House where 4 University of Idaho students were murdered to be torn down

MOSCOW, Idaho — The house where four University of Idaho students were found murdered in November is expected to be torn down, school officials announced Friday.

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University of Idaho President Scott Green released a memo to students and employees on Friday sharing the plans to demolish the house where Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were found stabbed to death in November.

Green said that the owner of the house had decided to give the house to the University of Idaho. The university said that the house will be demolished as a way of healing and to remove “the physical structure where the crime that shook our community was committed.”

“From the day we learned of the senseless deaths of Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, the outpouring of support from our Vandal Family has been tremendous. Everywhere I turn, people are asking what they can do to help. What resulted is an incredible display of what it means to be a Vandal. The compassion, tenacity and resilience of our community shows in the generous actions,” Green said in the memo.

Green said that the university is in the early planning phase of creating a memorial on campus to honor the four students and will likely be a “focal point of a garden.” The exact location of the memorial is not yet known.

In addition to the on-campus memorial, Green announced that scholarships will also be established for Kernodle, Chapin and Mogen. The university is also working with Goncalves’ family to put one together in her honor. They will be funded by Vandals Supporting Vandals.

University spokesperson Jodi Walker told the Idaho Statesman that there is no timeline for the house to be demolished. Walker said the hope is to have it torn down by end of the current semester.

“We’re just working through the processes that it takes to do such a thing,” Walker said, according to the newspaper. “But from the university standpoint, and in talking with the families, the sooner, the better.”

According to The Associated Press, Walker said that the University of Idaho is working with community members and students to create something in place of the house to honor the four slain students.

The house where the four were found deceased is located across the street from the University of Idaho and was a rental property, according to the AP.

Bryan Kohberger has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in connection with the four murders, the AP reported.