Transcripts For WNBC Dateline NBC 20240622

People wanted to be with her. And she was nice. She was intelligent and beautiful, but she was also really nice. When she turned 16, she knew she wanted her childhood friend justin to be her boyfriend. Brooke decided to follow him to Brigham Young university in utah utah. She just really wanted to experience life outside of our community and just kind of branch out. The girl decided to study speech pathology. Brooke loved her new friends at byu, but returned home on thanksgiving break. She had really liked this watch, and it was kind of a dressy watch and she was pretty classy in the things that she chose to wear. She ees it in the case and mentions it to you. Sy christmas present. It was. Brooke returned home to oregon. She had a summer job in corvallis, about 30 miles from home working at the oak Park Apartments managed by her sister stephanie and stephanies husband. And on monday, may 24, 2004, she left the house where her sister jessica was getting ready for another day of seventh grade. Shes kind of in a rush. She walked out the door and laughed. About rive minutes later, she walked back in and just yelled through the door, i love you. And that was the last time i talked to her. An hour later, brooke was hard at work. I could see brooke was bending over filling up a bucket of water, and that was the last time i saw her. At what point did you realize she wasnt out there anymore . Probably about 1 00. I had fixed lunch for my children and for her and she didnt show up. Its a large complex. Theres over 100 apartments. I wasnt like immediately worried because i thought she could be cleaning a laundry room somewhere. I even said Something Like, well, lets take out the search party, tongue in cheek, and took my little kids out with me. Youre not in a full blown panic at this point. No, no. But before long, stephanie would come upon these. Near a lamp post brooke had been cleaning, her flipflops were on the pavement. The little plastic piece that goes between your toe was ripped out on one. It was clear that she was trying to stay put and Stay Grounded when she lost her shoes. Y knew that right then . Immediately, yeah. Still, though, no panic, no cries for help for a couple of hours until 3 07 p. M. When stephanies husband placed a very calm call to 911. 911, whats your emergency . Yeah, ive got someone at home that i cant seem to find. Im the manager of the oak Park Apartments and this worker happens to be my sisterinlaw. Shes 19. When was the last time anybody saw her . Around 10 30. Where had brooke willberger gone . Why couldnt anybody find her . Brookes mom was about to learn of her daughters disappearance in a phone call with one of her sons. I said wheres brooke . He said, we dont know. What do you mean you dont know . We dont know where she is. Spence, dont tease me. What are you talking about . Seriously, mom, we cant find her. And right then, i just chills through my whole body. A whole Community Turns out to search for brooke while the police start their investigation by focusing on her family. Stephanie was just grilled about, you know, where was she. Did you do it . A Brighter Future tomorrow. America. Write that down. Get an iphone at at t and get 50 more data and right now get 300 credit for every line you switch. Cheesy bites with new ranch crust flavor cheesy bites pizza is back and sweeten it up with a hersheys triple chocolate brownie for just 5. 99. Only at pizza hut. Hi what happened to your hair . I got it. Walgreens has all you need to keep it all under control. From a little touchup. Come on, guys to finding that perfect finishing touch. To making memories at the touch of a button. All without missing a beat. Walgreens. At the corner of happy and healthy. What if getting ready was this easy . 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As she worked cleaning lamp posts in the parking lot of the oak Park Apartments. Just a block away from the bustling campus of Oregon State University. At 1 00 p. M. , her sister stephanie got worried when brooke didnt show up for lunch. It just wasnt like her, you know. She was just always on time. By 3 00, stephanies husband called police. Weve looked everywhere we could think to look for her here. Word was spreading among brookes five siblings. Their sweet but feisty little sister had disappeared. When did they call you, brice . It was mid afternoon sometime. I knew something was seriously wrong when the comment was, we cant find brooke. It didnt take anything longer than that. Brice went to pick up his mother, who was trying not to panic. A lot of people talk about that maternal feeling that you sometimes get inside. Did you get a feeling . I just kept thinking, you know, maybe she met up with one of her friends that was going to osu. No, brooke wouldnt do that. Its not brooke. By late in the afternoon with brooke now missing for hours, cell phones started buzzing. I was sitting at my sons tee ball game and i got a phone call from one of our patrol lieutenants at the time who said, john, we have a missing girl. Captain Jonathan Sassaman and lieutenant tim brewer of the Corvallis Police department were about to begin a journey unlike any they had ever experienced. I asked him, what do you think . Is this real . He had a natural gut instinct that this was not a walk away, this was not a runaway, that something bad had happened. When the captain arrived at the apartments, he was struck by how few clues he had to work with. It is a parking lot with a pair of flipflops and a bucket with soap and some water under a lamppost. Also left behind, brookes wallet, purse, cell phone, and car. Nobody, it seemed, saw anything but someone heard something about 10 30 that morning, a bloodcurdling scream. The evidence pointed to an abduction, but investigators started with questions for the people closest to the victim. First question, where was brookes boyfriend, justin . It turned out he was serving a twoyear mission for the Mormon Church 4,000 miles away in venezuela. Next, brookes family. We needed to go through, is the family a suspect . And we had to get that work done and we had investigators doing that. Stephanie was just grilled about where was she, why dont you know where she was and did you do it . That had to be awful. It was awful. Its awful. It was terrible. We made the decision that we