(NewsNation) — It is the first day of class after winter break at the University of Idaho — and the campus once again looks and feels busy.
For the first time since Nov. 13, students share a sense of relief after the arrest of Bryan Kohberger, the 28-year-old criminal justice graduate student accused of killing four University of Idaho students.
The dean of students says most students who feared coming back to campus and switched to online classes are now feeling safe enough to return.
“You know, it has been hard at times,” said Blaine Eckles, dean of students. “I see the absolute impact that it made on our students. We had four vibrant students taken from us. Just plucked out of thin air. They were very involved and connected on campus. We had students impacted. And my heart breaks for them.”
There is a feeling on the Idaho campus that students want things to feel normal again — but the investigation into Kohberger in many ways is just beginning, especially when it comes to motive.
Posts have been discovered online that may have been written by Kohberger when he was a teenager on the website Tapatalk.
One of the posts reads: ”I see a large intensity of black/yellow/white fuzz; it makes my mind fizzle and I can barely keep in the bounds of reality. It is as if the ringing in my ears and the fuzz in my vision is simply all of the demons in my head mocking me.”
Newsnation’s Ashleigh Banfield spoke to Lauren Matthias, host of “Hidden: A True Crime Podcast,” who first discovered the posts.
“We don’t know what medical help he got,” Matthias said. “We don’t know that on these posts throughout the years he tries different diets. He works really hard to try an array of diets which confirms what friends and relatives have said about him being a strict eater. It seems he thinks that is the cause of what is called ‘visual snow.'”
For the victims’ families, it is emotional to attend court and sit so close to the man accused of killing their loved ones.
Maddie Mogen’s father says he is still too distraught to read the full probable cause affidavit.
“I just broke down and I just cried,” Ben Mogen said in an ABC interview. “I could only take so much of that and I just cried. I still haven’t read the rest of it.”
There is a court hearing Kohberger scheduled for 8 a.m. Thursday. That is when both sides will discuss a preliminary hearing — and when that might take place. That preliminary hearing could be significant because both sides can call witnesses.
