12:20 PM PDT on Wednesday, August 3, 2005

By JIM PARKER, kgw.com Staff

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- A man being held in a New Mexico jail on unrelated kidnapping and rape charges has been charged with aggravated murder in the disappearance of Oregon native Brooke Wilberger, a 19-year-old college student who vanished more than a year ago, Corvallis police and New Mexico authorities first confirmed to KGW on Tuesday.

kgw.com

Joel Patrick Courtney as shown in police mug shot.

Joel Patrick Courtney, 39, was placed on a "fugitive hold" after being served with an Oregon arrest warrant at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque. He's jailed there pending trial on charges that he attacked another female college student; that incident occurred six months after Wilberger's disappearance.

Courtney was to be arraigned on the Oregon charges -- which included attempted murder, kidnapping and rape -- in a New Mexico courtroom on Wednesday afternoon.

Corvallis police Capt. Ron Noble, however, indicated to KGW that authorities have not yet found Wilberger's body: "We still don't know where Brooke is."

Wilberger's parents in Vaneta, Ore. declined to comment late Tuesday. Jared Cordon, Wilberger's brother-in-law in Corvallis, said the family may issue a statement on Wednesday.

A police news conference was scheduled for Wednesday at 2 p.m. to provide further details about the suspect, Noble said, but he refused to indicate what led investigators to Courtney.

Oregon court records obtained by KGW show that Courtney was scheduled to appear in Lincoln County Court in Newport on a drunk driving charge on May 24, 2004 -- the day Wilberger vanished. The records indicate Courtney called the courthouse at one point to tell officials he was in Corvallis and on his way to the hearing, but he never showed up.

Courtney finally did go to court on the DUII charge two weeks later and was released.

Wilberger, 19, disappeared from an apartment complex near the Oregon State University campus. No trace of her was found despite massive searches; detectives had repeatedly said they thought she was abducted and investigated about 60 persons of interest before charging Courtney.

KGW

Brooke Wilberger.

Wilberger, a student at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, had been staying with her sister at the Corvallis apartment complex she managed. The day Wilberger went missing, she had been cleaning the light fixtures outside the complex. Investigators found Wilberger's flip flops and a pail of water at the location where she vanished.

Courtney is currently awaiting trial on charges of first-degree kidnapping, rape and aggravated battery, stemming from an attack on a foreign exchange student attending the University of New Mexico. He is not expected to be returned to Oregon until court proceedings against him conclude in New Mexico.

Under Oregon law, the aggravated murder charge for Wilberger's killing carries the possibility of a death sentence.

At the time of his arrest on Nov. 30, 2004, Albuquerque police officer Trish Ahrensfield described Courtney as "a bad dude" who "had prior sex offenses in other states." One of his past convictions was in Oregon for attempted rape, she said.

Oregon records reviewed by KGW show Courtney was originally charged with attempted rape, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree sex abuse for a January 1985 incident and was sentenced to nine years probation in Washington County.

Courtney violated probation and was sentenced to a minimum of 2 years in state prison, records show. How much time he served, if any, was unclear.

In the New Mexico case, police said a female student was walking home from work when Courtney put a knife to her throat and forced her into his car. Courtney then allegedly took the victim to a parking lot, tied her up and sexually assaulted her.

Even though Courtney bound the student's ankles with a shoestring and tied her wrists with a scarf, she managed to break free and fled naked down a city street, Albuquerque police said. A person walking nearby saw the victim and called police, who said the victim gave them a detailed description of Courtney. They arrested him a few hours later -- still in the same neighborhood where the attack had occurred.

Courtney grew up in the Portland area before moving to Albuquerque, where he lived with his wife and children, said his older sister, Dina McBride of Beaverton.

"He has a long history of having been involved with run-ins with the law... and we feel that if he is found guilty that he needs to be held accountable," McBride said. "Justice needs to be served."

McBride told KGW that Courtney's family has cooperated with investigators and they were also in contact with Wilberger's family.

"We completely support the investigation," McBride said. "We support the Wilberger family, and send them our prayers and best wishes."

AP file photo

Jared Cordon, the brother-in-law of Brooke Wilberger is seen holding a missing person abducted card during a news conference concerning his sister-in-law Brooke Wilberger.

Wilberger's disappearance shocked Corvallis and much of Oregon as well as the BYU campus in Utah.

"There are still a lot of people that think about her all the time," said Howard Fuller, a bishop at the Mormon church Wilberger attended at Brigham Young.

Corvallis police looked into more than 5,000 tips before Tuesday's developments.

Their investigation initially focused on Sung Koo Kim, a man who had been arrested for stealing thousands of women's panties from college dormitories in the Corvallis area and beyond.

Kim's parents and attorney insisted he was innocent in the Wilberger case, saying he was at home the day of her disappearance. Corvallis police ultimately cleared Kim of any involvement in the Wilberger case.

Kim's parents were pleased that a suspect was charged Tuesday. "This is what I was praying for all this year," Kim's mother, Dong Kim, said.

(KGW reporters Kyle Iboshi, Keely Chalmers, Nicole Doll, Randy Neves and Dave Northfield along with AP and CNN contributed to this report.)