Victims’ families ask UI to delay demolition

Some of the families of the four University of Idaho students killed in Moscow last fall oppose tearing down the off-campus home where the crime occurred before suspect Bryan Kohberger’s murder trial in October.

A date has yet to be set for demolition of the King Road home, according to the university. But UI wants to remove the six-bedroom house from the property before Aug. 21, when students return to Moscow for the fall semester, university spokesperson Jodi Walker told the Idaho Statesman last week.

The four victims were UI seniors Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21; and junior Xana Kernodle and freshman Ethan Chapin, both 20. With two other housemates, the three women rented the home just north of new Greek Row, while Chapin was Kernodle’s boyfriend and stayed over the night of their deaths.

Kohberger, 28, a former graduate student at Washington State University, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. The state intends to seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

Shanon Gray, attorney for the Goncalves family, said the university is disregarding families’ requests that the home be left standing until after Kohberger’s trial. The murder trial is scheduled to start in Latah County on Oct. 2.

“The university asked for the families’ opinions on the demolition and then proceeded to ignore those opinions and pursue their own self-interests,” Gray said in an email to the Idaho Statesman. “The home itself has enormous evidentiary value as well as being the largest, and one of the most important, pieces of evidence in the case.”

Last week, crews were at the boarded-up King Road property to begin preparations for tearing down the home, Walker said. Meeting an Aug. 21 deadline would entail demolishing it within the next seven weeks.

“Our focus right now is on removing the personal items and making those available to the families,” Walker told the Statesman in an email. “We know that these items are extremely important and care needs to be taken to ensure they can retrieve the items of their loved ones. This will take some time.”

U of I: Defense, prosecution do not object to demolition

Following the November killings, the owner of the King Road rental home donated the property to the university, the school announced in February — along with announcing its intent to demolish it. The home was most recently assessed at a value of about $344,000, according to previous Statesman reporting.

Members of the Mogen and Kernodle families also oppose the destruction of the home until after the trial, Gray said. Gray told the Statesman he does not represent the Chapin family and is unsure where they stand on the matter.

The Statesman has reached out to members of the Mogen, Kernodle and Chapin families for comment.

Along with the Goncalves family, Gray represents Mogen’s family in tort claims filed in May against the university, city of Moscow and Idaho State Police. The legal step preserves the two families’ right to sue each of the government entities if they choose related to the deaths of their children, the Statesman previously reported.

Walker said that university officials have remained in “regular communication” with the four victims’ families since taking ownership of the house.

On June 17, Gray sent an email to U of I identifying the wishes of the Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle families about leaving the home untouched for the time being. Gray provided the Statesman with an email response from university attorney Kent Nelson documenting that request, which also noted the tort claims filed by Gray on behalf of the Goncalveses and Mogens.

“Our research has not revealed any civil action you could file to create a duty in the university to preserve the house,” Nelson wrote. “The university has good-faith reasons for wanting to demolish the house and the university did not own the house when the homicides occurred. In addition, the defendant was not, and is not, affiliated with the university in any way.”

Nelson added that neither the prosecution nor defense objected to the property being destroyed, and also wrote that it had been released from the criminal proceedings. He told Gray that U of I needed “cogent argument” that cited relevant case law, rules or statutes from the families to deviate from its plan to move forward with demolition of the house.

He requested that by the end of the day on June 23.

Gray said Nelson sent him the email response on June 22, which provided him with a single day. Gray did not respond to the Statesman about whether he met that deadline.

“The University of Idaho is choosing to demolish the home on King Road despite the wishes of the victims’ families,” Gray told the Statesman. “By waiting to demo the King Road home until after the trial, (it) would honor the families’ wishes and support the judicial process if the home is needed in the future by the prosecution, defense or jurors.”

For now, the university appears to be maintaining its plans to raze the King Road house ahead of students returning to campus.

“We appreciate that the families, as well as the entire university community, are working through their grief and navigating their own paths forward in these trying circumstances,” Nelson wrote to Gray. “The university believes demolishing the house will promote healing for members of all of the families, as well as for our students, the larger university community and the Moscow community writ large.”