Joel Courtney admits to murder of Brooke Wilberger in Corvallis, OR

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
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.

Read more: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

FBI: Wilberger may be one of 4 victims

Possible serial case - Suspect Joel Courtney may be connected to three other Oregon sexual assaults and slayings, the agency says
Thursday, February 23, 2006 BOAZ HERZOG

The man charged with murder in the 2004 disappearance of college student Brooke Wilberger may have sexually assaulted and killed three additional victims in Oregon, according to the FBI.

The FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program recently issued a bulletin to police agencies seeking information that could connect Joel Patrick Courtney to unsolved homicides and sexual assaults.

The alert did not name the suspected Oregon victims. Beth Anne Steele, a spokeswoman in the FBI's Portland office, said "it's not unusual for police agencies to look at unsolved cases" but refused to comment further.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ("")Courtney is in custody in Albuquerque, N.M., awaiting trial on charges that he raped a University of New Mexico student in November 2004. Oregon officials are seeking his extradition, but that is unlikely until the New Mexico case is completed.

According to the FBI's alert, there is a "high possibility" that Courtney has assaulted victims in Portland and Beaverton; Albuquerque, Bernalillo, Grants and Rio Rancho, N.M.; Anchorage; and Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Pensacola, Fla. Courtney also is known to have traveled to Mexico through Arizona, the alert said.

The alert said Courtney is inclined to abduct white females, ages 15 to 25, with blond hair and blue eyes, in outdoor settings.
The Portland Police Bureau's Cold Case Squad has been examining cases with possible links to Courtney for months, said Detective Paul Dolbey, a police bureau spokesman. The FBI alert placed Courtney in Portland between 1980 and 1989, in 1993 and in 2004.

The bureau's cold case investigation began soon after a Benton County grand jury indicted Courtney in late July on 14 counts of aggravated murder -- one count for each legal theory of how Wilberger was killed -- as well as kidnapping, rape, sexual abuse and sodomy.

"We've looked at all cases with similarities and have been working it hard since," Dolbey said Wednesday evening. He declined to say whether the investigation had turned up any leads or how many of the squad's cases were similar to Courtney's suspected abduction methods.

Officer Mark Hyde, a Beaverton police spokesman, said nobody in his department was familiar with any new or old cases in which Courtney is a suspect. The department had not been aware of the FBI linking Courtney to possible victims in Beaverton between 1986-92 until reporters called Wednesday, Hyde said.

Sassybtsweet wrote:

Me, too Sassy!!!!!!!

I remember this case well. I'm glad that her parents finally have answers.

Brooke Wilberger's killer, Joel Courtney, started using drugs at age 11 and tried to rape his sister when she was 14, this morning's Corvallis Gazette Times reports.

One of Courtney's sisters told investigators that she had to strike her brother in the head with a clock to stop him from attacking her, the paper reports.

She also said her brother became interested in Satanism as a teen.
A cousin of Courtney's told investigators of four separate times during her youth that Courtney had tried to sexually assault her. The incidents happened when she was 12 to 17 years old and Courtney was between 14 and 19 years old.
Once, in about 1983, she woke to find Courtney, naked, straddling her. He left when someone walked down the hall.
A year or two later, she was at her grandparents' home in Burbank, Calif., when she woke up to find Courtney touching her breasts. Several years after that, she was asleep at the home of Courtney's sister, and he started to unbutton her blouse. She was too afraid of Courtney to tell anyone what he'd done.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

what a peice of shit

Brooke Wilberger's killer, Joel Courtney, started using drugs at age 11 and tried to rape his sister when she was 14, this morning's Corvallis Gazette Times reports.

One of Courtney's sisters told investigators that she had to strike her brother in the head with a clock to stop him from attacking her, the paper reports.

She also said her brother became interested in Satanism as a teen.

A cousin of Courtney's told investigators of four separate times during her youth that Courtney had tried to sexually assault her. The incidents happened when she was 12 to 17 years old and Courtney was between 14 and 19 years old.

Once, in about 1983, she woke to find Courtney, naked, straddling her. He left when someone walked down the hall.

A year or two later, she was at her grandparents' home in Burbank, Calif., when she woke up to find Courtney touching her breasts. Several years after that, she was asleep at the home of Courtney's sister, and he started to unbutton her blouse. She was too afraid of Courtney to tell anyone what he'd done.


Courtney pleaded guilty to the death of Wilberger. Authorities announced Monday that her body had been recovered.http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/report_joel_courtney_had_long.html

Joel Patrick Courtney was born June 2, 1966. He grew up in the Portland area.

According to information one of his sisters gave to investigators, Courtney started using drugs at age 11. He was sent to juvenile detention at 15. About that time, he became interested in Satanism.

One night when his sister was 14, she said she awoke to find Courtney on top of her. He was partly undressed and had his hands around her throat. She hit him on the head with a clock to get him to stop.

A cousin of Courtney's told investigators of four separate times during her youth that Courtney had tried to sexually assault her. The incidents happened when she was 12 to 17 years old and Courtney was between 14 and 19 years old.

Once, in about 1983, she woke to find Courtney, naked, straddling her. He left when someone walked down the hall.

A year or two later, she was at her grandparents' home in Burbank, Calif., when she woke up to find Courtney touching her breasts. Several years after that, she was asleep at the home of Courtney's sister, and he started to unbutton her blouse. She was too afraid of Courtney to tell anyone what he'd done.

At 19, Courtney was convicted of first-degree sex abuse and first-degree attempted rape. A female friend was driving him home from a party when Courtney, who had been drinking and using drugs, started groping her. He punched her in the face and when she stopped the vehicle, he tried to force her out of her clothes. The woman was able to convince Courtney that she wanted to go back to the party, and she ended up driving him home.

In the early 1990s, Courtney married. He and his wife had three children. For a time, they lived in the Albuquerque area.

In April 2004, they moved in with Courtney's brother- and sister-in-law in Portland.

Courtney's brother-in-law, Jesus Ordaz, convinced his employer to hire Courtney. Courtney started working for Creative Building Maintenance in May. The minivan that Courtney was driving when he abducted Brooke Wilberger belonged to CBS.

In June 2004, Courtney's wife left Oregon without him and returned to New Mexico. He showed up at the house two weeks later, and police were called for a domestic disturbance.

Courtney was arrested, but upon his release, he apparently moved in with his family in Rio Rancho, N. M. In November, he was arrested for raping and kidnapping a University of New Mexico student.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]