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Moscow, Idaho

L exi Pattinson, daughter of local lawyer Mike Pattinson, is pissed.

She’s on TikTok on her phone, watching all these videos that WSU students are making about Bryan Kohberger.

Apparently the guy was a TA? He was hired by WSU?

WSU has a reputation, locally, for hiding bad news. Lexi knows a lot about this because her mom works there, so she’s heard the stories.

“Their hazing is much worse than ours,” she says, explaining that WSU’s Greek life, unlike the University of Idaho’s, is not regulated by the Interfraternity Council.

(Three weeks after Kohberger’s arrest, nineteen-year-old WSU student Luke Tyler dies in his bed—a “suicide” after being badly hazed—and the school does not issue any statement.

Lexi’s mom tells her that the staff is very, very upset.)

She can see on TikTok that Kohberger’s former students are talking about all the red flags: his harsh grading of women, his rude remarks to women in class, his aggression, his stalking of someone, his social difficulties.

So where is a statement from WSU about the school’s role in this?

“He was their hire, a teacher, a TA,” Lexi said after learning about Kohberger’s past disciplinary problems. “They haven’t even addressed that aspect. And I think that’s disgusting and that reflects on a lot of the community. I know my mom and people that work there were pissed.”

Her mom will wind up leaving.

The only silver lining—and it’s a very, very thin one—is that Kohberger’s arrest removes a question mark Lexi had about the possible role of someone she went to Moscow High School with: Emma Bailey.

Emma lived near the King Road house and would, months later, face drug-related charges in connection with the suspicious death of another UI student. (Prosecutors dismissed the case.)

When the Vandal Alert went out about an unconscious person and then Lexi heard about the murders, she was worried that drugs and Emma were involved.

But when she learned it was a knife attack and that drugs were not involved, she stopped suspecting Emma. When Lexi sees all the stuff floating around on TikTok about Kohberger and his strange behavior, she’s relieved that he’s not from Moscow.

Even so, as she looks around at the enhanced police presence and the way everyone now locks their cars and doors at night, she realizes that the imprint Kohberger made on Moscow is going to last for a very long time.

“People think they know how it affected our town,” she said, “but [they don’t]. It isn’t the same. We lock all our doors… all our car doors… our little town isn’t as safe as we thought it was.”

And in her mind, WSU is primarily to blame.