as a family, we would do anything to get brooke back, whatever the police asked us to do, we will do it. If they suspect us, thats okay. We dont care. We want to find brooke. And soon a Community Came together. Within hours of brookes disappearance, dozens, then hundreds of people showed up, many from the wilbergers church. Others, concerned citizens and cops. I suppose she could be anywhere. We just have to look everywhere. They came in droves that first evening and every day after with one goal, find brooke. By golly, come hell or high water, were going to find her. But for detectives, the sheer number of searchers presented a challenge. As an investigator responsible for this, were looking at, is our bad guy here . Its not uncommon for people who commit the crime to circle right back around, be present, learn, see whats going on. By this time, the fbi had also entered the investigation. Supervisory special agent joe boyers first question, had brooke been taken by someone who lived at the apartment complex . And could that person be among the tens of thousands of oregon state students who would soon be leaving town for the summer . Agent boyer asked fbi profilers for help. They asked us, do you have a crime scene . No, we dont, other than flipflops in a parking lot. Do you have any witnesses . No, we dont. Do you have a vehicle description . No, we dont. Do you have a body . No, we dont. They said, frankly, theres very little we could do for you at this point. With so little evidence, investigators found themselves thinking back to another crime, a crime many here in corvallis barely recall. On another day in may, nearly 30 years to the day and one mile away from where brooke disappeared, a young oregon state student vanished. It wasnt until her body was discovered and her killer caught that people here realized this town had been visited by one of americas most notorious serial killers, ted bundy. Authorities in corvallis wondered if there was now another sexual predator bold enough to abduct a young woman in broad daylight. It was a rough day for the sex offenders in our county because there was a team who went out and put their finger on every single one of them. How many sex offenders are there in this area . I think that was something that was very startling to realize is how many there actually were. When police told brookes family there may be 2,000 sex offenders in the area, they were horrified. When they tried when they get into details and i just have to lay back on the bed because i would become nauseated. You know, just the whole trauma of it was too much. It just took a couple days, i think, to sink in that something bad had happened and that she was really gone. There seemed to be little question, brooke was gone and in grave danger. The family took to the airwaves. Her father, greg if anyone has seen brooke at all, if they would just please call in. Tips poured in to police hotlines. We have dozens and dozens of Brooke Wilberger sightings in practically every state. Everybody who went out for a walk in the following days who saw someone who looked out of place called us up. The search expanded daily. At times it seemed the whole state of oregon was pitching in to find brooke. I have daughters this age and i want to help. More search teams, dozens of square miles. What is the geography like around here . Where could someone have taken brooke . Limitless. I mean, were ten miles from interstate 5. We have a northsouth highway running right through corvallis. We have an eastwest highway running through corvallis. You could drive five miles from corvallis and be in a very remote area. In the deep woods . Absolutely. But despite the odds, within days investigators were hot on someones trail. A Police Search turns up a terrifying checklist, and investigators wonder if its the lead thaifr theyve been waiting for. Either someone is planning a very heinous mutilation, Sexual Assault crime and murder or its a fantasy. I could list all the days ive been banned from social media. Wait this thing has builtin live broadcasting . I dont know what nerd came up with that, but its awesome. You think theyd censor pippas doggyolas . Not censored. Censored, not censored. 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That was the overwhelming feeling that we felt and i think thats why the focus was find brooke. Its what drove us. We know the statistics, but this is our family. This is brooke. Shes got to be there. And there was reason to hope. We dont have happy endings like this all that often. In that summer, 2004, the story of Elizabeth Smart was still fresh. She was the 14yearold snatched from her bedroom in utah, held captive by a deranged street preacher then amazingly, after nine months, returned to her family alive. I would think, maybe Somebody Just has her captive and they will just decide to let her go one day. A family friend put the wilber wilbergers in touch with elizabeths uncle. Was it comforting . It was comforting. He was very positive, of course, because of their experience and he said, never give up hope. Just keep thinking positive. And she came home. Right. Right. And so i was like, you know, i dont know how, i dont know the circumstances, but i cant give up. And while the search continued, what seemed to be a lead emerged. That burglary pointed them to this man, sung koo kim. The name sung koo kim came to the attention of investigators less then a week after brooke vanished. Kim was a reclusive 30yearold with a degree in genetics and cellular biology who still lived with his parents in his home 80 miles north of corvallis in a suburb of portland. He spent much of his time online trading stocks. Just weeks before a search of kims home turned out thousands of pairs of womens underwear, stolen from College Dorms throughout the area. Burglary charges had been filed and he would soon be charged with stealing underwear from a dorm at Oregon State University, just blocks from where brooke was abducted. Police had an investigative theory based on their experience in other cases. When you start taking steps to entering other buildings and dormitories and going and stealing other peoples property, being underwear, thats a progression. Meaning what . That he could then do something violent . Theres going to be step two, theres going to be a step three, theres going to be contacting somebody next, and ultimately abducting somebody. Then, just five days after brookes disappearance, another search in a dramatic middle of the night raid captured on videotape taken by police, an Oregon State Police s. W. A. T. Team blew open the front door of the home that kim shared with his parents. 