The home where 4 UI students were killed will be demolished this week. Here’s why the defense and prosecution are OK with that before Kohberger’s trial.

The home where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death last November in Moscow is set to be demolished on Thursday, without a walk-through by a jury, because it is “so substantially different” now than at the time of the homicides, according to an email from Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson.

At 7 a.m. Thursday, local construction crews will begin to tear down the off-campus home where Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were all found dead on Nov. 13, 2022. Bryan Kohberger, a 29-year-old former Washington State University criminology student, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in their deaths.

The demolition of the home, donated to the university after the students’ deaths, was allowed by both the prosecution and the defense, according to a release from the University of Idaho. The university planned to demolish the house in August but it was delayed.

The FBI returned to the property in October to scan the home and create visual models for trial and both sets of attorneys completed their final walk-throughs of the house last week.

“It is time for the house to come down to continue the healing process,” university spokesperson Jodi Walker said.

That decision has come with pushback and fear.

The Goncalves family’s attorney, Shanon Gray, wrote a statement on behalf of the family about the decision to demolish the home, in which he writes the house is “one of the most critical pieces of evidence in the case” and that there is still value to keeping it up.

“There may be additional discovery by either party that prompts one side or the other to go back to the scene of the crime,” the statement said. “…What a waste of state money and resources and secondly, nothing replaces the real thing. Jurors are notoriously unpredictable and they tend to make decisions on a variety of facts and circumstances.” The Goncalves family, with support of the Kernodle family, also posted a petition online to keep the home standing.

Some on social media also have speculated the house should be standing for the jurors to walk through.

But Thompson, the lead prosecutor on Kohberger’s case, wrote in a Dec. 22 email to the university that the state-led team anticipates no further use of the home.

“Based on our review of Idaho case law, the current condition of the premises is so substantially different than at the time of the homicides that a ‘jury view’ would not be authorized,” Thomspon wrote. “We appreciate the UI’s help in facilitating the investigators gathering the necessary measurements, etc., to enable creation of illustrative exhibits that should be admissible and helpful to the jury.”

Jed Whitaker, former deputy prosecutor for Kootenai County, said “it’s rare” to have jury walk through crime scenes any more because of the advancement in technology. And 3D imaging, like the ones the FBI were taking of the home since the homicides, is “way more advanced than anything on Google,” he said.

Some of the 3D imaging law enforcement uses, according to a study from the University College London Department of Security and Crime Science, is able to overlap crime scene photos to the 3D scan of the home or crime area, reconstruct injuries on a body and even link to a drone for a full view of a street or property.

A setback, if the jury did walk through the home, would be that the defendant is required to be there with them, Whitaker said. The defendant has to be present for all aspects of trial, otherwise it is grounds for an appeal.

“If he is there, they will associate that house with him,” Whitaker said. “If I was a defense lawyer I’d object. If I was a prosecutor I wouldn’t go there.”

Whitaker has tried asking the court for a jury walk-through multiple times, he said. Every single time he was shut down because of 3D imaging and photographs.

Because all the evidence has been processed from the crime scene for trial, Whitaker believes there is no reason he could imagine to keep the house up.

He also has interacted with the defense and prosecutors in Kohberger’s case during other trials and believes each side are “excellent investigative units” that will leave no stone unturned.

“Evidence is what is admitted into trial. You can’t admit a house, but you can admit photos. People’s descriptions are also evidence. They’re not going to find new evidence in there,” Whitaker said. “I’m sure they looked at everything. Beyond that, you have law enforcement that’s under a gag order. The public doesn’t know what else they have as evidence.”

Kohberger’s trial was initially set for October but has been delayed indefinitely. He faces the death penalty if convicted.