Brooke Wilberger's remains found; killer pleads guilty

[Toler]

Brooke Wilberger's remains found; killer pleads guilty
By Kimberly A.C. Wilson, The Oregonian
September 21, 2009, 12:40PM


Previous stories about Brooke Wilberger and Joel CourtneyJoel Patrick Courtney faced a possible death sentence when he went to trial next February in Benton County for aggravated murder in Wilberger's death. But today, after a change of venue to Marion County Circuit Court, Courtney, a 43-year-old native of unincorporated Washington County, entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to prison for life with no possibility of release.
As a part of the plea agreement, Benton County District Attorney John M. Haroldson obtained clues that helped locate and recover Wilberger's remains. Authorities are withholding details of where -- and what -- they found until a 4 p.m. press conference in Corvallis.

Wilberger, 19, disappeared on May 24, 2004, while she was working a summer job at a Corvallis apartment house after completing her freshman year at Brigham Young University.


Two residents of the apartment building heard a "bloodcurdling" scream about the time she vanished. Only her flip-flops were found, but she was presumed dead.

A few months later, another blond, blue-eyed student escaped a brutal kidnap and rape attack on the campus of the University of New Mexico. The Russian foreign exchange student told police her attacker was Courtney. He was ultimately convicted of kidnapping and raping that young woman.

When an Albuquerque police detective investigating the case made a call to Oregon to check on Courtney's 1991 sex abuse conviction in Washington County, investigators in Oregon looked closer at him as a suspect in the Wilberger case.

One clue: A green van like the one he drove for a building maintenance company was spotted near the Corvallis apartment building and on the nearby Oregon State University campus around the time Wilberger disappeared.


Check back often for more details

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/brooke_wilbergers_remains_foun.html

[MuffyBee]

http://connect2utah.com/content/fulltext/?cid=52202
Brooke Wilberger's Remains Found 
Monday, Sep 21, 2009 @01:42pm CDT


Hat tip to trimmonthelake

[trimmonthelake]

Thanks,Toler and Muffy.

[Sassycat]

She was a pretty girl.   

I'm glad that SOB plead guilty and received LWOP.     

[trimmonthelake]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/remains-brooke-wilberger-found-years-disappearance/story?id=8632233

Brooke Wilberger Found: Killer Gives Location of Remains to Avoid Death Penalty
Joel Courtney Pleaded Guilty to Killing Brooke Wilberger in 2004
By SARAH NETTER
Sept. 21, 2009

Five years after Brigham Young University student Brooke Wilberger vanished from an Oregon apartment complex, her remains have been found.
Authorities told The Associated Press today that her suspected killer, Joel Courtney, told police where he'd left Wilberger's body following her 2004 disappearance. His admission was part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. It was not immediately clear where the remains were found.

The Benton County District Attorney's office said Monday that Courtney, 42, pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The deal allowed Wilberger's family to finally learn what really happened to their daughter after all these years

[Nut44x4]

WOW!

[Nut44x4]

Slain BYU student's Ore. mother grateful case over

After more than five years of uncertainty, Cammy Wilberger says she is grateful the man arrested in her daughter's abduction finally admitted his guilt and led police to her body.

CORVALLIS, Ore. —
After more than five years of uncertainty, Cammy Wilberger says she is grateful the man arrested in her daughter's abduction finally admitted his guilt and led police to her body.

The mother of 19-year-old Brooke Wilberger spoke briefly Monday at a news conference in Corvallis, where Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson announced that Joel Courtney had pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and would spend life in prison without any possibility of release.

"It might be hard for you to understand, but at this time we really feel gratitude, even to Mr. Courtney," Cammy Wilberger said. "We are thankful that justice is served and he will have no opportunity for parole. Now he can go on with what's left of his life."

Courtney, 43, admitted this past weekend that he abducted Brooke Wilberger at knifepoint from the parking lot of an apartment complex in Corvallis in May 2004, bound her with duct tape, raped her and then bludgeoned her to death before hiding her body in the rugged and remote reaches of the Oregon Coast Range.

"He abducted her, he raped her, he murdered her and left her body in the woods," Haroldson said.

