{"id":36149,"date":"2023-01-12T03:56:55","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T03:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=36149"},"modified":"2023-01-12T03:56:55","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T03:56:55","slug":"university-of-idaho-resumes-classes-2-months-after-homicides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/12\/university-of-idaho-resumes-classes-2-months-after-homicides\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Idaho resumes classes 2 months after homicides"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/p>\n MOSCOW<\/span> <\/p>\n

University of Idaho students sensed renewal of the everyday campus experience Wednesday with the start of spring classes, enjoying overdue greetings, embraces and conversations with classmates almost two months after the North Idaho community became the talk of the nation.<\/p>\n

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Heavy foot traffic returned to the state\u2019s namesake university for the first time since November, when the stabbing deaths of four U of I undergraduates at an off-campus home upended the 9,300-person student body\u2019s usual movements. Many attendees were back shuttling between academic buildings, traversing the morning\u2019s slick pathways, for the first time since Thanksgiving break, after some chose to finish the fall semester from home in the wake of the killings.<\/p>\n

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Several students said the arrest of a suspect \u2014 Bryan Kohberger, a Washington State University Ph.D. student living just over the state line in Pullman \u2014 put their minds at ease ahead of the new semester. Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of seniors Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21; junior Xana Kerndole, 20; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20.<\/p>\n

Maverick March, 19, a freshman transfer student, told the Idaho Statesman that he feels safer knowing police have someone in custody. He returned to Moscow after spending winter break back home in Washington state\u2019s Tri-Cities area, he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling. It\u2019s reassuring,\u201d March said Wednesday morning, heading back from a computer science class to his undergraduate dorm. \u201cI hope they have the right guy. It definitely feels better knowing that they found someone rather than someone just being out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout campus, private security vehicles positioned themselves in well-traveled areas and roved the streets as part of the university\u2019s pledge to maintain a stepped-up presence for students\u2019 arrival. The Idaho State Police no longer has troopers dedicated to the campus but still makes the rounds when in the area, on top of patrols by the Moscow Police Department\u2019s campus division, Moscow Police Capt. Anthony Dahlinger told the Statesman by email.<\/p>\n

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Kenzi Hansen, 18, a transfer from the University of Montana<\/span> who grew up about a half-hour from Moscow, told the Statesman that she worries about how to broach the topic of the homicides, if it comes up with her classmates. She said it\u2019s a touchy subject, especially for those who may have had ties to the four victims, and she doesn\u2019t want to rub anyone the wrong way.<\/p>\n

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While Hansen has refrained from saying much about the case herself, she said, that didn\u2019t stop the chatter from her peers during the first day of the semester. As students filed into Hansen\u2019s animal husbandry class and took their seats, Hansen said, she overheard a few discussing Kohberger\u2019s arrest. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s something we\u2019re going to be talking about for a long time,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cJust because this community has never experienced anything like that. We\u2019ve never had anything happen like this before. I think we\u2019re all just trying to adjust to it and figure out how to now get on with our daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Washington State, located about 9 miles away, started its spring classes Monday. Kohberger was one of 34 students<\/a> in the criminal justice and criminology department\u2019s graduate program.<\/p>\n

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Despite the ongoing national attention on Moscow as Kohberger moves through the legal process, gone Wednesday from most school buildings were the fliers posted across the campus and elsewhere in the small college town seeking help from the public with any tips and leads that may help investigators.<\/p>\n

A university spokesperson referred a request for comment from school administration about the first day of classes back to a pair of emails that U of I President Scott Green sent to students and university staff last month.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Green\u2019s Dec. 30 memo shared news of the arrest in the King Road homicides, a sudden relief for the community that spent several weeks anxiously awaiting updates in the investigation and wondering if police, who kept a tight grip on information, had any meaningful leads.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhile we cannot bring back Maddie, Kaylee, Xana and Ethan, we can thoughtfully and purposefully carry their legacy forward in the work we do,\u201d Green said. \u201cThe next few months will be tough on their friends and families as the legal system begins the process of publicly prosecuting these crimes to bring justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students reconnect while legal process plays out<\/h3>\n

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Discussion of new class schedules and syllabuses, and the excitement of students learning their friends were in the same course, filled the plaza between the Student Union Building and campus library Wednesday morning. The university\u2019s initial plan to increase its number of virtual courses to ensure those who did not wish to return in person while the investigation appeared without much progress seemed a distant memory.<\/p>\n