15 officers stormed inside to serve a search warrant looking for physical evidence. Hair, body fluid, or more, evidence of kims possible involvement in brookes disappearance. They found no physical evidence, but what they did discover drew their attention. On kims computer, investigators found tens and thousands of photos and thousands more videos, what police termed a vast collection of pornographic images, including a small number of staged scenes depicting tortured, raped, and mutilated women. Then there was this, a document labeled osu, as in Oregon State University. It read like a howto guide for committing a sex crime. It included a list of supplies, hood, glasses, video, and digital cameras. Its more than just a check list. Either someone is planning a very heinous mutilation, Sexual Assault crime and murder or its a fantasy. But either way its extremely important to us and our investigation and very startling. As detectives dug deeper, they discovered this while kim was stealing underwear from dorms and laundry rooms, he had also developed a bizarre fetish for collecting lint from clothes dryers. In kims home they discovered a bag of some of that lint labelled with the name of an Oregon State University swim team member. Like Brooke Wilberger she was young, blond, blueeyed and she used to hang out a lot with other swimmers in corvallis, right here at the oak Park Apartments. So im imagining red flags are going off all over the place when you start getting this information. From our perspective, every red flag went off that we had to spend some energy looking at sung koo kim. Can you comment about being a person of interest . No comment. Sung koo kims life was examined from every angle. Newspaper headlines blared his new nickname, panty thief. Soon Brooke Wilbergers family heard news reports that kim, on the day of brookes disappearance, had purchased cinder blocks. My thought was, maybe if he were the person and if he anok brooke, then he might have tied her to bricks and dropped her in a river. Those reports about kim buying bricks were never substantiated. His besieged family attempted to clear his name any way they could. Hes not related to this disappeared girl. Everybody know. Despite all of the suspicion, was it possible that sung koo kim really was innocent . New information about the person of interest in brookes disappearance. Put all three of those together, thats an iron clad alibi. Where would the investigation lead . Esnt know why hes full of energy; but mom and dad know that theyre feeding them the complete nutrition of Natural Balance. Now available at petsmart were always looking to bring you the very best in pet nutrition. With Natural Balance , part of our family of natural foods, you can give your pets premium quality ingredients. Introducing Natural Balance at petsmart. Save up to 10 on dry and wet food fill your pet with love. Petsmart. Inspired by pets. Hey terry stop they have a special so, what did you guys think of the test drive . I love the jetta. But what about a deal . Terry, stop its quite alright. You know what . We want to make a deal with you. Were twins, so could you give us two for the price of one . Come on, give us a deal. Look at how old i am. Do you come here often . He works here, terry you work here, right . Yes. Ok lets get to the point. Were going to take the deal. 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And you can bring it back to us and upgrade to the latest anytime again and again. Thats forever. Its included in your monthly rate. Only from sprint. Trouble hearing on the phone, visit sprintrelay. Com geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. Nearly two weeks after Brooke Wilberger disappeared while working outside of these apartments in corvallis, oregon search teams spend a 12th day surveying acres of land. The search was winding down. The official end would soon come. Members of brookes family expressed their gratitude. Youve given up so much to help. I was thinking yesterday brooke would be saying, they didnt even know me. While detectives were still looking at sung koo kim as a person of interest, one of brookes siblings thought, no way. We never once for a second never thought he had anything to do with it. I personally didnt think he had anything to do with it. She could get away from him. He didnt look very threatening to me. And soon more reason surfaced to cast doubt on the idea that kim was involved in brookes disappearance. He offers an alibi. Well, offering an alibi and us being able to validate that alibi are two different things. But kims alibi for the day of brookes disappearance consisted of not just one but three pieces of evidence. Put together, they showed kim could not have been in corvallis at 10 30 a. M. When the kidnapping occurred. First, these records show an online purchase of 500 shares of stock with ameritrade executed on kims computer 75 miles from the crime scene at 11 14 a. M. Pacific. Next, a witness came forward saying kim answered a phone call at the family home at 12 10 p. M. And finally there was a videotape showing kim and his father entering an Electronics Store in portland at 12 42 p. M. And a receipt showing a purchase at the same store at 1 11 p. M. Put all three of those together, thats an ironclad alibi. Steve went was one of kims attorney. Prosecutors should look at that and say this is a case we simply cant charge. We have the wrong guy. Did they say that . They didnt. They went public naming sung koo kim as a person of interest in the wilberger investigation. Investigators insisted it was a lead they had to follow. There were moments when we were challenging each other with how much time do we spend here versus spend it over there. Looking for someone else . We didnt want to chase the red herring with 100 of our resources. It was the healthiest thing for the investigation. It made sure nothing fell through the cracks. It took months, but authorities officially cleared kim. Kims final filed a lawsuit claiming excessive use of force during that nighttime s. W. A. T. Raid. The