Murder of Brooke Wilberger

Brooke Carol Wilberger was born February 20, 1985, in Fresno, California, to Greg and Cammy Wilberger. She had three sisters and two brothers, was a graduate of Elmira High School near Eugene, Oregon, and was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She had just completed her freshman year at Brigham Young University when she disappeared. At the time, her boyfriend, Justin Blake, was serving as a Mormon missionary in Venezuela.

On the morning of May 24, 2004, Wilberger was last seen cleaning lamp posts in the parking lot of the Oak Park Apartments in Corvallis, Oregon, which her sister and brother-in-law managed, near the Oregon State University campus. She was on summer vacation, staying with her sister at the time.

Corvallis Police, led by Lt. Ron Noble, began investigating immediately, departing from normal procedure for adult disappearances because officials and the family agreed Wilberger was not the type to disappear voluntarily. Wilberger's LDS ward organized a citizen search of Corvallis. The investigation initially focused on a person of interest, who was later dropped as a suspect in the disappearance but was separately sentenced to 11 years in prison for burglary and theft of women's personal property in Yamhill County, crimes uncovered during the Wilberger investigation; he was released in December 2012 after serving about seven years.

On November 30, 2004, a University of New Mexico foreign exchange student who had been beaten and raped before escaping identified Joel Patrick Courtney as her attacker. Courtney pleaded guilty to that attack on September 12, 2007. Police subsequently linked Courtney, a native of Portland, Oregon, to Wilberger's disappearance. In August 2005, he was charged with 19 counts including aggravated murder, kidnapping, sexual abuse, rape, and sodomy. Court documents released in 2008 indicated Courtney was in Corvallis when Wilberger disappeared and that a green van he drove was identified by witnesses, including an OSU employee who picked him from a photo lineup; officials said Wilberger's DNA and hair were found inside the van. Courtney was extradited to Benton County, Oregon, on April 8, 2008, and faced 14 counts, including aggravated murder, two counts of kidnapping, rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse. Prosecutors initially announced they would seek the death penalty.

Court depositions and Courtney's confession revealed that Courtney abducted Wilberger, held her overnight, sexually assaulted her, and killed her.

On September 21, 2009, Courtney pleaded guilty to aggravated murder — the only Oregon crime eligible for capital punishment — and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Under the plea agreement, the death penalty was foreclosed, remaining counts were dropped, and Oregon officials agreed to seek his incarceration in New Mexico. In exchange, Courtney provided information leading to the discovery of Wilberger's remains, which were found concealed along an abandoned logging road between Blodgett and Wren in the Oregon Coast Range. The case received extensive national media coverage, including on America's Most Wanted, The Montel Williams Show, ABC's 20/20, and a Dateline NBC special.