Wilberger, who grew up in Oregon near Eugene, had just finished her freshman year at Brigham Young University in Utah. She was washing and repairing lighting fixtures outside the apartment building her sister managed near Oregon State University in Corvallis.

Haroldson said Courtney blocked Wilberger into the parking lot with his van, and waved an envelope at her to trick her into approaching before he grabbed her.

All that was left behind were her flip-flop sandals and the recollections of her screams heard by people in the apartments.

"It was a parent's absolute worst nightmare," Haroldson said.

Courtney also admitted he tried to abduct two other young women near Oregon State University the same day, but both became alarmed and were able to avoid being taken.

Haroldson said that Courtney has never apologized or shown any remorse.

Even though the plea deal that took a potential death penalty off the table "was not an easy decision," Haroldson said it spares the Wilberger family years of court appeals and provided them with closure by finally locating their daughter's remains.

Haroldson called it a "bittersweet day" but said it also gives the community some relief from a long and expensive trial that would have dredged up painful memories for everyone involved in the massive search for Wilberger.

Defense attorneys contacted prosecutors last Friday, and Courtney pleaded guilty to aggravated murder on Monday in Marion County Circuit Court in Salem after providing information that led police to Wilberger's remains.

The exact location was not disclosed because investigators had not completed their recovery, Haroldson said.

In addition to his confession, police had DNA from both Courtney and Wilberger taken from Courtney's van, along with strands of Wilberger's hair.

Courtney was convicted of kidnapping and rape for a similar crime in 2004 in New Mexico. But in that case, the University of New Mexico foreign exchange student who was attacked was able to escape and later identify Courtney after she was taken at knifepoint, stripped naked and raped.

Courtney had a history of violence and sex offenses.

His sister told investigators Courtney began using drugs at age 11, developed an interest in Satanism by the age of 15, and once had to be hit over the head with a clock to prevent him from raping her.

He served time in jail in Oregon for a 1991 sex abuse conviction in Washington County, the suburban Portland area where he grew up.

He spent much of his adult life moving around, including Alaska, Florida and New Mexico, working at times as a fisherman, mechanic and janitor.

He eventually married and settled in Rio Rancho, N.M., an Albuquerque suburb.

As part of the plea deal announced on Monday, Courtney will be returned to New Mexico to serve the remainder of his 18-year sentence there, and then will be returned to Oregon to serve the life sentence.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009913865_apusstudentbodyfound.html?syndication=rss

[linds1980]

http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/article_9e6fd894-aa36-11de-bfd2-001cc4c002e0.html

Green van was crucial to investigation

By Rachel Beck, Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Saturday, September 26, 2009 2:00 am


Soon after Brooke Wilberger vanished May 24, 2004, thousands of tips began pouring in to police. But only a handful provided solid leads - included persistent reports of a green van seen in the area that day.

For eight months afterward, a dark green 1997 Dodge Caravan harbored what would become a crucial piece of evidence in the case against Joel Courtney, who pleaded guilty to Wilberger's aggravated murder on Monday.

Authorities spoke about how the van helped lead to that conclusion.

On the evening of May 24, 2004, Oregon State University employee Bob Clifford reported seeing a green van with Minnesota license plates in the parking lot of Reser Stadium that morning.

When an Oregon State Police detective interviewed Clifford the next day, Clifford said he saw the driver talking to a female student. Something about the exchange raised his suspicions, and he made note of the vehicle and its driver.

The student, who worked for the OSU women's basketball team, later reported her encounter with the man in the green van to another employee in the athletics department, Sandy Santiago. Santiago called the police.

The third report came from another OSU student who was walking to class when a man driving a green van pulled in front of her and asked for directions. The woman walked away after he got out of the vehicle and opened the rear door. When she heard about Wilberger's disappearance, she called the police.

A fourth person who saw a green van on May 24, 2004 - a man who identified himself as "Brian" - never was found. "Brian" called 911 about 11 a.m. that day to report a speeding, recklessly driven minivan near Rickreall.

Courtney came to the attention of local authorities after his arrest Nov. 29, 2004 for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 22-year-old Russian exchange student near the University of New Mexico.

