House where four university students were killed is demolished
MOSCOW, IDAHO>> The house where four University of Idaho students were killed last year was demolished Thursday, marking an emotional step for the victims’ families and a closeknit community of about 26,000 that was shocked and devastated by the brutal stabbings.
The sounds of construction equipment pierced the morning air as an excavator started tearing down the front part of the house.
The former walls formed a large pile of crushed and smashed wood on the ground as debris was picked up and loaded into a dump truck. After about three hours, the home was fully demolished and its concrete foundation had been broken up.
The owner of the rental home near the university campus donated it to the university this year. Students Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were fatally stabbed there in November 2022.
School officials, who in February announced plans to raze the house, view the demolition as a key step toward healing and finding closure, university spokesperson Jodi Walker said.
“It’s incredibly powerful and emotional to see it come down,” she said as she watched the demolition.
Moscow resident Lilly Topping, who lives on a neighboring street and could see the house from her window, also said she felt relieved as she passed by the demolition. She said she had felt unsafe for a time after the killings.
“You could just feel the presence of sadness,” she said. “It was just a tragic event, and I feel like we need to renew everything.”
There are currently no other plans for the site, although the university may revisit that in the future, Walker said.
Some of the victims’ families have opposed the demolition, calling for the house to be preserved until after the man accused of the slayings has been tried.
Bryan Kohberger, a former criminology graduate student at Washington State University in neighboring Pullman, Wash., has been charged with four counts of murder. A judge entered a not-guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf this year.