Aug 20
Civil

Moscow Murder Continues to Unfold

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Kevin Amundson
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Court blocks further crime scene images after victims’ relatives file emergency lawsuit over 2022 killings

The families of Bryan Kohberger’s murder victims are battling to stop the release of more graphic crime scene photos, filing an emergency lawsuit after nearly 200 images from the gruesome November 2022 killings were made public last week.

Madison Mogen’s mother Karen Laramie and Ethan Chapin’s family have joined forces to prevent the City of Moscow from releasing additional “death scene” photos and body camera footage from inside the victims’ bedrooms, where four University of Idaho students were stalked and stabbed to death in one of Idaho’s most horrific crimes.

Idaho Second District Judge Marshall issued a temporary restraining order on August 15, prohibiting the city’s release of any images, audio, or video depicting the inside of Madison Mogen’s bedroom until a hearing on the preliminary injunction can be held.

The legal action comes more than two and a half years after the predatory attack that terrorized the small college town and launched one of the state’s most intensive criminal investigations.

A Night of Terror: November 13, 2022

The victims — Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Chapin, 20 — had spent a typical Saturday night out near the university campus and returned to their King Road house around 2 a.m. What they didn’t know was that their killer had been watching.

Sometime around 4 a.m., a figure in dark clothing and a mask entered the house where six University of Idaho students were staying. Going from one room to another, the killer stabbed four of the students on or near their beds before retreating into the night.

Surveillance footage captured a white Hyundai Elantra passing the house several times that morning, including at 4:04 a.m., when the car performed a three-point turn near the house. The calculated movements revealed the predatory nature of what was about to unfold.

One of the victims, Kernodle, appears to have been awake at the time, having just received a DoorDash order for takeout. Her phone indicated that she had been using the TikTok app when the horror began.

Dylan Mortensen, one of the surviving housemates, reported being awake around that time as well. She told police she heard sounds upstairs that she thought were made by Goncalves playing with her dog. She also heard what sounded like crying coming from Kernodle’s room, along with a male voice saying something to the effect of, “It’s OK. I’m going to help you.”

At 4:17 a.m., according to investigators, a security camera captured distorted audio of what sounded like a whimper and a loud thud. A dog was heard barking.

Mortensen looked out her bedroom door to check on the noises and was stunned to see a man wearing black clothing and a mask, who walked past her toward a sliding-glass door at the back of the house. She tried texting and calling some of her roommates who were killed but didn’t get an answer.

More than seven hours would pass before 911 was called after a friend arrived at the house and discovered one of the victims.

The Stalker Revealed

Bryan Kohberger, a Ph.D. student of criminal justice and criminology 10 miles away at Washington State University, had meticulously planned the attack, stalked the house beforehand and tried to conceal his movements before, during and after the crime. Prosecutors said they do not know his motive or who among the victims may have been his target.

The 30-year-old criminology student had been studying the very field that would ultimately lead to his capture. Cell phone records revealed the chilling extent of his obsession: his phone had been in the area of the house 12 times in the months before the murders, according to court documents.

On the night of the killings, Kohberger’s phone stopped connecting to the cellular network at 2:47 a.m., when he was in Pullman. When the phone reconnected with the network at 4:48 a.m., it was south of Moscow; it then followed a route back to Pullman. Later that morning, Kohberger’s phone was back in Moscow, in the area near the crime scene.

As a teenager, Kohberger had written online about his struggles with dissociation, suicidal thoughts, a lack of emotion and minimal remorse. He developed an interest in criminals, telling one friend that he saw himself one day working with high-profile offenders.

In the months before the killings, in a post on Reddit, a user who identified himself as Bryan Kohberger asked people who had spent time in prison to take a survey about their crimes. The survey asked respondents to describe their “thoughts, emotions and actions from the beginning to end of the crime commission process.”

The Hunt for Justice

The investigation that followed consumed law enforcement for weeks. Idaho State Police Lt. Darren Gilbertson called it “a true whodunit” that would require all of his focus to try to solve.