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Additional signs of the campus\u2019s typical college activities included members of the Chrisman Battalion U.S. Army ROTC dressed in their camouflage uniforms, and members of the Vandals athletics teams, criss-crossing to and from class and other campus obligations. A U of I representative gave a prospective student and her parents a guided tour through a maze of students headed to class.<\/p>\n

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Helen, 21, a senior landscape architecture major from the Coeur d\u2019Alene area, who declined to provide her last name, acknowledged that Kohberger\u2019s arrest has helped lift a weight off students as they start classes. She complimented police, while noting the dearth of details for nearly seven weeks left many with concerns about returning to Moscow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had issues with the lack of information, but it ended up being a good thing,\u201d she told the Statesman, en route to her on-campus work study. She said she didn\u2019t know the victims, but a friend grew up with some of them, she said, attending some of their birthdays in Kootenai County.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really tough for her, and we provided a lot of support,\u201d she said. \u201cShe\u2019s glad they found (a suspect).\u201d<\/p>\n

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Also this week, the university\u2019s Sigma Chi fraternity, where Chapin was a member, posted a video on Instagram of move-in day into their Greek house located less than a 600-foot walk from the King Road home where he was killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are happy to be back,\u201d the post<\/a> read. \u201cLooking forward to a semester full of good times and growth,\u201d with the hashtag #livelifelikeethan<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the university\u2019s four-story student union, students used their cellphones to look up their courses combined with directional signage to navigate to their new classrooms. Several others laughed and caught up with friends in the lunch line for chicken sandwiches or burritos on the first-floor food court.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Lauren Jamison, 20, a junior from Santa Barbara County, California, sat at a table between classes and chatted with James Stone, a fisheries major. They talked about lengthy road trips they each took back to Moscow. Jamison told the Statesman it was her first time making the drive through the Lake Tahoe area alone without her parents, after finishing last semester virtually from Southern California following the Thanksgiving break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure my mom was happy I stayed at home,\u201d Jamison said, adding that she\u2019d have returned to campus this semester regardless of the status of the police investigation into the students\u2019 deaths.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Stone, who is from northeastern Pennsylvania, described facing inclement weather during his 37-hour trek over four days to ensure he had his car back in North Idaho, so he can stay in the area for a summer internship.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great,\u201d Stone told Jamison, of the trip.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stone\u2019s hometown is one county over from where Kohberger grew up in eastern Pennsylvania. His route was likely a reverse trip to the one Kohberger made in his white Hyundai Elantra from Pullman back to Monroe County in mid-December with his father. Police have since seized the vehicle and allege it was the one seen in surveillance footage from Nov. 13 in the vicinity of the King Road home in Moscow.<\/p>\n

From shock of killings to relief of arrest<\/h3>\n

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Kohberger was taken into custody almost two weeks ago, and brought to Idaho after he waived extradition. On Jan. 4, he was flown in a Pennsylvania police plane to Pullman before being escorted to the Latah County Jail in Moscow by several police cruisers and SUVs flashing blue and red lights.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That night, dozens of media and community members gathered in the dark outside the jail to bear witness to Kohberger\u2019s arrival. Nikia Newton, 26, and her boyfriend, Chase Thompson, 24, were among the Moscow residents on hand.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Newton graduated from Washington State in May 2021, while Thompson graduated from U of I last month. The couple live together in a rental home in the same neighborhood as the house where the four students were killed. Newton told the Statesman that she was dismayed to learn the suspect was attending the same college she once had. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was just shocked. I was expecting it to be someone who came in from out of town, especially since it was a (football) game weekend,\u201d Newton said of the Nov. 13 incident. \u201cAnd initially, it was really scary because we live so close to where it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Thompson said Newton, who works in Pullman, had been having a hard time sleeping for many weeks following the killings. They said they both feel relieved knowing police have a suspect in custody, and plan to continue watching the case play out.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, a lot of people around town are relieved and more willing to go out and resume their normal lives, compared with before,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be back to normal for a while, but it\u2019s a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This story was originally published January 11, 2023 8:24 PM.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n \"Profile
\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n Kevin Fixler is an investigative reporter with the Idaho Statesman. He previously covered local government, environment and transportation at The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, California, and the Summit Daily News in Breckenridge, Colorado. He holds degrees from the University of Denver and UC Berkeley\u2019s Graduate School of Journalism.<\/span>
\n Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
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\n \"Profile
\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n Angela Palermo covers business and public health for the Idaho Statesman. She grew up in Hagerman and graduated from the University of Idaho, where she studied journalism and business. Angela previously covered education for the Lewiston Tribune and Moscow-Pullman Daily News. <\/span>
\n Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div><\/div>\n