New Mexico authorities did a background check on Courtney and found he had an outstanding warrant from Lincoln County for failing to appear on a charge of driving under the influence of intoxicants. A New Mexico investigator called Newport, explained that they had arrested a man named Joel Patrick Courtney. They asked if Oregon had any missing women or girls in the area.

Lincoln County referred them to the Corvallis Police Department.

The Brooke Wilberger Task Force, a multi-agency team headed by the Corvallis Police Department, learned about Courtney on Dec. 7, 2004, and immediately started to investigate his proximity to Corvallis on May 24.

Investigators soon found that Courtney left Portland that day en route to Newport - but he never showed up. They also discovered Courtney was driving a green 1997 Dodge Caravan.

The van belonged to Creative Building Maintenance, which had briefly employed Courtney. Courtney drove the vehicle from Portland to New Mexico in early June of 2004; Creative Building Maintenance later reclaimed it and returned it to the Northwest.

Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson said the county purchased the van so investigators could freely search it. The exact cost was not available, but Haroldson said it was less than it would have been to litigate challenges related to searching the vehicle.

On Dec. 12, FBI agent Joe Boyer and investigator John Chilcote went to Washington and retrieved the van. Although more than six months had passed since Wilberger's abduction, authorities hoped they would find trace evidence to prove she had been in the vehicle.

According to an affidavit by lead detective Shawn Houck, trace evidence, including latent fingerprints, hair and DNA, "while fragile, will remain intact for many months if protected from the elements ... a crime scene found in a vehicle or a building, if not affirmatively cleaned out, can yield evidence of a crime for months or even years after the criminal conduct ... "

Houck said Oregon State Police criminalists and FBI recovery team members "dismantled" the van that week and sent numerous items to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., to be examined for trace evidence, including DNA, fingerprints and fluids.

In terms of evidence, Houck's hopes were realized: Technicians were able to recover trace evidence of bodily fluids containing the DNA of both Wilberger and Courtney. Houck got the results one year to the date and almost the hour after Wilberger went missing.

"Tell me that wasn't divine," he said.

With no body, the DNA evidence was crucial to the case against Courtney.

"It was a touchdown," Houck said.

Authorities won't say where the van is now, except to say that it remains "under the control" of the Corvallis Police Department. Its ultimate fate has not been determined.

[Nut44x4]

Authorities finish recovering Wilberger's remains

By Rachel Beck, Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 3:15 am

Brooke Wilberger is not alone anymore. 

Last week, authorities finished recovering her remains from a secluded area in the forest just off Highway 20, said Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson.

The whereabouts of Wilberger, who disappeared from the parking lot of a Corvallis apartment complex in 2004, were a mystery until Sept. 18, when the man accused of killing her, Joel Patrick Courtney, told authorities where to find her remains.

A multiagency team of investigators began working at the site on Sept. 19. Authorities refused to disclose the exact location until the work was finished.

The site is on private property off an unmarked dirt road about three miles east of Blodgett and two miles west of Wren.

The dirt road does not appear on county maps. Tuesday afternoon, a log blocked the dirt road and new "No Trespassing" signs hung from trees.

The road leads north from a small paved spur off Highway 20. Heavy litter at the end of the pavement and up the dirt road indicates it is not untrafficked.

Highway 20 is less than 100 yards away from the junction of the spur road and the dirt road.

According to a map from the Benton County Assessor's Office, the spur was part of Highway 20 in the 1950s.

Area residents knew that investigators were working to recover the body.

Some said they had even searched the area when Wilberger was first reported missing.

Courtney, 43, was arrested in 2008 for kidnapping, raping and murdering Wilberger, but maintained his innocence until recently. He was scheduled to go on trial for aggravated murder in early 2010.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed on a plea deal that would give Courtney life in prison if he revealed the location of Wilberger's body.

Courtney admitted that on May 24, 2004, he kidnapped Wilberger at knifepoint, bound her and drove her to the woods. The next day, he struck her in the head with a piece of wood, killing her.

Wilberger's remains were positively identified via dental records.

Investigators also were able to recover clothes, jewelry and keys from the scene.
http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/article_4e8d78aa-ad6e-11de-b414-001cc4c03286.html?print=1

[Nut44x4]

You can read about the case here >>>

http://www.amw.com/missing_persons/brief.cfm?id=27071