The breakthrough came when DNA from a knife sheath left at the crime scene — bearing a U.S. Marine Corps logo and found lying on the bed next to Mogen — led authorities through genetic genealogy to Kohberger. The DNA did not match anyone already in law enforcement databases, so investigators sent it for further analysis using innovative genetic genealogy techniques with consumer DNA databases.

By the end of December 2022, Kohberger had returned to his parents’ house in Pennsylvania after a cross-country road trip with his father. Police tested DNA samples taken from trash found at the family’s home, and then arrested Kohberger before dawn on December 30, 2022.

During overnight surveillance in the days leading up to his arrest, Kohberger was observed once very late at night walking in dark clothing around his parents’ neighborhood.

Justice Served, Families Traumatized Anew

Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders in July 2025 to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for the murder charges and a fixed 10-year sentence for burglary.

At his sentencing hearing, Judge Steven Hippler called Kohberger the “worst of the worst,” noting that “even in pleading guilty, he has given nothing hinting at remorse or redemption, nothing suggesting a recognition, an understanding or even a regret for the pain that he has caused.”

But just as the families were beginning to heal, the photo release has reopened their wounds. Attorney Leander James, representing both the Mogen and Chapin families, said the image release has devastated the victims’ relatives.

“When the door was shut behind Mr. Kohberger and he went to prison for the rest of his life, my — you know — Karen Scott, felt like they could take a deep breath and start to move on with their lives,” James said. “And unfortunately, this prospect of the death scene images of their child being thrown out there to the world has visited them with a great deal of work, and has sent them back again.”

The Human Cost of Transparency

The nearly 200 crime scene photos released by Moscow police showed what investigators described as “a horrific crime scene,” including the victims’ bedrooms, the sliding door Kohberger entered through, and blood on doors and walls. While the photos were redacted and didn’t show the victims’ bodies, they revealed the aftermath of unspeakable violence.

The families received no advance notice about the photo release, though such notification isn’t legally required. James described the emotional toll on his clients.

“Images are powerful, powerful emotional triggers, and I’m just one attorney,” James said. “I can only do as much as I can do. I’m trying to stop what I can. I kind of feel like, honestly, I feel like I am standing in front of a flood coming at me with a Dixie cup.”

Judge Marshall found that major portions of what had been released did not constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy. However, he stated that portions of videos and photographs in their redacted form, specifically including unreleased bodycam video, could constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy.

Remembering the Victims

Madison Mogen, going by Maddie, was a senior from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, majoring in marketing. Her father, Ben Mogen, said he did not believe that anyone who had a personal relationship with his daughter or her friends would want to kill them. “If you knew them, then you loved them,” he said.

Kaylee Goncalves, from Rathdrum, Idaho, had planned to move after graduation to Austin, Texas, with one of her close friends, having secured a position with a marketing firm.

Ethan Chapin, from Conway, Washington, was one of a set of triplets and had spent much of November 12 with both of his siblings. “He was literally the life of the party. He made everybody laugh. He was just the kindest person,” his mother, Stacy Chapin, said.

Xana Kernodle grew up in Idaho and was known by her father as strong-willed, enjoying her independent life in college.

The Fight for Dignity Continues

The city has agreed to halt all further releases of bedroom footage until the court makes a final determination. A hearing on the preliminary injunction was originally scheduled for Thursday but has been postponed at the city’s request.

James acknowledged the public’s right to information while arguing for basic human dignity in the face of such brutality.

“For those who are criticizing us for stopping the release of further images, I’d ask them to search their hearts, to look at what’s the right thing to do and what the legal thing is to do,” James said.

The outcome will determine whether additional materials from one of Idaho’s most horrific crimes will join the public record or remain sealed to protect the victims’ memory and their families’ privacy in the wake of a predator’s calculated destruction of four innocent lives.


​Cover Image: Bryan Kohberger, left, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, looks toward his attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, right, during a hearing in Latah County District Court, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, Pool) Ted S. Warren


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