More than five years after she was abducted from Oregon State University and presumed killed, the remains of Brooke Wilberger have been found and her suspected killer has pleaded guilty.
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Joel Patrick Courtney faced a possible death sentence when he went to trial next February in Benton County for aggravated murder in Wilberger's death. But today, after a change of venue to Marion County Circuit Court, Courtney, a 43-year-old native of unincorporated Washington County, entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to prison for life with no possibility of release.
As a part of the plea agreement, Benton County District Attorney John M. Haroldson obtained clues that helped locate and recover Wilberger's remains. Authorities are withholding details of where -- and what -- they found until a 4 p.m. press conference in Corvallis.
Wilberger, 19, disappeared on May 24, 2004, while
she was working a summer job at a Corvallis apartment house after completing her freshman year at Brigham Young University.
Only her flip-flops were found
A few months later, another blond, blue-eyed student escaped a brutal kidnap and rape attack on the campus of the University of New Mexico. The
. He was ultimately
When an Albuquerque police detective investigating the case made a call to Oregon to check on Courtney's 1991 sex abuse conviction in Washington County, investigators in Oregon looked closer at him as a suspect in the Wilberger case.
One clue:
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