An Idaho judge ruled the public will not see graphic photos from the bloody crime scene where convicted killer Bryan Kohberger murdered four college students in an off-campus home in 2022.
The Wednesday ruling came in response to victims’ family members arguing that traumatizing images of their loved ones taken by investigators would cause more harm than good to those mourning the victims.
Second District Judge Megan Marshall said in her ruling that the “incredibly disturbing” images of Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin would impact the University of Idaho community “and the world at large.”
As such, the city of Moscow must disclose the investigatory records in this matter, but must obscure images depicting “any portion of the decedents or their bodies and the blood immediately surrounding them.”
Kohberger pleaded guilty to the Nov. 13, 2022 slayings on July 3 without giving an explanation for his actions. He’s serving four life sentences with the Idaho Department of Corrections.
Marshall ruled that with the investigation complete and Kohberger having confessed to the killings, releasing gruesome images would do nothing to satisfy internet conspiracy theorists and may further harm the victims’ families.
“There is little to be gained by the public in seeing the decedents’ bodies, the blood soaked sheets, blood spatter or other death-scene depictions, whereas the dissemination of these images across the internet and in public spheres where Plaintiffs may come upon them by happenstance, as has already occurred, causing them extreme emotional distress is an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” the judge noted.
For that reason, Marshall said the disclosure of “certain investigatory records” amount to an unnecessary violation of privacy.