state of oregon eventually settled with the family, paying more than 330,000. There was a lot of pressure to try and save this young woman. Undoubtedly the officers were hoping that they could find her and hoping that they could find her alive, but they didnt really have many facts here. And the search was done in aggressive, i think quite radical fashion. Kim was eventually convicted of burglary and other charges in connection with his panty stealing and served seven years of an 11year prison sentence. He was released in 2012. The summer of 2004 wore on and investigators in the wilberger case seemed to be back at square one. Members of the fbi and the Corvallis Police department worked hard but leads were wearing thin. The weeks turn into months, two months, three months. How frustrating is it not have more of a lead . It was extraordinarily stressful. You had a community looking for answers. You had a community that was scared. Was there somebody else out there who is going to be the next victim . And we have got a family in tremendous pain. And they are hurting. And they are doing everything they can to support us, to encourage us, to inspire the investigators not to give up. In what sense . They didnt turn. They never became an adversary. They were a partner with us and it was incredible. But the wilbergers were feeling the strain as well. In september, three months after brookes disappearance, it was time to return to school. Jessica was heading into eighth grade. I always thought about it. There were days i would get up in the morning and think, i dont want to do this today. But i would put a smile on my face and go to school and just worry about school. Their mother would do the same, returning to her job as a third grade teacher. How did you go back to school . How did you walk in the classroom and teach little third graders . I wasnt sure if i could do it, but it actually became very therapeutic because when i walked through that school door, i was mrs. Wilberger, and it gives you the opportunity to love little children and be concerned about their needs, so it was really a good therapy for me. It kept my mind busy on other things. The wilbergers didnt know it but before the holidays would arrive in 2004, there would finally be a legitimate break in the case of the abduction of their daughter brooke. Halfway across the country, a College Student runs screaming from a kidnapper. I told her to get in the car, that i wouldnt let anybody hurt her. A lot of people didnt stop. No, nobody stopped. Would one womans quick thinking help bring brooke home . Usaa. We know what it means to serve. Get an Auto Insurance quote and see why 92 of our members plan to stay for life. This thursday through sunday at kohls, School Savings are back in session. Take 10 off your purchase of 30 or more. Go to kohls. Com and download your savings pass. Plus, everyone gets 10 kohls cash for every 50 spent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah be yourself. Kohls cheesy bites with new crust flavors flavor pizza huts cheesy bites pizza is back with your choice of 1 of 7 crust flavors, like bbq and ranch. No one has more flavor. Only at pizza hut six months after Brooke Wilbergers disappearance, police in corvallis, oregon, were frustrated. Her familys hopes were fading. Slim, yet steadfast. What was that thanksgiving like around that table . We still had a good time. Just because we love each other and we still were pretty hopeful. I think when we get together for myself, it brings a lot of joy and a lot of comfort. And so even though we missed brooke, it was just comforting being together. Police announced the reward had been doubled, hoping more money would loosen lips and shake out new leads but even investigators felt trapped as if it were groundhog day. We dont have a suspect. We dont have any clear leads. Every press conference, simply another chance to make the same plea help us find brooke. The investigation had kind of gotten to a point where they were still plugging away, following up on tips, still talking to people, still turning over rocks, still searching. And at that time, we were just hoping for something to break. Just waiting . It was difficult. And then that very week, the last week of november, 2004, it happened. Nearly 1400 miles away in new mexico, a place aptly known as the land of enchantment, the break that they had been praying for. In albuquerque, in one of the citys tougher neighborhoods, a waitress was driving her suv down the street with her three daughters just after dusk when they saw a young woman. We were sitting at the light and the girl comes running across the street, and my daughter in the front seat says that she doesnt have any clothes on. Thats kind of weird, you see a naked woman running across the street. Yes. We were watching her run into the restaurant. My daughter was ready to jump out the car. Im like, no, no, no, well go over there and see what is going on. It was clear, she says, the young woman was in trouble, frantically trying to get help from someone inside the restaurant across the street. No one helped her because we pulled around there and my daughter got out of the car and met her at the door and brought her over to the car. To your car . And thats when she said, hes got a knife. Hes trying to kill me. The woman said she had been kidnapped but had escaped. I told her, get in the car, lock the door, that i wouldnt let anybody hurt her. How scared were you . My tire iron is underneath the front seat of the car. My kids are in the car. Im not going to let anyone hurt us. But then the young woman saw Something Back out in the street that made her scream. He was back. The man that kidnapped her was looking for her. She sees him. She pointed at him. He was sitting at the light. The person that kidnapped her . That kidnapped her. It was true. The man with the knife had come to find her. Dara called 911. She described the man, his red compact car. Within minutes, police were there. A lot of people wouldnt have stopped. A lot of people didnt stop. No, nobody stopped. There was a lot of traffic. They wouldnt even help her in the restaurant. She was in the restaurant at the counter talking to someone. Who was this young woman . Blond, blueeyed, abducted on her neck which she says was a mark from her kidnappers knife. She was a College Student. Not