04:53 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 16, 2004

By KTVB and AP Staff

Teresa Garcia was found murdered on June 8 in Mountain Home.

MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho – Sheriff's deputies said Wednesday that a one-time "person of interest" in the disappareance of 19-year old Brooke Wilberger in Corvallis, Ore. has now been linked to the shooting death of a 17-year-old Idaho girl.

Teresa Garcia died after being shot four times last week at a relative's house in the Idaho community of Mountain Home.

The day after her killing, Richard Wilson, 39, a Washington state ex-convict killed himself after a chase with police in Utah. Wilson also seriously wounded two women in separate shooting incidents in southern Utah, police have said.

Elmore County, Idaho Sheriff Rick Layher said ballistics tests show the bullets that killed Garcia came from Richard Wilson's gun.

Layher said authorities had believed there might be a connection because both the Utah shootings and the Garcia murder seemed so random.

Layher said Wilson used a .45 caliber revolver in all three shootings.

KSL Richard Wilson killed himself after a high-speed chase with police June 9.

Wilson was also initially considered a "person of interest" in the Oregon disappearance of Brooke Wilberger, a Brigham Young University student who went missing May 24 from her sister's apartment in Corvallis.

Corvallis Police have since ruled out a connection between Brooke's abduction and Wilson because he could not be placed in western Oregon during the time of her disappearance.