Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Brooke Wilberger now missing 2 years, Corvallis, Oregon

From http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=86142:
Two years later, the Brooke Wilberger story
continues
CORVALLIS, Ore. - It has been exactly two years since 19-year-old
Brooke Wilberger disappeared from a Corvallis apartment complex.
After
literally thousands of hours of official and volunteer searches for the BYU
student, family, friends and Benton County authorities would not give up.
But a 39-year-old man was finally arrested in August 2005 and charged with
aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape and sodomy of Wilberger.
Her body has
never been found.
Joel Courtney is awaiting trial in New Mexico on unrelated
kidnapping and rape charges involving a college student there.
Brooke's
family just recently filed a lawsuit against a company that employed Courtney.
They allege Creative Building Maintenance failed to complete a background
check when they hired him.
They say that allowed an unsupervised Courtney to
use a company vehicle and allowed him to commit crimes.
There's always a small chance that Brooke could somehow be alive. It seems unlikely, though, and last month Brooke's family held a memorial service (http://www.katu.com/stories/87121.html):
June 24, 2006
Memorial held to honor memory of Brooke Wilberger
EUGENE,
Ore. - Brooke Wilberger's memory was honored Saturday with splashes of her
favorite color, pink, found everywhere from the balloons to the attire of
hundreds gathered to remember her.
The Brigham Young University coed
disappeared a little more than two years ago from outside a Corvallis apartment
complex. Her remains have not been found.
The man police believe abducted
and killed the 19-year-old awaits trial on other charges in New Mexico.
The
family expressed their commitment to remembering Brooke's life, not her death.
At a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, people of many faiths
gathered to celebrate her life. The walls of the chapel were covered with photo
collages of Brooke.
""I had so much fun putting the pictures together, until
I stopped to think what it was for," her mother, Cammy, said.
Some photos of
Brooke's cheerful smile made the audience laugh.
Darrell Carman gave
Brooke's eulogy, created by her parents and full of intimate stories of her
life, from her love of snow angels to her determined nature.
She was a
member of 4-H and an athlete, competing in basketball, softball, gymnastics and
soccer. She was active in the church and took part in student government.
She attended BYU despite pleadings of her parents to attend Oregon State.
When her parents picked her up for the summer, her love of shopping was
nearly her downfall. "We almost had to make a choice between bringing her shoes
home and bringing her," her parents recalled in the eulogy.
Cammy wanted the
audience to know that although fun was the best way to describe Brooke, there
was more there.
"She cared a lot about her friends and took a lot of thought
to do the things she did," Cammy said. She said Brooke's greatest fears were
spiders and piano recitals.
Her older sister, Shannon Cordon, recited from
one of Brooke's favorite hymns, "Each life that touches ours for good."
One
of Brooke's best friends, Jessica Marks, recalled Brooke's ability to surprise
her friends with fresh brownies, or to get her into trouble as they giggled
about boys in the back of their classrooms.
"I miss a lot of things,"
Jessica said about her friendship with Brooke.
Bishop Larry Blake, who was
Brooke's spiritual leader, took comfort in her Mormon faith, as did her family.
"While she lived here with us," Blake said, "she was preparing to meet God.
She went about doing good."

Brooke's friend Jessica has also set up a scholarship in her memory for graduates of the high school that Brooke attended. You can learn more about Brooke and the scholarship at http://www.findbrooke.com. You also view pictures of Brooke, print flyers of her in multiple languages, and get a template to make a photo button of her.
If you know anything about Brooke's whereabouts, please call the Corvallis Police Department at 1-877-367-2270, email tips@findbrooke.com, or go to http://www.findbrooke.com/submittip.html.

Photo of Brooke from news article. Photos of suspect Joel Courtney and the sweatshirt Brooke might have been wearing from The Charley Project, which has a very detailed account of the developments in Brooke's case.

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