from oregon but from russia. And the story this 22yearold told officers was pretty incredible. She was walking home from work down this street, near the university of new mexico campus. She noticed a small, red car parked near the curb and a man standing next to it, but she didnt think much of it. Walked right past. A few steps later she felt someone grab her from behind and hold a knife to her throat. Inside the car, she was sexually assaulted and then her abductor stopped at these apartments, tied her up with her own shoe laces and went inside. Incredibly, the woman was able to wriggle free, left the shoelaces lying in the parking lot and ran into the street with no clothes on, where she was rescued by dara. What made you want to help . What made you stop . My upbringing, the way we are raised. I feel god put me here for a reason to help that girl because he knew we would help her. It was gutsy as hell. I think shes a hero, dara is the hero that night. Theresa watley is the prosecutor who would handle the case for the District Attorneys office. Had they not been there, he would have picked her up again. He was waiting. He was lurking right there. Theres no question what he was waiting for. But though the victim was now safe, her attacker was still on the loose. The young woman gave an incredibly detailed description of the man and of his car. She described the car seats down to the detail. She described the tinted windows. She described the fact that the car was twodoor, that it was red. And the victim remembered something else, a small, stuffed animal on the car side window. Enter Albuquerque Police officer ed taylor. He showed up at the scene, ready to help track down the bad guy. First stop, the apartments where the victim escaped from her kidnapper. So you go to the door of the who answers . Its a female. But we went insi the apartment and right off the bat, you could tell she was not going to be helpful at all. Not cooperative . Not cooperative. She did tell us that she knew him as joe and he spoke spanish and that was about it. The name joe, he spoke spanish, would it be enough to find him . And four states away, as youre about to see, would it be enough to help find brooke . Police track down a suspect in the new mexico kidnapping case, and start to speculate about his m. O. This is not the first time hes done this. You dont start grabbing people in broad daylight when youre almost 40. Was it possible this wasnt his first abduction . Swiffer sweeper swiffer dusters removes up to 70 of dust and allergens. Stays on there like glue. Cant do that with the other broom. Wow, i love it. The tobin stance that is totally what it is in our house, imagination runs wild. But at my table, i keep the food real. Like country crocks new recipe made wit doh real simple ingredients. Like delicious oils, purified water, and a pinch of salt. And no artificial flavors or preservatives. Just real Country Fresh taste from real ingredients. Imagine that. Welcome to crock country. The new note5 or the new edge . Decisions, decisions. This one would keep me organized. I could list all the days ive been banned from social media. Wait this thing has builtin live broadcasting . I dont know what nerd came up with that, but its awesome. You think theyd censor pippas doggyolas . Not censored. Censored, not censored. Introducing the Samsung Galaxy s6 edge and the note5. Preorder a new galaxy and tradein a working smartphone and get a free wireless charger and a 200 best buy gift card. On a november night in 2004, Albuquerque Police were on a man hunt. Just blocks from the university of new mexico campus, a man had kidnapped a 22yearold student off the street and sexually assaulted her. But when he carelessly tied her up and left her in his car in this apartment parking lot, she had bolted, run naked into traffic, and thankfully had been rescued by this woman. That could be my daughter. Shes a human being. She did not deserve to be run down the road with no clothes on. Now Albuquerque Police officer ed taylor was among those looking for a suspect, a white male with a shaved head wearing a cap. Police had learned from a woman who lived in the apartments where the victim escaped that the mans name was joe, that he spoke spanish. She would say no more. I went back to the substation and spoke to m supervisor. I told him, i believe if i went by myself, she will tell me more information. Why . Why did you have that feeling . I thought i had a connection with her. So i returned to the location d i told her, i said, this is what is going on. This is what happened. Basically god forbid Something Like this were to happen to you or somebody you know and she reluctantly ended up telling me you might be able to locate the vehicle behind the restaurant just south of gibson. Riding solo, officer taylor followed the womans directions and parked right here on this deadend street was a red, twodoor honda with a stuffed animal stuck to the window. So i waited a little bit and a few minutes later i noticed three individuals walking out of that white house and walking towards me. I called out to them as joe. I said, joe, and he acknowledged me. And as he got closer, i said, is this your vehicle . He said yes. I had him turn around and i pl. Aced him into custody. Did you find anything on him . I found a glass pipe he used to smoke crack crane cocaine and a small knife. Did he ever ask you why he was under arrest . No, i think he knew he was caught. Caught was this man, joel Patrick Courtney, soon identified by his victim and arrested on criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping and gravated battery. Joel courtney was 38 years old. He lived in this albuquerque suburb, rio rancho in this home with his wife and three young children. He had worked as a mechanic and fisherman and had lived all over the united states. A fluent spanish speaker, he also lived in me tco. But the man who appeared in family photos as the ever smiling attentive father also had a dark side. Six months before, his wife had taken out a restraining order against him, reporting he had choked her. The first time i saw him, i remember thinking it was as strong of a reaction that i had had to richard ramirez. Ramirez is the notorious night stalker, convicted of murdering more than a dozen people in the 1980s. He died in 2013 awaiting execution on californias