Judge bars release of photos from scene of Kohberger murders

Associated press

Rebecca Bun

Published on October 01, 2025 • 2 minutes of reading

Brian Kokhberger, accused of murders of four students of the University of Aidaho, appears in the building of the court of the County County of Hell, on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Boyce, Aidaho. Photo by Kyla Green /Access

Boise, Aidaho – Judge Aidaho blocks the release of some graphic photographs taken by investigators after Brian Kochberger killed four students of Aidaho in 2022.

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The second district judge Meghan Marshall spoke on Wednesday, saying that the spread of “incredibly alarming” photos on the Internet – where the families of victims can unintentively see them – is an unreasonable invasion of personal confidentiality.

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She ordered the city of Moscow black from the parts of the images that show any part of the bodies of victims or the blood that surround them.

But the judge said that the public is also interested in viewing the investigation records, and therefore other photos, videos and documents related to the case, including videos showing distraught friends of the victims in the morning, were found, their bodies were found.

Kokhberger was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in July for the murder of the murders of Kaley Gonsalvest, Khan Kernodl, Madison Mahen and Ethan Chapin in the rental house in Moscow, Aidaho.

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Members of the family of two victims, Mahen and Chapin, asked the judge to hide parts of the photograph and video at the crime scene, saying that the images are invasive and traumatic.

The criminal case attracted attention around the world, and Moscow received hundreds of requests for the release of investigating records. The law of Aidaho usually allows you to seal records of investigation when a criminal investigation will be completed.

After the verdict of Kokhberger, the city of Moscow reacted to one such request for public records, releasing some photos and videos removed by law enforcement agencies at the crime scene, eroding the bodies of the killed students, as well as the faces of other victims and witnesses who talked with the police outside the house.

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“The public public can be obtained in seeing the bodies of the dead, blood-impregnated sheets, spraying blood or other images of the death scene,” Marshall wrote, and she noted that these images have already caused families “extreme emotional disorders”.

“The fact remains: the investigation of the murder and the criminal case are closed,” Marshall wrote. “The release of these records will have a slight effect on those who are still puzzled by facts or fixed on unreasonable conspiracies, while they have and will have a deep effect on close abductions.”