Rebecca Boone, Author at The Rapid City Post

FILE - The family of Ethan Chapin, including mother Stacy Chapin, right, and father Jim Chapin, walk to the Ada County Courthouse for Bryan Kohberger's plea deal hearing, on July 2, 2025, in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

Families of Bryan Kohberger’s murder victims ask an Idaho judge to block graphic crime scene photos

August 28, 2025

The families of two of the four murdered University of Idaho students have asked a judge to prevent the release of graphic crime scene photos and videos, saying the images are traumatizing and violate their privacy. Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to life without parole last month for the stabbing murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho. The crime in 2022 drew worldwide attention, and the Moscow Police Department received hundreds of requests to release its investigatory records. Idaho law generally allows investigation records to be released once criminal investigations are complete.

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)

Kohberger’s sexist, creepy behavior alarmed university faculty and students before Idaho murders

August 18, 2025

Fellow grad students told investigators that Bryan Kohberger developed a reputation for being sexist and creepy while attending a criminal justice program in the months before he killed four University of Idaho students in 2022. His behavior was so problematic that one Washington State University faculty member told co-workers that if he successfully completed his Ph.D. and became a professor, he would likely stalk or sexually abuse his future students, according to the documents. Summaries of the interviews with students and instructors at Washington State University were included among more than 550 pages of investigation documents released by Idaho State Police last week in response to public record requests.

A Congolese refugee’s 8-year struggle to reunite with her family in the US

August 10, 2025

A Congolese refugee who had been separated from her family for eight years was on the verge of joining them in the United States when President Donald Trump halted the refugee program in January. She was one of at least 12,000 refugees who had imminent travel plans canceled. Many of them had already sold belongings in anticipation of resettlement. A lawsuit brought by refugee aid groups and a handful of individuals, including the Congolese woman, is still playing out in the courts. The Congolese woman made it to the U.S. earlier this year thanks to a narrow window created by a court ruling that was later overturned. But thousands of refugees remain in limbo.

Brian Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse, July 2, 2025, in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool)

Families of the Idaho students Bryan Kohberger stabbed to death are set to see him sentenced

July 22, 2025

A judge is expected to order Bryan Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole this week for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. Wednesday’s sentencing hearing will be an opportunity for the families of Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Kaylee Goncalves to tell the court and Kohberger about the anguish they’ve felt since he broke into a home and killed their loved ones in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in a deal that avoids the death penalty. He waived his right to appeal.

An Idaho judge has lifted a sweeping gag order in Bryan Kohberger’s quadruple murder case

July 17, 2025

An Idaho judge has lifted a sweeping gag order in Bryan Kohberger’s quadruple murder case. Kohberger avoided a potential death sentence by pleading guilty earlier this month to the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students at a rental home near campus in 2022. Kohberger admitted to breaking into the rental home through a sliding door and killing the four friends, who had no connection with him. A judge in Moscow, Idaho issued a sweeping gag order early in the case, barring prosecutors, defense attorneys and other officials involved in the investigation from talking to reporters or others about anything not already included in public court documents. The gag order was lifted Thursday.

FILE - Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students, is escorted into court for a hearing in Latah County District Court, Sept. 13, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, Pool, File)

Idaho judge rejects Bryan Kohberger’s request to delay murder trial in college student stabbings

June 26, 2025

An Idaho judge says he won’t postpone the quadruple murder trial of a man accused in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students. Fourth District Judge Steven Hippler made the ruling Thursday, telling Bryan Kohberger’s attorneys that jury selection will begin Aug. 4 and that opening arguments will likely be held about two weeks later. Hippler also rejected the defense team’s request to present theories of four “alternate perpetrators” to the jury, saying there was no relevant or meaningful evidence to connect any of them to the crime. The 30-year-old Kohberger is a former graduate student at Washington State University. He is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the Nov. 13, 2022 deaths.

FILE - In this March 30, 2021, file photo, young unaccompanied migrants, watch television inside a playpen at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, in Donna, Texas. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, Pool, File)

Judge orders US refugee office to reconsider some children’s cases

June 9, 2025

A federal judge says the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement must reconsider the cases of some migrant children who have been stuck in government custody since the Trump administration changed the identification requirements for would-be family sponsors. The opinion from U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich in Washington, D.C., on Monday found that the Trump administration’s more stringent regulations caused undue delays for the children and the parents and adult siblings who were hoping to bring the kids into their homes. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rebecca Boone.