death row. Prosecutor theresa watley once crossed paths with ramirez in the courtroom. He made the hair on my arms stand up. Because he was so evil. The only other person that has done that to me was Joel Courtney. When you first read the reports about this case, what went through your mind as a prosecutor . That this is not the first tit me hes done this. You dont start grabbing people in broad daylight off the street and grab them in your car when yore almost 40. Thats not the way the criminal mind works. The new mexico prosecutor didnt know yet how right she was. And back in oregon, the wilberger family knew nothing yet of these developments as they faced the holidays still hoping brooke would walk through the door and take her place on the stairs for the familys annual Christmas Pageant and pictures. Smile, angels. Thats exactly what we kept thinking. This cant happen. This just cant happen. This is brooke, you know, shes too full of life. She mys too dynamic ansstoo much a part of us. Ive got to keep hoping. And ive got to keep thinking positive. This is my home, yay. Where was brooke . Six months had passed. Was she still alive somehow somewhere . Her sister stephanie was dealing with a lot of guilt. Brooke was working for her when she disappeared. I was driving somewhere and just reflecting on where we were so far and i remember thinking, gosh, i wonder what it will be like when i dont think about this every day . What could i have done differently . Or what if this little thing had changed . But something was finally about to change. The quick thinking that led to Joel Courtneys capture in new mexico was about to lead to more questions, and investigators would soon want to know if this father of three, now charged in a daring abduction, could also be the man who took brooke. It was not just police asking questions about brookes case. So was the suspects own sister. There was some similarities. So you thought to yourself could it be . It was unthinkable. Right away. I just had to adopt him. Hes older so he needs my help all day. When my back pain flared up we both felt it i took tylenol at first but i had to take 6 pills to get through the day. Then my friend said ry aleve. Just two pills, all day. And now, im back for my best bud aleve. All day strong and tr aleve pm, now with an easy open cap. E at outback, steak and unlimited shrimp is back for just 15. 99 for a limited time. Try unlimited garlic herb butter. Or crispy shrimp for just 15. 99 and let the bold flavors. Speak for themselves with unlimited shrimp at outback music imagine these kids wont have to remember passwords or obsess about security. For them, every screen is meant to be touched. And web pages are meant to be scribbled on, and shared. Theyll expect their devices to listen to them. And talk. And sing. And tell a funny joke. And as they grow, and get better at things, their technology will too. Theyll do things their parents never even dreamed of. Because these kids will grow up with windows 10. The future starts now, for all of us. Get started today. Windows 10. A more human way to do. Joel Patrick Courtney was sitting in jail in albuquerque. It was december 2004. The married father of three was fa cing decades in prison if convicted of kid renapping, sexua assault, and battery charges. He had been caught carrying a knife and a crack pipe hours after a university of new mexico student ba Joel Courtney abducted her near campus and sexually assaulted her. Miraculously, she had escaped. This is an incredibly brazen crime. He abducts her in broad daylight . 6 45, its probably just about dark. Thats either incredibly stupid or insane. No, its experienced. He knows what hes doing. Hes done he before. He knows how to make it happen. He picked his spot really well. Its a very quiet street. It was dinnertime. As awful as it sounds, its a smart move for what hes trying to do. But it didnt work and with Joel Courtney safely in custody, Albuquerque Police began a routine background check on their suspect. In addition to new mexico, he had lived in several states, alaska, florida, and oregon. And a detective noticed that nearly a year before, in january 2004, in coastal Lincoln County, oregon, courtney had been pulled over by a state trooper and charged with driving under the influence. But courtney had failed to appear in court so a warrant had been issued for his arrest. And thats when an albuquerque detective did something he didnt have to do. He decided to dig deeper. Picked up the phone and made a call to oregon. That would lead to a long awaited break in the case of Brooke Wilberger. He calls up Lincoln County Sheriffs Department and he gets to a detective and says, hey, what do you know about thi s case . This is what he did in new mexico, and hes relaying the circumstances. And the Lincoln County detective, having heard about brookes case because Everybody Knows about it. Says to him, you need to call Corvallis Police department. Its that simple. And he does. Did somebody yell out over the room, oh, my god . Was it like that, or not that dramatic . There was an element of cautious optimism with, this sounds really good but you cant jump in with both feet and just go crazy because weve been down that road so many times. As investigators began checking out this new lead on Joel Courtney, charged four a call went out to Brooke Wilberger wilbergers family. They had waited more than six months for news, any news, about their daughters disappearance. Now there was a man in custody who they thought might be able to reunite them with their daughter, just as Elizabeth Art had been returned to her family. What are you thinking when you hear this . Actually, i had prayed so faithfully all fall that whoever had done this would make a mistake. And when i heard the news, i thought, they made a mistake. They tried it again. And noal one else knew what i had prayed, because i hadnt told anyone else because it was always, find brooke, help us to find brooke. I guess that was a selfish prayer, that to help whoever had done this to make a mistake and then i felt like, they made a mistake. But if this mistake could help find brooke, investigators first had to find out all they could about this latest porissible suspect. And specifically they wanted to know more about that suspects ties to oregon. Detectives quickly etermined that Joel