"A new trove of secret documents in the Bryan Kohberger murder case
could be made public in the coming months
— including never-before-seen photographs of the victims.
Judge Steven Hippler said Monday
he was opening up the lengthy unsealing process,
starting with a first batch of 43 items.
He’s given prosecutors and Kohberger’s lawyers two weeks
to advocate for whether the records should be revealed
or remain hidden from the public."
I hope like heck they are before they were deceased cuz I doubt pics of the deceased, if taken by LE, would be released to the public. At least I don't think.
So, if before... then he was sneaking pictures of them during his stalkings. I'd be shocked, mortified, actually, if he took pics of his "handywork".
From your article:
The records include “photographs of each of the deceased victims [snip]
...
It’s unclear whether the pictures are before or after the vicious stabbing deaths at the off-campus house in Moscow.
I sincerely hope that there will not be any photos of the Kaylee, Maddie, Xana or Ethan at the crime scene published by anyone. I don't think there will be, but you never know considering the leaks lately in this case.
No parent wants pictures of their deceased, dearly beloved child out on the internet for the ghouls to consume.
This Murderer has taken enough away from the victims, survivors, loved ones and entire community. It would be awful IMO to think photos of his crime scene 'handiwork' would be out there for general consumption.
I believe it would give this Murderer great satisfaction knowing they were though. I don't want him to have one more ounce of infamy or pleasure from his heinous actions period. I want him to go away, rot in prison, never to be heard from again until he's carried out in a pine box, sooner rather than later.
JMO
I believe the
New York Post article, “
Secret documents in Bryan Kohberger case, including pics of Idaho murder victims, could be made public” (linked via an X post by
@Dotta), refers to the August 4, 2025 court document,
Order Regarding Sealed Documents. Here’s a screenshot of the first page of the two-page document, with the relevant paragraph highlighted:
The State’s exhibits for the sentencing hearing are no secret since Bill Thompson showed them during the live-streamed hearing.
This clip shows the part of the sentencing hearing during which Thompson shows
four of the State’s exhibits mentioned in the
court document:
Direct link to video on YouTube
Although the livestream camera doesn’t show the projection of the first photo (of Maddie), we can tell it is NOT a bloody crime scene photo, or a photo from the morgue—OF COURSE! We
do get to see projections of the subsequent three photos of the murdered victims, all showing them when they were alive, happy, and lovely.
Of course, the clip I shared above does
not show the State’s fifth exhibit—the
group photo of the six victims, including DM and BF—but that photo had to be taken before the murders, as well.
The short piece,
Prosecutor shows victims' photos as families weep, by ABC11 describes the relevant part of the sentencing hearing, and mentions the joyous photo of all six victims:
Note that on page 2 of the
Order Regarding Sealed Documents,
none of the listed court documents that will
possibly be unsealed soon refer to any victim photos.
So the
New York Post was accurate when they reported in the
article linked above:
A new trove of secret documents in the Bryan Kohberger murder case could be made public in the coming months — including never-before-seen photographs of the victims.
The records include “photographs of each of the deceased victims and a photograph of the six victims together.”
The images of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — who were killed on Nov. 13, 2022 — and surviving roommates Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen were included as exhibits during Kohberger’s July 23 sentencing.
But, unless the
New York Post skipped the sentencing hearing, they were
certainly misleading when they stated:
It’s unclear whether the pictures are before or after the vicious stabbing deaths at the off-campus house in Moscow.
I sincerely doubt that Judge Hippler will ever release any photo of the murdered victims taken after their vicious stabbing deaths, even if they are contained in
earlier sealed court documents not yet under review.
IMO