Infamous American homes in notorious crime cases

As the University of Idaho community reels from the shocking slayings of four undergrad students in an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, this past November, school officials have already announced plans to tear the building down.

“The owner of the King Street house offered to give the house to the university, which we accepted,” University of Idaho President Scott Green said last week. “The house will be demolished. This is a healing step and removes the physical structure where the crime that shook our community was committed.”

Landlords almost always seek an address change in similar situations.

But communities and homeowners deal with such tragedies in different ways. Here are the stories of several houses of horror that met different fates over the years.

Idaho Four

In Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in a 4 a.m. ambush on Nov. 13, 2022, the landlord is donating the property to their school, which plans to raze the building.

The suspect, Bryan Kohberger, is being held without bond in the Latah County Jail on four counts of first-degree murder and a felony burglary charge. He’s due back in court on June 26.

JonBenet Ramsey

The former Ramsey house in Boulder, Colorado, where 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in her family’s basement the day after Christmas in 1996, went up for sale last week.

JonBenet’s mother, Patsy, reported her missing to police after finding a lengthy ransom note that demanded $118,000 in exchange for the girl. JonBenet’s father, John Ramsey, found her body later that same day in the basement of their home.

Its current owners just listed it for sale for $7 million, NBC News reported Friday. Records show the five-bedroom, eight-bathroom home last sold for $650,000 in 1998 – when the Ramseys moved out.

The new listing, from March 1, shows extensive updates both inside and out. Take a look here.

JonBenet’s case has not been solved – but a state-run cold-case unit announced the investigation would get another look last year.

Authorities are asking anyone with information related to the JonBenet investigation to contact 303-441-1974, [email protected] or Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman

Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of former NFL star Orenthal “O.J.” Simpson, was stabbed to death along with her friend, Ron Goldman, at her house in Brentwood, California, on June 12, 1994.

Police charged O.J. with the crime, for which he was acquitted after a dramatic televised trial the following year. A subsequent civil lawsuit, however, found him liable for $33 million. Years later, he would be convicted in a robbery case and sentenced to prison. He was released in 2017.

The house remains standing today – although like other homes on this list, the address has been changed. According to Zillow, it last sold in 1994 for $625,000 and is worth an estimated $2.8 million today.

The Rockingham Estate, the house where O.J. lived at the time, was purchased and demolished in 1998, according to E! News. The address was changed to thwart tourist attention.

Another of Simpson’s homes, which he purchased in Miami in 2000 after leaving California, has also been torn down.

The New York Post reported last week that the property, which went into foreclosure after O.J.’s 2008 robbery conviction, was demolished last year and was unsuccessfully listed for $2.6 million.

The former football and movie star currently lives in Las Vegas.

Maggie and Paul Murdaugh

The Murdaugh family’s sprawling Moselle estate in Islandton, South Carolina, is where on June 7, 2021, Alex Murdaugh gunned down his wife Maggie, 52, and their younger son, Paul, 22, near the dog kennels and then called 911 to pretend he stumbled upon the crime scene.

He was convicted Thursday and sentenced to life in prison Friday morning.

The family of Mallory Beach, a 19-year-old woman and friend of Paul’s who was killed in a DUI boat crash with the slain scion behind the wheel, had asked a South Carolina judge to preserve funds from the potential sale of the property last year.

Murdaugh and Beach’s family reached a settlement in their wrongful death lawsuit in January. As a result, Beach’s mother will be paid $275,000 when the Moselle estate, valued at just under $4 million, is sold.

According to the Washington Post, the sale is already in contract.

The Amityville Horror

A young man in Amityville, New York, slaughtered his own family inside their colonial home on Ocean Avenue in 1974. A year later, the home’s new owners fled in horror a month after moving in.

George and Kathy Lutz bought the house – and were so shocked by alleged paranormal activity that they moved out a month later.

Their story became a novel, which was then adapted into a movie.

The killer, Ronald DeFeo Jr., was sentenced to 25 years to life and died in prison in 2021, the New York Post reported at the time. He was 69.

DeFeo killed his parents, Ronald and Louise, both 43, two sisters and two brothers as they slept inside the home at 112 Ocean Ave. on Nov. 13, 1974. He was 23. His siblings ranged from 9 to 18.

The house, which has a backyard boathouse and detached two-car garage, is still standing today, and again, the address was changed in an effort to reduce visits from gawkers.