WARNING: Graphic Content

Local officials have raised concerns after graphic crime scene photos from the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students were inadvertently released earlier this week. The incident has sparked discussions about the handling of sensitive information by public agencies.

The Idaho State Police addressed the situation, explaining that they had received numerous public records requests for the photographs following the conclusion of the criminal case. “In response to these requests, we adhered to Judge Megan Marshall’s permanent injunction,” a department spokesperson stated, as reported by the New York Post. This injunction specifically required the redaction of areas in the photographs that showed “any portion of the bodies of the decedents or the blood immediately surrounding them.”

The tragic incident involved the deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle. In a poignant reminder of their lives, an Instagram post by Kaylee Goncalves, shared just a day before the murders, captures her smiling with friends, including Mogen, Chapin, and Kernodle. This image, which has since taken on a haunting significance, underscores the profound loss felt by the community.

Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)

“After questions were raised, the records were temporarily removed for further review to ensure the appropriate balance between privacy concerns and public transparency was struck.”

The explanation comes after a trove of images showing the interior of the off-campus Moscow home where undergraduate students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, according to family members. 

In a statement, the family of Goncalves condemned the release of the images, while asking the public to exercise discretion when deciding whether to view the previously unseen evidence. 

Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse, for his sentencing hearing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago.  (AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool)

“Please be kind & as difficult as it is, place yourself outside of yourself & consume the content as if it were your loved one,” the Goncalves family said in a statement. “Your daughter, your sister, your son or brother. Murder isn’t entertainment & crime scene photos aren’t content.”

The families of the four victims previously asked the court to prevent further release of the images, according to court filings.

The house at 1122 King Road, where four University of Idaho students were killed on Nov. 13, 2022, sits boarded up in Moscow, Idaho, on Dec. 27, 2023. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

A motion for a temporary restraining order was filed Aug. 12, which was subsequently granted by Judge Megan Marshall three days later. Court records indicate a permanent injunction barring further release of certain materials was issued Oct. 1. 

Attorneys for the city of Moscow previously told the court that while officials may personally oppose releasing the images, they are bound by Idaho’s public records law, which typically only allows narrow privacy exemptions.

Public records involving redacted body-camera video and photos showing portions of the interior crime scene of the home have already been released, following Bryan Kohberger’s guilty plea in the quadruple murders.

In July 2025, Kohberger admitted to four counts of first-degree murder as part of a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.

Kohberger was subsequently sentenced to four consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He remains in custody at the Idaho Maximum Security Prison. 

The Idaho State Police did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.