Body of missing BYU student found
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For the first time in five years, Brooke Wilberger's family knows where she is.
The 19-year-old Brigham Young University student disappeared from an apartment building in her hometown of Corvallis, Ore., on May 24, 2004, and was never seen or heard from again. Police connected a man who was eventually convicted of kidnap and rape in New Mexico with Wilberger's disappearance, but still no body.
On Monday, that man, Joel Patrick Courtney, accepted a plea deal that would spare him the death penalty and in exchange told police where her body was.
"It might be hard for you to understand, but at this time we really feel gratitude, even to Mr. Courtney," said Cammy Wilberger, the mother of the teenager.
Courtney, 43, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after entering the plea. Wilberger's family had said they would support a plea deal if Courtney would reveal the location of the her remains.
"Our family has kind of likened this to an iceberg experience," Cammy Wilberger said. "Although what the public sees seems raised and maybe devastating, it's nothing compared to what we see on the inside."
Wilberger's friends found out about the discovery on Monday afternoon; their reactions were happy, all things considered.
"I am just so happy for her family, for them to have all this closure on all aspects of things," said Trisha Nef. "It's hard to have all the memories brought back up, but it's wonderful to have everything resolved."
Another friend, Nikki Duke Waite, said hearing the news on Monday brought back all the pain she felt when Wilberger disappeared. But it also brought happiness because now they have closure.
"I am happy, especially just for her family," she said.
She remembered Wilberger as someone who was always willing to help.
"She was just the warmest, kindest person," Waite said.
Waite and Nef lived on the same floor of Deseret Towers that Wilberger did their freshman year at BYU. Six women from that floor, including those two, planned to live together for their sophomore year.
By the time the year started, their numbers had dropped. Wilberger had been missing for three months, and Nef said her best friend didn't come back to BYU. For the first few years they kept in touch with the Wilbergers, but that has slowed in recent years, she said. Now, though, they're figuring out schedules and trying to work in a trip to Oregon.
"A group of us would like to make it up there for the funeral," she said.
Nef talked to a couple of them after she found out about the discovery on Monday afternoon, and they all echoed her thoughts -- shock that it was happening, but pleased with the resolution.
After Wilberger's disappearance, BYU students held candlelight vigils and started a Web site to help find her. A massive search in Oregon that included family, friends and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints turned up nothing, and investigators struggled to find a lead.
Then a detective in the New Mexico case called Oregon investigators, and a troubling picture of Courtney emerged, linking him to Wilberger.
Police found strands of Wilberger's hair among evidence collected from Courtney's van when he was arrested in 2005 in the rape of another student in New Mexico.
He was eventually convicted in the New Mexico case and extradited to Oregon to stand trial for the killing of Wilberger. But it wasn't until last weekend that Courtney admitted the crime and revealed the location of the body.
"He abducted her, he raped her, he murdered her and left her body in the woods," said Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson.
Haroldson said Courtney has admitted approaching two other young women in Corvallis before abducting Wilberger. Those two women became alarmed and were able to avoid abduction.
Courtney approached Wilberger, trying to make it appear he was delivering an envelope, then threatened her with a knife and forced her into the van, Haroldson said.
Courtney bound her with duct tape and drove into the remote Coast Range but returned to Corvallis when he got hungry, with Wilberger in his van.
He went back to a remote spot in the mountains and raped her, and when she tried to fight him off, Courtney killed her by bludgeoning her skull, Haroldson said.
Courtney's 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, where he grew up.
Court documents show Courtney grew up in the Portland area before moving to 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, Courtney will be returned to New Mexico to serve the remainder of his 18-year sentence there before being returned to Oregon to serve the life sentence.
BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said the administration did not have anything planned for students to commemorate the discovery, but added the campus community had been praying for the family for many years.
"Those prayers certainly continue today for the Wilberger family," she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Posted in Local, Provo on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 12:30 am Updated: 1:29 pm. | Tags: Provo, Brooke Wilberger, Joel Patrick Courtney, Murder,
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