805 W Linden Street in Boise, Idaho, is a 2,560 square-foot Craftsman-style house built in 1910. On the outside, the house looks abandoned & neglected—straight from a horror film. But it’s the inside where the true horror lives.
Boise locals refer to the house as the Boise Murder House or the Chop-Chop House, an extremely dark reference to a murder that took place over three decades ago.
The Day of Preston Murr's Murder
On June 29, 1987, 21-year-old Preston Murr attended a funeral in Boise. After the funeral, several of the participants, including Preston, were drinking and becoming increasingly belligerent.
A fight broke out between Preston and two other people. Police arrived to disperse the fight, and citations were issued for disorderly conduct.
Later that evening, Preston was home with his girlfriend when he received a phone call from an unknown caller. The caller spewed several threats on Preston’s life. Rattled, Preston called police to report the incident.
While a report was taken, there wasn’t much the police could do at that point. Preston could only wonder if this was stemming from the incident after the funeral.
Feeling unsafe and unsure, Preston placed a call to his friend, Daniel Rodgers. Daniel had his eyes and ears around the area and Preston hoped he would have or could find more information.
They made plans to meet up immediately, so Preston left his girlfriend at home and headed to a Circle K market on Boise Avenue, just blocks from the house on Linden Street. Daniel also brought along his friend, Daron Cox.
A witness observed Preston arriving at the store with a baseball bat. He then proceeded to walk over and use a pay phone for several minutes. After that, he was seen walking over to what would be later identified as Daniel Rodgers’ car. With a total of three occupants, including Preston, the car drove away.
The trio drove back to the apartment where Preston was staying with his girlfriend. For a while, they sat around the dining room table and discussed the threatening phone call. But the conversation soon turned to guns that had been stolen from Rodgers.
Not long after, they left the apartment and drove to Rodgers’ house at 805 Linden Street so Rodgers could grab a gun. They then drove around the area looking for an apartment where the stolen guns may have been stashed.
Unsuccessful at finding the apartment or the stolen guns, the three returned to the house on Linden Street.
Preston made a quick phone call to his girlfriend to update her on his whereabouts. She tried to convince him to come home but he was determined to find answers.
That would be the last time she would ever talk to Preston.
Preston Murr's Murder
Blood on the neighbor’s front door
Photo Credit: KBOIPreston Murr was murdered on June 30, 1987.
Around midnight, the conversation escalated. Fueled by alcohol and rage, a fight broke out between the three men. Amid the altercation, Preston Murr was shot in the shoulder.
Shocked and confused, Preston was able to run out of the house. He ran to the house next door and tried to enter, but the door was locked up tight. He pounded and pounded on the door, screaming for help.
The neighbor was woken up by all the noise and rushed downstairs. Scared, the neighbor peeked out the living room window. The pounding on his front door had stopped, but he heard someone yell, “Let go of me!”
The neighbor then saw a man hobble away from the front porch while another man ran after him into the darkness. And then…all was quiet.
The neighbor quietly opened his front door and took a peek outside. He never would have known anything had happened at all by how quiet it was.
But as he turned to go back inside his house, he saw what he believed to be blood all over his front door.
The neighbor immediately called the police to report the alarming incident.
911 call
Photo Credit: KBOI
Blood on the sidewalk
Photo Credit: KBOIAs the neighbor waited for police, he continued peering out his window. He claimed to see two men at 805 Linden Street hosing off the front porch.
At one point, they even approached his property with a flashlight. After a few minutes, they left, and the neighbor didn’t see or hear anything else.
He waited a little while longer, but the police never responded to his 911 call. He eventually went back to bed. But that next morning, unable to shake off the night before, he went back outside to take a look around.
In the light of day, the amount of blood on his front door was horrifying. In addition, he saw a trail of blood down his front walkway. Leading straight to 805 Linden Street.
805 Linden Street
Photo Credit: KBOI
Daniel Rodgers (left), Daron Cox (right)
Photo Credit: KBOIWhile the neighbor had gone back to sleep, Preston had grown weaker with blood loss as he ran from the house.
Rodgers and Cox easily caught up to him and dragged him back to 805 Linden Street and down to its basement. Preston was shoved to his knees and fatally shot in the back of the head.
But the horror didn’t end there.
Rodgers and Cox decided to mutilate and cut Preston’s body into several pieces using an axe and knives. The pieces of his body were then placed in plastic bags and put in the trunk of Rodgers’ car.
As the night turned into day, Rodgers and Cox drove Preston’s body an hour from Boise to the Idaho-Oregon border. Most of Preston’s body was thrown into Brownlee Reservoir.
The rest of his body, including bloody gloves and other items from the crime scene, were discarded in a dumpster behind a store in Meridian, Idaho.
After a second 911 call from the neighbor, police finally arrived. Upon searching the Linden Street house, more blood was found throughou,t along with a bullet fragment and a bullet hole in the basement wall.
Daniel Rodgers and Daron Cox Arrested and Charged for Preston Murr's Murder
Preston Murr's headstone
Photo Credit: KBOIA few days after the murder, Preston’s body parts were discovered on the banks of the reservoir.
Daniel Rodgers and Daron Cox were arrested and charged with murder. Daniel was found to be the main perpetrator, while Daron helped him with the body.
Daniel Rodgers was sentenced to life without parole while Daron Cox was sentenced to six years in prison.
