Idaho House Where 4 College Students Were Stabbed To Death To Be Demolished
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The Idaho house where four college students were found stabbed to death in their beds will be demolished this spring.
The owners of the six-bedroom, three-bathroom house on the Idaho-Washington border offered to give the off-campus rental to the University of Idaho, and school officials accepted.
Students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were murdered on the second and third floors of the Moscow rental in the early hours of Nov. 13. The school plans to raze the home by the end of the spring semester.
“This is a healing step and removes the physical structure where the crime that shook our community was committed,” University of Idaho President Scott Green wrote in an email to students last week. “Demolition also removes efforts to further sensationalize the crime scene.”
University officials anticipate that the student body will be involved in brainstorming future uses for the site, which will honor the four slain students.
“We’re just working through the processes that it takes to do such a thing,” university spokesperson Jodi Walker told the Idaho Statesman. “But from the university standpoint, and in talking with the families, the sooner, the better.”
Suspect Bryan Kohberger, a doctoral student studying criminal justice at nearby Washington State University, is in custody awaiting trial. He has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and could face death by firing squad if convicted.
It’s not uncommon for properties where horrific crimes occurred to be razed. Often, communities view these buildings as unwelcome reminders of painful tragedies that are difficult to move on from.
“Demoing the property doesn’t erase the stigma, but it helps,” says real estate appraiser Randall Bell. His company, Landmark Research Group, specializes in real estate properties affected by disasters and crimes. “Removing the structure helps the community heal.”
The Milwaukee apartment building where serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer murdered many of his victims was torn down in 1992 at the request of the families of the victims. The Newtown, CT, home where school shooter Adam Lanza lived before killing his mother and going on a murderous rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School, murdering 20 children and six adults, was also knocked down.
Many of these properties remain vacant, while others become memorials for the victims.
The University of Idaho is also in the early stages of planning a garden that will serve as a place of remembrance for the students on the school’s campus. A site has not been singled out.
An LLC purchased the rental home in 2009 for $150,938, according to property records. The rental was located in a prime spot, both close to the university as well as the Greek Row of sorority and fraternity houses. It was last listed for rent on Realtor.com for $2,495 a month in February 2020, which included parking, utilities, and internet service. The listing had advertised a “perfect floor plan” with each of the three floors having two bedrooms and a bathroom plus a top-floor deck and a new patio.
The two roommates on the bottom floor of the home survived the murders. One of the other roommates who was on the lease of the rental was not living there.
The home is now estimated to be worth between $439,000 and $492,000, according to property valuations on Realtor.com.
However, the horror of the murders would have likely resulted in a hefty discount of 10% to 25%, Bell previously told Realtor.com.
“Trying to sell the property would have amplified the nightmare,” says Bell. “It’s a hideous event, and it’s disturbing. But you want to strike a balance between doing the right thing to reduce the tragic memories but also honoring the victims.”
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