A Famous Crime Scene: Should It Be Destroyed Before Trial?
A Famous Crime Scene: Should It Be Destroyed Before Trial?
At the residence in Idaho where four students from the University of Idaho were killed a year ago, the windows are covered with sheets of plywood. The yard is enclosed by a fence that is just temporary. Guards, stationed in a blue caravan, keep constant vigil over the premises around the clock.
And yet, for a university that is trying to erase the remnants of a tragedy that cast a terrifying shadow over the previous academic year, the house on a hillside near campus remains uncomfortably conspicuous. The house is visible from nearby fraternity houses and is sought out as a photo spot by true-crime enthusiasts from all over the country. It is the goal of administrators at the university that it will be torn down before the start of the autumn semester in August.
However, the plan has alarmed some of the family members of the four students who were killed. They are concerned that the house could be essential to the prosecution of the accused killer, as well as to the jury’s understanding of how the four students could have been slaughtered in bedrooms on the second and third floors of the house without alerting the two other roommates who were there at the time. They have made it clear to the institution that they do not want any destruction to go place.
“What’s best for the case is for us to take caution and protect what the jury may possibly want to wrap their heads around,” Steve Goncalves, the father of one of the victims, Kaylee Goncalves, said in response to the decision made by the university. Kaylee Goncalves was one of the students who was killed in the shooting.
The issue is challenging, and there are no simple answers, according to Ethan Chapin’s parents, who are another one of the casualties. On the one hand, they concur with Mr. Goncalves that tearing down the house during the summer “feels very early,” as Mr. Chapin’s mother, Stacy, put it. However, she pointed out that their two other children — who were actually triplets — are still students at the University of Idaho, and that one of them has a room that faces out onto the home, which serves as a daily reminder of this fact.
Ms. Chapin stated that their children were required to stroll daily in front of the residence. “The children, they have to become well. It is necessary for the university to make amends. As well as the neighbourhood.”
The home in Idaho is the latest in a rising number of notorious houses throughout the country, the destinies of which have been the subject of intricate legal and ethical discussions as communities struggle to determine what, if anything, should be left behind in the wake of a mass murder.
After a shooting rampage in 2012 in which 26 people were killed, the building that housed Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, had to be demolished and rebuilt. The school district in Uvalde, Texas, where a shooter killed 19 students and two teachers in the previous school year, has similar plans to demolish the existing school and construct a new one in its place.
In other places, the evidence at crime sites has been left untouched. After Alex Murdaugh, a renowned lawyer, was found guilty of murdering his wife and younger son in 2021, the vast hunting estate in South Carolina where they were slaughtered was sold for $3.9 million just weeks after Mr. Murdaugh was found guilty of their deaths. Within a few short weeks, students in Santa Fe, Texas, returned to the high school where a shooter had killed ten people the previous year.
And despite the fact that some locals in Aurora, Colorado, asked for the demolition of the movie theatre that had been the scene of a mass shooting in 2012, the building was instead renamed, remodelled, and reopened within six months of the incident.
There have been other trials than the one in Idaho in which people have argued for jurors to be allowed to view the crime scene in its original state. The classroom building in Parkland, Florida, where a shooter massacred 17 students and staff members five years ago is still intact, but it is separated from the facilities in which students currently attend courses by a fence.
During the sentencing trial for the gunman that took place last year, the jury was allowed to see the abandoned building. They had to navigate their way through shards of glass, walls scarred with bullet holes, and floors that were still stained with blood.
Officials from the school have stated that they want to move forward with the destruction of the building now that the final criminal case related to the shootings has been resolved with the acquittal of a school resource officer who did not approach the gunman last week. But before that, the authorities started letting victims’ family to stroll the building’s halls for the first time since the massacre this week, if they wanted to. This was the first time that had been possible since the shooting.
During the trial of Mr. Murdaugh this year, the jury travelled to Islandton, South Carolina, to examine the location where the murder occurred. They spent nearly an hour strolling around the location where the victims were shot, which included a shed and a feed room in addition to the rest of the property. In a similar manner, jurors in the trial of author Michael Peterson in 2003,
who was accused of murdering his wife, were given the opportunity to see the stairs of their home, which was the location where she passed away. Since Mr. Peterson’s trial, the property has changed hands numerous times; at one point, it was purchased by a guy who calls himself a “clairvoyant medium.” However, the house has survived the ordeal and is still standing.
Ms. Goncalves, age 21, Madison Mogen, age 21, Xana Kernodle, age 20, and Mr. Chapin, age 20, all passed away as a result of stab wounds sustained on November 13 in Idaho. Their dead corpses were not found for several hours, and it took several weeks before a suspect was identified. Bryan Kohberger, a Ph.D. student in criminology at the nearby Washington State University, was apprehended by investigators in the end and taken into custody in late December.
A representative for the university named Jodi Walker stated that the location of the home in the centre of a student living area has served as a continual reminder of the events that took place there. She stated that when the decision to demolish the facility was taken, the administrators took into account the requirements of all of the students and employees who were located on the campus.
She said, “This is another step towards healing,” as she reflected on the event. “Striking a balance between the two is not easy at all.”
According to an email, the defence attorney for Mr. Kohberger, Anne Taylor, stated in April that she had “no objection” to the strategy being implemented on campus. Because the authorities did not believe that it would be necessary for the trial, the county prosecutor, Bill Thompson, stated that he did not object to the university receiving the information either.
“The scene has been substantially altered from its condition at the time of the homicides including removal of relevant property and furnishings, removal of some structural items such as wallboard and flooring, and subjected to extensive chemical application creating a potential health hazard,” Mr. Thompson wrote in a separate email. “The scene has been substantially altered from its condition at the time of the homicides including removal of relevant property and furnishings.” “For the reasons mentioned above, as well as others, we have come to the conclusion that a ‘jury view’ would be inappropriate.”
