MINOT - A former jailer and campus security guard is being tried here this week for the death of a college student nearly 200 miles away. At the same time, police are searching for a suspect in the death of another college student in their own city.

Minot State University psychology major Kellie Steffan finds it a little surreal, and scary.

"When this happens to two girls, it makes you feel really unsafe," said Steffan, 19, who attended high school for a time with Minot State University student Anita Knutson.

Mindy Morgenstern, 22, of New Salem, and Knutson, 18, of Butte, were found dead in their off-campus apartments - Morgenstern in Valley City on Sept. 13, and Knutson in Minot on June 4. Both died of knife wounds, authorities said.

A big difference is that Knutson's killer is still at large. Authorities believe they have the man who killed Morgenstern. Moe Gibbs, 34, has pleaded not guilty.

Gibbs is to go on trial Tuesday in Minot on a Class AA felony murder charge in Morgenstern's death. The trial was moved to Minot last December because of the attention the case got in the Barnes County area.

Authorities said Gibbs, a former Barnes County jailer and a former security guard at Valley City State, lived in the same apartment complex as Morgenstern, who had one semester of classes left. Prosecutors allege Gibbs killed Morgenstern after she rejected his attempts to have sex with her. His attorney has compared the allegation to "trying to make a pig fly."

In preparing for this week's trial, Ward County Sheriff's Capt. Todd Keller said Gibbs' experience as a jailer "heightens our awareness, what he knows as far as security procedures in a jail."

In March, two Ward county jailers suffered head injuries when an inmate assaulted them while trying to escape. The inmate was not handcuffed or shackled at the time. Keller said changes have been made since then, including more training for staff members. He declined to give specifics.

Gibbs' attorney, Jeff Bredahl, has argued that the amount of DNA found under Morgenstern's fingertips was tiny, and that it could have been exchanged on a door handle. He also said investigators did not find Morgenstern's blood in Gibbs' car, apartment or clothing.

Gibbs also has pleaded not guilty to charges in two other cases. He is charged with sexually assaulting five female inmates while working at the Barnes County Jail, and with a 2004 rape in Fargo. He faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted on the murder charge. He has been jailed in Fargo without bail.

After Gibbs' arrest in Morgenstern's death, authorities found he had changed his name from Glen Dale Morgan Jr. in August 2005, and had served 5½ years for attempted murder in a charge brought in military court while he was in the Navy. The case led North Dakota lawmakers earlier this year to expand criminal background check laws for jailers and other state workers.

Minot police are still searching for suspects in the death of Knutson, whose body was found in her apartment bedroom by her father and a landlady. Authorities said a knife was found at the scene, and they suspect an intruder.

The students' deaths have left campuses in shock, and students watchful.

"With it being in the news in this kind of context, it certainly doesn't reflect on the realities of what Valley City is all about," said Doug Anderson, spokesman for Valley City State University.

The Gibbs trial has not been a big subject in Morgenstern's hometown of New Salem, about 160 miles west on Interstate 94, said Kristee Freadhoff, owner of the Cow Town Cafe and Laundromat. People just want a resolution, she said.

Eunice Morgenstern, Mindy's mother, said family members plan to attend at least some of Gibbs' trial. But she said the family has already found some peace.

"Our closure is in our faith, not in the trial," she said.