Courtney grew up in beaverton, a portland suburb about 75 miles from where brooke disappeared, but that had been 20 t years before. Police also knew he had lived in several different states. The question was, had courtney been anywhere near corvallis on the day of the kidnapping . Thn . Ere was one person who could answer that question and many more. Her name, dina mcbride. She is Joel Courtneys older sister. E lived in portland. My first thought is, cute dimpled litt lond haired mischievous kid with a sweet little spirit and hilari s laugh. Days bere, Corvallis Police got that call from albuquerque and heard the jam name Joel Courtney for the first time, dina received a call herself. It was from joels wife with word of his arrest in new mexico. Dina and her mother took in the news together. How did your mom react . She was horrified. You know, there were very few details, but she felt like the truth needs to come out. But the truth was hard to figure outimn those first moments. The scowling man in the mug shot was hardly the joel his sister knew when he was little. I remember him coming home from the hospital. I remember him toddling. I remember all the classic ildhood milestones. And we were a very, very happy fanomily at some point did you s a shift . When he was probably 11ish, he started hanging out with some older kids. I remember my mom kind of backtracking and saying, you ow, i think thats when it really started. It was joels drug use and before long when joel became a teenager, more reason to worry. He was starting to dabble in some satanism a little bit and kind of explaining how much power it gave him and a sense of, you know, a rush of being in control or whatever. And he was pretty good at throwing a punch here or there. Scare you . Yeah, hurt me. Yeah. So around the same time that he dabbles in satanism, he starts becoming physical . Uhhuh. But as joel got older and more violent, his sister says he was handsome enough, charming enough, and smart enough to get away with a lot of bad behavior. At some point in time it was the in thing to have iq testing in school. I remember not being as smart as i had hoped and hearing that he had a genius level iq. Genius level . Uhhuh. Did he study a lot . Did he read books . He loved to read books. But, no, he kind of got away with really good grades with very little effort which seemed monumentally unfair to me. Joel courtneys luck wo d eventually run out. He had a string of arrests for shoplifting and other offenses and was in and out of juvenile detention until he was 18. Thats when joel admitted beating and sexually assaulting a woman he had known in high school. He blamed the crime on drugs and alcohol and a judge sentenced courtney to probation. He never finished high school and worked various jobs as a fisherman in alaska and as a mechanic. He got married at 23 to rosie who was from mexico. He and rosie had three children and eventually courtney seemed to settle down, savoring his role as a father and building a life in that home in an albuquerque suburb. What kind of father was he . He changed diapers, he got up in the middle of the night, he made lunches, he there are a lot of pictures of him on the ground wrestling with the kids and laying in the grass, looking at Fourleaf Clover kind of stuff. The kind of dad that we had that who was involved and wanted to be there for his kids. But now at age 38, this seemingly loving father was facing the trial of his life. Locked up, caught with a crack piperend a knife, charged with kidnapping and Sexual Assault, and given his checkered history, something, maybe intuition, the maerssive Media Coverage throughout oregon of a similar crime, a young, beautiful female College Student snatched off the streets just months before, something compelled dina and her family to ask the question themselves, the very questions Corvallis Police were just beginning to look at. Just the details that we heard about the case in new mexico, there were some similarities and so you thought to yourself could it be . No. I mean, you couldnt even say the whole sentence because it was unthinkable, right . New clues provide an answer and break brookes case wide open. This was dynamite to us. Cheesy bites with new ranch crust flavor cheesy bites pizza is back and sweeten it up with a hersheys triple chocolate brownie for just 5. 99. Only at pizza hut. Wait till you see what ive been doing. laughs i know, i, it just came to me. Manscaping husband . Get scrubbing bubbles. Kill 99. 9 of germs and destroy grime. With scrubbing bubbles for 100 problem solved. Across america, people like Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique wilkins. Are taking charge of their type 2 diabetes. With noninsulin victoza. P for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar. But it didnt get me to my goal. So i asked my doctor about victoza. He said victoza works differently than pills. And comes in a pen. Victoza is proven to lower blood sugar and a1c. Its taken once a day, any time. 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And call your doctor right away if you have signs of pancreatitis such as severe pain that will not go away in your abdomen or from your abdomen to your back. With or without vomiting. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take. R. And if you have any medical conditions. R taking victoza with a sulfonylurea or. Insulin may cause low blood sugar. The most common side effects are headache, nausea. Diarrhea, and vomiting. Side effects can lead to dehydration. Which may cause kidney problems. If your pill isnt giving you. The control you need. Ask your doctor about noninsulin victoza. Its covered by most health plans. Time seemed to tick by so slowly during those long months when investigators were searching for clues in the disappearance of Brooke Wilberger. Minutes, hours, days. But in early december 2004, more than six months after she went missing, it was as if the clock suddenly sped up. Police in corvallis, oregon, were struck by the parallels between brookes abduction and the crimes joel Patrick Courtney was accused of in albuquerque. From our perspective, its a signature crime. Right next to the university of new mexico campus, young woman, attractive, broad daylight, abduction in a vehicle, drives away. Yeah, we were real excited that we were on the right track at that point. By