MOSCOW, Idaho – Lauryn Riney, a freshman at the University of Idaho, has mixed feelings about returning to campus after winter break.
She is relieved that an arrest has been made following the shocking deaths of four of her classmates that have shaken her small campus community and garnered national attention.
But she’s still worried about her safety when classes start on Wednesday.
“Even though hopefully they caught the guy, there are still people out there who have the mindset to do something like that,” says Riney, 19. “There’s no way to really know who’s capable of doing something like that until it’s really happens.”
Door locks. Group walk. Carry pepper spray. Rituals that most people usually perform in big cities, but are now emerging in this otherwise quiet student city. They are part of the new normal after the November 13 murders in Moscow.
Here and 10 miles away at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, where classes began on Monday, campus life feels different. The once cozy frontier colleges have been the target of a murder investigation and journalists around the world after four students were murdered in their beds by a masked intruder.
“Communities as we knew them will never go back to normal, and that’s just a hard realization for all of us,” said Sandra Kobiesa, 23, a college student in Washington state. “I don’t think Pullman and Moscow will ever be the same.”
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“It is always very surreal”
The arrival of the students at both campuses this week comes as suspect Bryan Kohberger, 28, will appear in an Idaho courtroom for a second time Thursday. Former Washington state doctoral student is charged with first-degree murder in brutal stabbings of University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, two months ago in a rental house near the campus.
Authorities say they used DNA samples and surveillance footage, cell phone tracking software and shredded Kohberger’s trash at his family’s Pennsylvania home to make an arrest, according to court documents. A status hearing is scheduled for Thursday for Kohberger.
“It still feels very surreal to us,” said Blaine Eckles, a dean of students at the University of Idaho. “We are still dealing with the fallout from the murders and dealing with it, but we are also at a point where some students are less stressed and anxious because there is an arrest.
“They want to understand why this happened, want to know what’s next, and they want to know more about why these individuals were targeted,” Eckles said.
The campus will soon send a message to its community about programs and other resources to help “empower” them, Eckles said. Among them ongoing counseling and workshops on self-defense and harassment. Students will also benefit from “safe walks” around campus upon request and will offer Birdie personal security alarms to students who want them, Eckles said.
The school will also hold a “campus safety lighting march,” similar to the one held in the fall to designate “hot spots” on campus and around town, Eckles noted. According to school officials, campus security will be tightened and there will be more police presence on campus.
There will also be a vigilance workshop this semester with the Moscow police and campus security to give students suggestions on their safety, including traveling in pairs and not wearing headphones when walking around campus. , Eckles added.
“A lot of this may sound like common sense, but we can’t stress enough that we want our students to be aware of their surroundings,” Eckles said.
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“He Was So Close All The Time”
Meanwhile, a college student turned murderer in Washington state has terrified Kobiesa. She is a PhD student and is preparing her doctorate, just like suspect Kohberger. The murders have given Kobiesa a chilling prospect as she is only two buildings away from Kohberger’s apartment complex in Pullman.
“He was so close all the time and I think people are finally realizing that WSU is really close to U of I,” Kobiesa said. “But then it makes him 100 times more real to me because there were probably times when I saw him or interacted with him and I didn’t even know it.”
Students, teachers and the community at large can experience a range of emotions, including fear, anger, sadness and perhaps even despair, said Dr. Bertrina Olivia West Al-Mahdi, a licensed psychologist in Atlanta.
She said that while many will feel comfortable returning to campus, some may continue to live in fear and experience some form of secondary traumatic stress (STS) because the murders did not directly affect them. because even the authorities claimed it was an isolated incident.
“However, I believe that due to the intensity of the event, many students and teachers were vicariously traumatized,” said West Al-Madhi. “I think this will cause many students and teachers to become hypervigilant and feel unsafe in their environment.”
Kobiesa can relate directly to what West Al-Madhi described.
“Pullman, and I think Moscow is such a small city, I don’t think I’ve ever locked my front door,” Kobiesa said. “Now when I’m in the store and someone stops to chat with me, I think ‘why?’ I never thought Pullman would be like this.”
While Pullman and Moscow police assured students there was no threat to the community in the days following the murders, 20-year-old Hayden Stinchfield, a Washington state junior, believes the two communities will never “get to the point where they will feel completely at ease”. ”.
The community should not feel a total sense of security and it is good to have those feelings, West Al-Mahdi said. The psychologist said the holiday may have given some a “chance to reset” and that the murders wouldn’t be at the forefront of everyone’s mind — until they were brought up in college-wide announcements and media outlets.
“Of course many have moved on as young adults of this era, but some may have been even more affected than others,” said West Al-Mahdi.
“It was definitely a terrifying feeling”
Among those affected is Finley Kennedy, 18, a freshman at the University of Idaho from Pendleton, Oregon. Kennedy fell in love with the scenic campus because it reminded her of home.
But that changes when Kennedy remembers the moment she discovered the fatal quadruple stab wounds, which eventually led to her packing up and going home the next day.
“A group of my friends got a text from school with a Shelter in Place type deal. I didn’t get one,” Kennedy said. “It was definitely a terrifying feeling. I couldn’t get out of my room. I was afraid to cross the hallway to go to the bathroom, and I kept my door closed all day.”
Kennedy was disappointed by the lack of information. She and her parents did not enjoy college much in the days following the stabbing. His family thought that there was no security at the time, but stated that the university is now “doing better”.
“I didn’t see myself living the life I was leading before all this happened,” Kennedy said. “So I kind of decided to take this semester and go to (community college).
Although Kennedy made her transfer decision before any suspect was arrested, with media attention and Kohberger now in Moscow, she stands by her transfer decision for a semester.
Kennedy hopes to return to Idaho this fall, but that will depend on the speed of things and her sanity.
“I’d love to go back,” Kennedy said.
“From tragedy comes solidarity”
While some students have opted not to return, there is a surge of connections in the area, said Sam Newton, a criminal defense attorney and professor who teaches criminal justice courses at the University of Idaho. .
“Sometimes out of tragedy comes solidarity, and I think that’s what’s happening here,” Newton said. “But there’s also a disturbing sense of loss.”
Newton, who taught at the university for five years, said his classes would focus on certain legal aspects of murder, specifically related to the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments.
He said it would be “very hard to ignore what’s going on” in a courtroom in the same city.
Eckles, the student counselor in Idaho, agrees. Eckles said the university received no further information from authorities, believing they wanted to protect their investigation.
“We respected that,” Eckles said. “This tragedy and the lawsuits will be ubiquitous here for a while.
“Our job is to be there for our students and staff,” Eckles continued. “We are a small but strong community that comes together.”
Looking out his office window and seeing several students walking down a thoroughfare on Tuesday, Eckles said the university has an obligation to its students, but the four victims are never far from his mind.
“Losing one student is tough, but losing four can be overwhelming at times. We will roll up our sleeves, lean into our emotions and will be there to take the necessary steps to support each other,” Eckles admitted. “We always keep Xana, Kaylee, Madison and Ethan in mind in everything we do.”
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