Thousands of crime scene photos that were taken as part of the investigation into the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students committed by Bryan Kohberger have been taken offline, just hours after they were released as part of a public records dump.
The Idaho State Police released the images on Tuesday, January 20, as part of a sixth round of public documents, giving the families of the victims very little notice ahead of time.
Soon after the redacted photos were released, the family of Kaylee Goncalves — who was 21 years old when she was murdered — released a statement slamming state officials for the surprise photo dump.
“We got a call at 11:04 a.m. that photos would be released this afternoon,” read a Facebook post written by the Goncalves family. “By the time the call ended (12 minutes later) the photos had already been released (likely they had been available before the call, we just didn’t know it yet). That’s the ‘heads up’ we received.”
The 2,800 photos released this week show the scene police found inside the bedrooms of Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen, where the vicious November 13, 2022, murders unfolded. The new evidence photos show blood spatter on the walls and doors, as well as blood smeared and pooled on the floor. It appears there are gashes in one of the mattresses, which are speculated to have been caused by Kohberger’s knife.
There are also photos showing bloody sheets and clothing. Some are convinced one of the images shows part of one of the victims’ faces.
The photos even show the knife sheath that Kohberger left behind on Mogen’s bed — a crucial piece of evidence that helped lead to his arrest in December 2022.
Kohberger, 31, was sentenced this summer to life in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Goncalves, Mogen, 21, Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, who was also 20.
Under cover of night, Kohberger entered the off-campus home the victims shared in Moscow and stabbed them to death with a large knife.
Idaho State Police spokesperson Aaron Snell told the Idaho Statesman the pictures were “temporarily removed for further review” after “questions were raised.” Snell did not say who had raised questions, but said officials wanted “to ensure the appropriate balance between privacy concerns and public transparency” with the photo dump.
The photos will be reissued at a later date, Snell told the paper.
Snell said the agency understands there are “concerns about the nature of the images” from the victims’ loved ones but decided to release them after receiving “a large volume of public records requests seeking the photographs.”
“Please be kind [and] as difficult as it is, place yourself outside of yourself [and] consume the content as if it were your loved one,” the Goncalves family wrote in its post condemning the release of the photos. “Your daughter, your sister, your son or brother. Murder isn’t entertainment [and] crime scene photos aren’t content.”
The post continued: “We know so many of you arm chair detectives will turn this into your show (profits) zooming into things, ‘analyzing blood splatter,’ suggesting that things ‘don’t add up’ yada yada yada. It’s disrespectful and gross.”
