by The off-campus residence where four University of Idaho students were found dead in November will be demolished, the school said Friday.
The owner of the three-story King Street House, where the bodies of Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were found, has been offered to the university.
The offer was accepted by the university. The school decided to get rid of the structure, which sits a few blocks from campus, university president Scott Green said in a statement.
The University of Idaho Murders
The murders rocked the small Moscow community, where investigators grappled with what the city’s police chief would later describe as a “very complex” case.
“This is a curative step and removes the physical structure where the crime that rocked our community was committed,” Green said. “The demolition also eliminates efforts to further sensationalize the crime scene.”
The university is also “evaluating options in which students can participate in future development of the property.”
Scholarships have been established to honor three of the students and a fourth is in the works, Green said. A plan to create a memorial is also being developed.
“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,” Green said.
Three of the victims were roommates at the home, and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Chapin, was staying overnight, according to investigators.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested late last year in Pennsylvania and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and robbery.
All four counts of first-degree murder carry sentences that could include life in prison up to the death penalty.
It is scheduled for a five-day preliminary hearing beginning June 26.
At the time of the murders, Kohberger was a doctoral student studying criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, a short drive from Moscow across the state line. A WSU official has said that Kohberger is no longer enrolled.
erick mendoza contributed.
