Bryan Kohberger: Idaho State police briefly release horror crime scene images before deleting them

The shocking scale of violence inside the University of Idaho home where four college students were killed has been laid bare through thousands of newly released crime scene photographs.

The images, nearly 3000 in total, were briefly posted online by Idaho State Police this week before being taken down.

They revealed harrowing scenes from the Moscow residence where Bryan Kohberger murdered Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in November 2022.

While many photos showed ordinary student life, cluttered desks, half-empty drinks, and bedrooms with clothes on the floor, others captured unimaginable brutality, including blood-spattered walls, blood-soaked-through mattresses and floorboards dyed red.

They also showed furniture overturned and deep tears in mattresses, hinting at a desperate fight for survival.

News of the photo release has devastated victims’ loved ones. The Goncalves family, in particular, appealed for restraint.

“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. Your daughter, your sister, your son or brother,” they said.

“We got a call at 11:04am that photos would be released this afternoon. 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.

“Kaylee Jade, I am so sorry that this has happened to you. I am so sorry that people who never even knew you, now post about you, suggesting things about your life that are so untrue. We will never quit fighting for you.”

The Nightly has chosen not to publish the images out of respect for the victims and their families.

What happened that night?

The off-campus residence, since demolished, once housed six students. The photos showed blood stains throughout the three-storey structure, across bedrooms, hallways, and staircases, marking the path of the killer who entered through an unlocked door shortly after 4am.

Investigators believe Kohberger, dressed in black and wearing a mask, first went to the third floor. There, he fatally stabbed best friends Mogen and Goncalves, who had fallen asleep in Mogen’s bed after a night out.

Crucially, investigators later discovered Kohberger’s knife sheath in that room, a detail that became key to his conviction after DNA testing placed him inside the home during the murders, a key forensic link that helped prosecutors close the case.

The final moments downstairs

As the attack unfolded, Kernodle had just received a DoorDash order on the second floor. Detectives believe she may have heard noise upstairs and approached, potentially startling Kohberger and causing him to exit Mogen’s room in a rush, leaving the knife sheath behind.

From there, he pursued Kernodle into her bedroom, where she was stabbed more than 50 times. Chapin, who was sleeping beside her, was also killed.

Photos from their room show soaked bedding, bloody streaks on walls, and spatter across floors and furniture.

Bryan Kohberger’s trial

Kohberger, then a criminology PhD student at Washington State University, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to four counts of first-degree murder and received four consecutive life sentences, plus ten years.

He has never explained his motive and has even refused to say where the murder weapon is, the Ka-Bar knife believed to have been used has never been located.