University Agrees to Delay Demolition of Murder Site

Residents of Moscow, Idaho, are going to have to live with a grim reminder of four gruesome murders for a few months longer. The University of Idaho has decided to delay the demolition of the home where four students were stabbed to death in November, NBC reports. After the murders, the owner of the six-bedroom house donated it to the university and demolition was scheduled to begin in August, before students returned for the fall semester, but the university now plans to wait until October, reports the Idaho Statesman. Lawyers for the families of some of the victims had urged the university to delay the demolition until after the trial of suspect Bryan Kohberger, which is scheduled to start on October 2.

The bodies of Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, and Xana Kernodle were found in the home on November 13. Shanon Gray, an attorney for the Goncalves family, had urged the university to delay the demolition, saying waiting until after the trial "would honor the families' wishes and support the judicial process if the home is needed in the future by the prosecution, defense or jurors." The home, he said, "has enormous evidentiary value as well as being the largest and one of the most important pieces of evidence in the case." Gray said jurors might need to see the house to understand how a killer could move through its unusual layout, and to understand how sound traveled in the building.

The home, protected by security guards around the clock, has become a "photo spot by true-crime aficionados from around the country," per the New York Times. Chapin was one of triplets and his parents say that while August felt "very early" for demolition, they believe getting rid of the home will help the healing process for the community and their son's two siblings, who are both University of Idaho students and "have to walk past that house every day." Steve Goncalves, father of Kaylee Goncalves, urged the university to delay the demolition last week, the Times reports. "It's just going to be a freaking hole in the ground," he said. "Is that somehow better?" (More University of Idaho stories.)