The man accused of killing a Virginia Tech student last week in a campus restaurant had visited the school's counseling center, though for what remains unclear.

Haiyang Zhu, a 25-year-old Tech doctoral candidate, is charged with first-degree murder in the Jan. 21 killing of Xin Yang.

Police have said Zhu attacked 22-year-old Yang with a knife as the pair had coffee together at the Au Bon Pain cafe in the Graduate Life Center. According to a search warrant affidavit filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court, Tech police arrived to find Zhu holding Yang's severed head.

Officials have said Zhu and Yang met earlier this month. Because both are from China, Zhu was assisting Yang in her transition to Blacksburg.

The university reported last week that Zhu had no contact with Tech police before the killing and was not discussed by the university's threat assessment or CARE teams -- groups of university officials in areas such as student life, mental health and law enforcement who meet regularly to discuss troubled students.

But according to another search warrant affidavit, information revealed during the investigation into the killing indicated that Zhu had received treatment or counseling at Cook Counseling Center since he arrived at the school in August.

It's not uncommon for students, faculty and staff at Tech to seek help at Cook. Visits to the center increased more than 50 percent from 7,147 in the 2005-06 school year to 11,065 last school year, as the university dealt with the aftermath of the April 16, 2007, shootings.

During a search of Zhu's apartment, officers saw business cards and a resource packet of psychological brochures, according to the affidavit.

Police then seized patient records from Cook. They had been granted the warrant to search for telephone logs, records, computers, e-mails, or any data or information "showing or contributing to a means, motive or opportunity for the related crime and or the relationship between suspect Haiyang Zhu and victim Xin Yang."

Another search warrant showed that police had seized medical records for both Zhu and Yang from Tech's Schiffert Health Center.

Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said Wednesday afternoon that he was not aware Zhu had received treatment at Cook. He referred to federal law that protects the privacy of medical records.

Hincker said that every student who enrolls at Tech has medical records in Schiffert.

"Obviously that stuff is going to be protected," he said.

The April 16 tragedy focused national and statewide attention on mental health issues, especially at Tech and other college campuses.

More than a year before he killed 32 students and faculty and himself on Tech's campus, Seung-Hui Cho met with a counselor at Cook in December 2005 and also was temporarily detained at Carilion Saint Albans Behavioral Health.

Tech secured a $2.65 million federal grant last year to support additional counselors at Cook and other positions at the university related to mental health and trauma recovery.