The off-campus home where four University of Idaho students were killed last year will be demolished later this month, the school announced Thursday.
The new plans for demolition, set to begin on December 28, 2023, come after multiple other attempts were paused due to some of the victims' family members voicing concern that it was premature to demolish the building before the suspect's trial ends.
But the school, which was given ownership of the home after the murders, said its decision to demolish the residence during winter break is an attempt to "decrease further impact on the students who live in that area."
"It is the grim reminder of the heinous act that took place there," University of Idaho President Scott Green said. "While we appreciate the emotional connection some family members of the victims may have to this house, it is time for its removal and to allow the collective healing of our community to continue."
Neither the prosecutors nor the defense team representing the suspect, Bryan Kohberger, had an objection to the demolition, but Kohberger's team plans to visit the home one final time before Dec. 28 to "take photographs, measurements and possibly gather drone footage of the house."
Some of the victims' families, however, still voiced their opposition.
"Today was especially hard, because we were notified that they plan on tearing down the house on December 28th … just 3 days after Christmas," Steve Goncalves, father of victim Kaylee Goncalves, wrote on Facebook Thursday night. "Here is the thing with the house, I get it, 'it’s an eyesore, it makes the community and college sad, it's a house of horrors,' so on, so forth. Yes, Kaylee unfortunately died in that house, but more importantly KAYLEE LIVED a fun, happy life in that house. So, my point is, when the house is torn down, it will be a very sad day for me. Salt in a wound that never heals."
The home, which sits on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, housed Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and two other roommates in the fall of 2022.
On November 13 of that year, Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin were murdered in their beds.
Though weeks went by without a suspect, Kohberger was arrested on December 30, 2022, and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
A trial date has still not been set.
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