University of Idaho victims’ families ask judge to permanently block crime scene images

Relatives of the University of Idaho students killed in a home invasion attack in 2022 will appear in court Thursday to ask a Latah County judge to permanently block the release of certain images from the crime scene.

Karen Laramie, the mother of 21-year-old Madison Mogen, asked the court for an injunction earlier this month, following the guilty plea and sentencing of murderer Bryan Kohberger. The parents of 20-year-old Ethan Chapin – and his sister – each wrote letters to the judge in support of the move.

The hearing, before Judge Megan Marshall, is streaming live from the courtroom at 10 a.m. local time – 1 p.m. ET. She granted a temporary injunction earlier this month.

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Police have already released redacted bodycam video and photos of the interior of 1122 King Road, where those two were killed alongside Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, on Nov. 13, 2022. Laramie wants the redactions to remain in place and to block the release of additional images taken inside her daughter’s bedroom, where both Mogen and Goncalves were brutally killed in a knife attack.

Mogen was a senior, majoring in marketing, and a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. Kernodle, a junior, was also majoring in marketing, a member of the same sorority and Chapin’s girlfriend.

Mogen’s best friend, Goncalves, was a senior, a member of the Alpha Phi sorority and majoring in general studies.

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Chapin, a junior, was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He was majoring in recreation, sport and tourism management.

Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty in July and received four consecutive sentences of life without parole – plus another 10 years. The plea deal spared him from facing the potential death penalty if convicted at trial, and forced him to waive his rights to appeal or seek a sentence reduction.

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His first month in prison has reportedly been a rocky one – with him complaining to guards about harassment from other inmates, prison food and the conditions of J Block at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, where he is being held in protective custody due to his high profile and the potential target on his back.

Kohberger was studying for a Ph.D. in criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University in Pullman at the time of the murders. That’s a 10-mile drive from Moscow, Idaho, where the victims were pursuing undergraduate degrees.

Police said they could prove Kohberger had targeted and stalked the house, but they didn’t know whether one or more students had been targeted specifically by the killer, who refused to speak when given the opportunity to at his sentencing.