Spring Break
New documents released during Courtney case
The Associated Press
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: News
PORTLAND - The man accused of kidnapping and murdering Brooke Wilberger four years ago was interested in Satanism as a boy and tried to sexually assault his sister and their cousin, according to new documents released in the case.
Joel Courtney, 41, is charged with kidnapping and aggravated murder in the May 2004 disappearance of Wilberger while she was working for her sister outside an apartment complex near Oregon State University in Corvallis.
The body of Wilberger, a 19-year-old Brigham Young University student, has never been found.
But court documents released Thursday provided details showing that Courtney was in Corvallis when Wilberger disappeared and that the green van he was driving was spotted by several people, including an OSU employee who identified him from a photo lineup.
Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson told The Oregonian after the documents were released that Wilberger's DNA was found inside the van.
When contacted by The Associated Press, Haroldson said he had not meant to speak on the record about the DNA evidence but could not deny what he told the Portland newspaper.
"I'm not going to speak to it further," Haroldson said.
Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.
In court documents that KGW-TV obtained from Bernalillo County, N.M., Detective Michael Hughes noted in an affidavit that investigators had found a floorboard mat containing blond hair fibers from Courtney's van. There were also blond hairs in a hair tie inside a personal duffel bag that Courtney carried.
But there was no indication in those documents that the hairs came from Wilberger.
Courtney was extradited from New Mexico to Oregon early this month following his conviction last year in New Mexico for the unrelated sexual assault and kidnapping of a foreign exchange student at the University of New Mexico. He was sentenced to 18 years for that crime, which was remarkably similar to the Wilberger disappearance - a young blonde woman with blue eyes abducted near a college campus.
Joel Courtney, 41, is charged with kidnapping and aggravated murder in the May 2004 disappearance of Wilberger while she was working for her sister outside an apartment complex near Oregon State University in Corvallis.
The body of Wilberger, a 19-year-old Brigham Young University student, has never been found.
But court documents released Thursday provided details showing that Courtney was in Corvallis when Wilberger disappeared and that the green van he was driving was spotted by several people, including an OSU employee who identified him from a photo lineup.
Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson told The Oregonian after the documents were released that Wilberger's DNA was found inside the van.
When contacted by The Associated Press, Haroldson said he had not meant to speak on the record about the DNA evidence but could not deny what he told the Portland newspaper.
"I'm not going to speak to it further," Haroldson said.
Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.
In court documents that KGW-TV obtained from Bernalillo County, N.M., Detective Michael Hughes noted in an affidavit that investigators had found a floorboard mat containing blond hair fibers from Courtney's van. There were also blond hairs in a hair tie inside a personal duffel bag that Courtney carried.
But there was no indication in those documents that the hairs came from Wilberger.
Courtney was extradited from New Mexico to Oregon early this month following his conviction last year in New Mexico for the unrelated sexual assault and kidnapping of a foreign exchange student at the University of New Mexico. He was sentenced to 18 years for that crime, which was remarkably similar to the Wilberger disappearance - a young blonde woman with blue eyes abducted near a college campus.
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