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‘A Healing Step’: House Where University of Idaho Students Were Murdered To Be Demolished
The home where Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were murdered will be demolished in an effort to heal the community, University of Idaho President Scott Green has announced.
The off-campus house where four University of Idaho college students were killed will be demolished in an effort to heal the community.
University President Scott Green announced the decision to destroy the three-story building in Moscow, Idaho, in a statement obtained by NBC News.
"This is a healing step and removes the physical structure where the crime that shook our community was committed," Green said of the building, located just blocks from the school. "Demolition also removes efforts to further sensationalize the crime scene."
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Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were killed on Nov. 13; the murders not only rocked the community of Moscow but they shocked the entire nation.
Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student at the nearby University of Washington, was arrested nearly six weeks later, on Dec. 30 in Pennsylvania in connection with the slayings. He has been charged with four counts of murder and one count of felony burglary. He's pleaded not guilty in the case.
Authorities say evidence suggests that he may have been stalking the victims before the quadruple homicide. Kohberger was allegedly linked to the killings through DNA found on a leather knife sheath left on Mogen’s bed, according to an affidavit in the case previously obtained by Oxygen.com.
Mogen and Goncalves had been found stabbed to death on Mogen’s bed. Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, who had been spending the night, were stabbed multiple times on the home’s second floor.
Two other roommates were home during the attack but not harmed. One recounted seeing the masked killer during the early morning hours of Nov. 13.
In Green's statement, he stated that the university is "evaluating options where students may be involved in the future development of the property."
A memorial and also scholarships are being developed to honor the slain students.
"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 stated.
