For those of us who’ve followed the Idaho 4 case closely over the last eight-plus months, the emotions have been far-ranging. I’ve been in journalism for more than three decades and this case baffles me to this day. 
Many of us want to see a resolution to the case. That may or may not mean defendant Bryan Kohberger is convicted.
As I have said repeatedly, if in fact Kohberger is the person responsible and is convicted in a fair trial, by all means throw the book at him. If he had help (which I believe could be a strong possibility if he was involved, as I think it took more than one person to do this evil), those other people need to be held accountable. In the event he had nothing to do with it, he needs to be found not guilty at trial.
With all that to think about down the road at trial, I’d like to discuss something else with the case.
A group on Facebook known as University of Idaho Murders – Case Discussion (run by Alina Smith) has been getting a fair amount of attention of late and not necessarily good.
While I spent several months in that group, the light dawned in my head recently that this group was not the serious group it portrays itself to be. I would also seriously question that it has 222k members. My guess is more in the thousands, especially since many of the same people post again and again and again.
All that aside, what is most disturbing is that Ms. Smith has allowed her group to become open mic night for those auditioning for Comedy Central. Here are but a few of the most recent offerings to show up on their site. These include: 
Hey, everyone enjoys humor at times whether it be a TV show, comedy club, telling jokes among family and friends etc. On the flip side of the coin, there is a right time and place for such stuff.
Given some family members of the four deceased students are known to visit the above group page, including a sister of one of the victims, wonder if they find the sophomore humor funny? My guess is the answer would be no.
What could be a solid discussion page on a case many of us are riveted to has turned into comedy, middle school drama and more. As you can see in one of the posts above, Ms. Smith is clearly aware of what is going on given she provided a response.
Thankfully, there are some other Idaho 4 discussion groups out there willing to stick to the case 99 percent of the time and ban such childish stuff. To those groups, I salute you and I know many other people do too.
How about that other group go back to focusing on the case itself, allow both sides of the case to be discussed in an adult manner, and we ultimately get a resolution for the four victims and their families?
Meantime, if you want some humor, go support the comedians at your local comedy club who I am sure would greatly appreciate it.
If you can’t run a serious Idaho 4 discussion page …. might be time to take it down.
DavidAlanThomas 