to be demolished

The Idaho house where four college students were fatally stabbed last year is set to be demolished Thursday, marking a milestone for the victims’ families and tight-knit college-town community devastated by the incident.

The rental home in Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho students — Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves — were stabbed in November 2022 was donated to the school earlier this year. Since then, the house has been blocked off by a security fence. 

School officials said demolishing the house would help other students heal from the killings.

“That is an area that is dense with students, and many students have to look at it and live with it every day and have expressed to us how much it will help with the healing process to have that house removed,” university spokesperson Jodi Walker said in a statement to The Associated Press. 

According to contractor estimates, it will take several hours for the house to be razed and to clear the debris, according to Walker, depending on the weather. She added that the site will be covered with grass. 

The plan to demolish the house prompted objections from some victims’ families, who wanted it to be preserved until the conclusion of the accused killer’s trial. Bryan Kohberger, a former criminology graduate student at Washington State University, was charged with four counts of murder.

Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle lived in the rental house, which is across the street from campus. Chapin, Kernodle’s boyfriend, was visiting the house on the night the stabbings took place. 

In May, the judge entered a not guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf after the suspect’s attorney said they were going to be “standing silent.”

Prosecutors are seeking a summer trial date. They told university officials in an email that they likely would not need the house, as they had already put together evidence and measurements for their case. Kohberger’s defense team was given access to the house earlier this month to collect measurements, photos and other documentation.