Families of Idaho Murder Victims Sue Over Release of Crime Scene Photos
The families of victims in the Bryan Kohberger case are suing the city of Moscow, Idaho, over the release of crime scene photos.
On November 13, 2022, four University of Idaho students — Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle — were murdered by Kohberger in their off-campus home in the small student town of Moscow, Idaho — in a case that shocked the U.S.
Earlier this month, the Moscow Police Department released over 200 crime scene photos through a legal public records request for documents related to the murders of the four college undergrads. The blurred and redacted images provided the most detailed look so far inside the college home where the killings took place nearly three years ago.
However, the release of these photos has now led to legal action from the victims’ families. The families of Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin — two of the students killed by Bryan Kohberger — filed a lawsuit against the city of Moscow, Idaho. They are asking a judge to stop the release of additional crime scene photos and body camera footage.
As part of the lawsuit, the families also requested a temporary restraining order to pause the release of certain materials immediately. An Idaho judge granted the order, ruling that publishing photos or videos from inside the victims’ bedrooms would be an invasion of privacy. For now, no more photos or videos can be released until a full hearing is held.
“They had actually reached a point by the time of the sentencing that they actually had some closure and were able to sort of start to move on somehow,” Leander James, the attorney representing the families of Mogen and Chapin, says in an interview with NewsNation. “Then they get hit with this, all of this ugly stuff getting released.”
James admitted that some photos would likely become public because of the high-profile nature of the case, but says the families want “death scene photos” to remain private.
“Who wants to look at this stuff?” James says. “This is just plain wrong. And me, personally, I’m a fan of the First Amendment, I appreciate what the media does, and I appreciate transparency and the right of the public to know. But there is a line there somewhere, and I think we’re over that line.”
Kohberger, a former Washington State University PhD candidate in Criminology, pleaded guilty to their murders last month and was sentenced to life in prison.
