The City of Moscow announced on July 17 that it would begin making some investigation reports from the King Road Homicides case publicly available. Moscow Mayor Art Bettge told Moscow-Pullman Daily News that the plea deal was “the best outcome we could hope for.”
Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty on July 2 to the murders of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in 2022. In exchange for the guilty plea, Kohberger will no longer face the death penalty, but is likely to serve four consecutive life terms for each of the murders.
Following the non-dissemination order hearing on Thursday, the City of Moscow issued a press release saying that it would establish a new website for the documents. The city intends to make unsealed documents publicly available for free “to enhance access to public information and to reduce the burden on the city’s limited staff.”
The press release cited “significant public and media interest” in the case, but no investigative records will be released until after sentencing is completed and any public records requests made before then will be automatically denied.
“The volume of investigative records is substantial, and all records must be reviewed to determine if they are exempt or contain exempt or protected personal information that must be redacted … or are subject to judicial seal, before release,” police chief Anthony Dahlinger wrote in the release.
Bettge said in a July 18 article from Moscow-Pullman Daily News that he hopes Moscow can return to being the “safe and happy college town that we are.”
Going to trial would likely force the victims’ families and witnesses to continue to relive the details of the case, according to Bettge. “I think that spares everybody a lot of heartache and trouble, and allows for the community to begin healing more rapidly than revisiting it all the time,” he said.
Bettge said he has regrets about how the case was handled, from crisis management to mistakenly labeling the murders as a possible “crime of passion” to not holding a press conference quickly enough.
He said the emotional toll the community has faced was worsened by the intrusion of national media following the murders. “They didn’t care,” Bettge said. “They just came in for their soundbite, grabbed it and if it was salacious and gory or something, they loved it. They took that and went and ran with it regardless of the impact on people’s feelings.”
According to the City of Moscow’s records press release, the website will include records produced by the Moscow Police Department. Once the city is permitted to start releasing records, it will issue a separate press release with information about the website.
Any investigative reports and other documents managed by other organizations, including the Idaho State Police, Latah County Sheriff’s Office, Latah County Prosecutor’s Office, Pennsylvania State Police, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pullman Police Department, University of Idaho and Washington State University are under the control of those organizations. Requests for those records should be directed to the appropriate agency.
Dakota Steffen can be reached at [email protected].