Idaho student killings: University to demolish house where students were killed

The home where four University of Idaho students were found dead on November 13, in Moscow, Idaho. The house will be demolished after it was gifted the university. Photo / AP

The house where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in November will be demolished, school officials said on Friday.

The owner of the home in Moscow offered to give it to the university and the school accepted, University President Scott Green said in a memo to students and employees.

“This is a healing step and removes the physical structure where the crime that shook our community was committed,” Green wrote.

No timeline has set for the demolition, but university spokesperson Jodi Walker told the Idaho Statesman that the goal is to have the house knocked down by the end of the semester.

The four University of Idaho students who were found dead in off-campus housing were Madison Mogen, 21, top left; Kaylee Goncalves, 21, bottom left; Ethan Chapin, 20, centre; and Xana Kernodle, 20, right. They are pictured just hours before their untimely deaths. Photo / via Instagram

“We’re just working through the processes that it takes to do such a thing,” Walker said. “But from the university standpoint, and in talking with the families, the sooner, the better.”

Walker also said the university is working with students and other community members to create a plan for the property’s future development that would honour the slain students: seniors Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, junior Xana Kernodle, 20, and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20.

The victims’ bodies were found on November 13 at the rental home, which is across the street from the university campus.

Bryan Kohberger, being held for extradition in a criminal homicide investigation in the killings of four University of Idaho students. Photo / Monroe County Correctional Facility

Bryan Kohberger, a former graduate student of Washington State University in neighbouring Pullman, Washington, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in connection with the killings.

Green also announced that planning has started on a memorial for the four students. The memorial will be the focus of a garden in a location to be determined on campus grounds.

Scholarships in honour of the students are also being established.