MOSCOW, ID – A Latah County judge has granted a partial permanent injunction preventing the City of Moscow from releasing certain crime scene records related to the 2022 University of Idaho homicides.
The ruling stems from a complaint filed by the families of Ethan Chapin and Madison Mogen, two of the four students killed at a residence on King Road in Moscow on November 13, 2022. The families argued that releasing graphic materials from the investigation—including photographs, videos, and body camera footage—would cause extreme emotional distress and constitute an invasion of privacy.
Following the conviction of Bryan Kohberger earlier this year, the City of Moscow received more than 1,100 public records requests for investigative files. The city had already made some redacted reports and 186 photographs available and signaled its intent to release additional material, prompting the families to seek legal intervention.
In her memorandum decision, District Judge Megan E. Marshall found that while the Idaho Public Records Act presumes disclosure, families of victims do have standing to assert privacy interests. Citing both Idaho law and a 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision, she concluded that releasing death-scene images showing the victims’ bodies or blood would constitute an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
The judgment permanently restrains the city from releasing any photographs or video unless those images are fully blacked out to remove the victims’ bodies and surrounding blood. However, the court ruled that other investigatory records—such as images of the residence interior and exterior, personal items found inside, and witness statements—remain subject to disclosure under state law.
Judge Marshall wrote: “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, whereas the dissemination of these images across the internet and in public spheres…causing [families] extreme emotional distress is an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
The court determined that prior releases had already caused irreparable injury to the families, including sleep disturbance, shaking, and sobbing. The injunction was granted in part to prevent further harm while still allowing public access to most investigatory records.
The decision balances privacy protections with public transparency in one of Idaho’s most widely followed criminal cases.
