In a decision that has resonated far beyond the borders of Idaho, Second District Judge Megan Marshall has ruled to block the public release of graphic crime scene photos connected to the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students. The ruling, issued on October 1, 2025, came after months of legal wrangling and emotional pleas from the families of the victims, who argued that such images would inflict further trauma and invade their privacy.
The case centers on the November 2022 killings of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin—four friends and undergraduates whose lives were cut short in a brutal stabbing at an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho. The suspect, Bryan Kohberger, a former Ph.D. candidate in criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, was arrested in December 2022. In July 2025, Kohberger pleaded guilty to all four murders and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, according to reporting from the Idaho Statesman and other outlets.
The nearly seven-week investigation and the subsequent two-and-a-half-year legal process drew international attention. As the case unfolded, the Moscow Police Department was inundated with hundreds of requests for investigatory documents and media, especially following Kohberger’s sentencing. The public’s appetite for information was matched only by the families’ determination to protect the dignity of their lost loved ones.
Judge Marshall’s ruling, reported by KTVB and the Idaho Statesman, carefully balances two competing interests: the public’s right to know and the undeniable right of the victims’ families to privacy and peace. While the judge acknowledged that Idaho law generally permits the release of investigatory records once a case concludes, she drew a firm line regarding the most disturbing images. The city of Moscow is now required to redact any portions of photographs and videos that show the victims’ bodies or the blood immediately surrounding them before release.
“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,” Judge Marshall wrote in her opinion, as quoted by the Idaho Statesman. She added that the dissemination of such images online, where families might encounter them by accident, “is an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” The judge’s words echoed the anguish of the families, who described the pain of inadvertently coming across these photos on the internet.
The parents of Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin were at the forefront of the legal push to restrict access to the images. Karen and Scott Laramie, Mogen’s mother and stepfather, filed a civil lawsuit that was later joined by Stacy and Jim Chapin, Ethan’s parents. They were represented by attorney Leander James of Coeur d’Alene. In court filings, the Chapins explained, “We now have images in our minds—ones that we are unable to escape—and desperately do not want lingering in our memory.” The prospect of these photos circulating further, they wrote, forced their family to “live in fear, worry and sickness.”
Stacy Chapin, Ethan’s mother, was quoted in court documents as saying, “They are heartbreaking and continue to reopen a wound that has yet to heal.” The families’ distress was not isolated; all the victims’ families opposed the release of the images, though not all had the resources to mount a legal challenge.
Judge Marshall’s order does not entirely shield all investigatory records from public view. She allowed for the release of other documents, including videos that show the reactions of friends who discovered the bodies on the morning of the murders. However, she was adamant that the most graphic content—depictions of the victims themselves and the blood at the scene—should remain private. “The city may disclose the investigatory records in this matter, but must black out any areas within the images, photographs, video, or other media that depict any portion of the decedents or their bodies and the blood immediately surrounding them,” Marshall wrote.
The city of Moscow had already released some redacted images in response to public records requests, blurring out the bodies and faces of the deceased as well as witnesses. Yet, as attorney Andrew Puskal, representing the city, noted at an August hearing, the images that did make it online were “harrowing.” Puskal remarked, “If there were an option set forth in the statute that allowed these records to be fired into orbit into the sun…we would just as soon not release these records. Nobody gets them. These are harrowing images. This was a horrific crime.”
Despite the best efforts of the city and the courts, some images did find their way into the public sphere. In the aftermath of their initial release, local outlets like KTVB and dozens of national and international news organizations published more photos, compounding the families’ distress. “They’re now out there everywhere,” attorney Leander James lamented. The case’s notoriety, he argued, made it different from other criminal investigations, raising the stakes for privacy and sensitivity.
Steve Goncalves, father of Kaylee Goncalves, expressed gratitude for the judge’s decision. “We are immensely proud of Karen Laramie standing up for what is right,” he told the Idaho Statesman. Yet, he also voiced frustration that families were forced to undertake legal battles to protect the dignity of their children. “It’s regrettable that families must turn to lawyers and legal battles to safeguard the dignity of their murdered loved ones, which once again erodes the rights that were stripped from our children,” Goncalves said.
Judge Marshall was clear that the criminal investigation and trial had concluded, and that the potential benefit of releasing graphic images was negligible. “Releasing these records will have minor effect upon those who continue to be perplexed by the facts or fixated on unfounded conspiracies whereas it has and will continue to have profound effect upon the decedents’ loved ones,” she wrote.
As the dust settles on this tragic chapter, the ruling stands as a testament to the ongoing struggle between transparency and privacy in the age of digital media. The families of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin have won a measure of protection for their loved ones’ dignity, even as the world continues to grapple with the aftermath of a crime that shocked a community—and a nation—to its core.