the time the police learned Joel Courtneys name, joels sister and her family had been thinking about the same connection for days. We couldnt even say the words out loud. We were up till the late hours in the morning going over the calendar thinking, could he have done that . We decided to pray about it. What were your prayers . We really prayed that god would give us wisdom, that we would make the right choices, that we would speak when we needed to speak and not speak when it was not wise. Dina waited, saying nothing, until a week later, Corvallis Police, looking for information about her brother, called her. In that moment, do you know in your heart that he did something . In that moment i did not know that. I thought too many coincidences to automatically discount it. Right . You cant just assume because hes your brother, somebody that you love, that he couldnt have, right . What dina told police was revealing. During their first interviews, she shared some dark, family secrets. When she was a teenager, her brother joel had attacked her. He would come in in the middle of the night and put a hand around my neck and attempt to sexually assault me. More than once . More than once, yeah. And i have had a great oldfashioned wind up alarm clock that met his head. That met his head. Two more courtney family members would soon come forward claiming that joel had raped or tried to rape them. The further we got into the investigation as far as the number of people we interviewed, the more Sexual Assaults came to light. And more pieces of the puzzle were coming together quickly. Despite their troubled past, dina and joel had maintained a relationship over the years. Joels sister now showed police these photographs of joel and his family, not at their home in new mexico, but visiting dinas home in the portland suburbs, in may 2004, the very month Brooke Wilberger disappeared. Joel, his wife rosie, and three kids needed a place to stay. Joel had gotten a job supervising a cleaning crew, a job that meant that he would be traveling all over the state of oregon. We were under the impression that he would be there for a couple of months. A lot of the time there would be you know, he would bow out fairly early on, ive got to do something for work. So it was mostly rosie and the kids with the rest of us. So he was traveling quite a bit. That was my understanding, yeah. And then this bombshell. May 24th, the day brooke was abducted, was one of those days when Joel Courtney was traveling. He had a court day, it turns out, over on the oregon coast on that drunken driving charge, but he never showed up. According to court records, he called the courthouse and said he was going to be late and that phone call was made from the very town where brooke disappeared. Right here in corvallis. Joel courtney then disappeared, for about 36 hours, before returning to dinas home in the portland suburbs. He walked through the door and announced kind of loudly, youll never believe where ive been. And i said okay, where were you . He said, i was kidnapped. There were these guys, there were guns and knifes and we were in the woods and it was rainy and cold and there was a girl there and we were hiding and there was blood and it was awful. At the time, dina chalked it up to joels chronic drug abuse. Hes delusional . Uhhuh. You just think hes coming off some bad drugs . Uhhuh. You dont call 911 . No. Dina says she didnt feel like she was in danger in that moment, so she did not call authorities. But all those months later, sitting with investigators, she suddenly realized how crucial that strange conversation with joel might have been. Just as i was saying it, it occurred to me, oh, my word. Could he have been was he talking about that . And she remembered the very next day after brooke disappeared, her brother joel would visit his doctor in portland complaining of chest pains and anxiety but all of this information, while damning, was nothing more than circumstantial evidence of joels potential involvement in brookes disappearance. Without brooke or if she were dead, her body, the detectives had no physical proof linking joel to the crime. Until, that is, police learned what joel was driving the day brooke disappeared. A green Dodge Caravan with minnesota license plates supplied by the cleaning company he worked for. The minute you hear green minivan with a minnesota plate, somebody remembers that was one of your tips . Absolutely. Two separate tips pulled from the database of thousands called into the police. The first at 9 30 a. M. Just an hour before and 100 yards north of where brooke was kidnapped. A blond osu student said a white male adult in a green minivan approached her and opened the back of his van to look for a map. When she saw a blanket on the floor, she rushed off, telling the man she was late for a class. Then a University Athletic official called to report a man in a Dodge Caravan, possibly green, with minnesota plates, asking a female student for directions in the Stadium Parking lot, in close proximity to where wilberger was abducted. The witness was later asked to identify the man in this photo lineup and picked out Joel Courtney. This was dynamite to us. This told us, this is our guy at the moment. We needed to focus on him and find the van. Thats our one piece of physical evidence weve got to get now. And thats exactly what the fbi did. Agent joe boyer found the van in Washington State and had it taken apart, piece by piece, and shipped to an fbi lab across the country. We knew that if we were going to prove that Joel Courtney was responsible for this, the best chance we had was to find evidence of brooke being in the van. The wilberger family was informed. They wanted to know the truth, but were almost afraid to discover more about Joel Courtney and his crimes. I googled him and passed it on to you. You googled him . Yeah. Sure. What was it like to see his face . I just looked at him and at that point it was just a numb feeling. Even then, i didnt feel hatred. It was just all about getting brooke back. I want to know what you did and where she is. But neither the wilbergers nor investigators nor courtneys sister could ever have guessed how they would get the answer to the question where was brooke. Evidence finally implicates Joel Courtney in brookes kidnapping. Thats the smoking gun. Thats the nail in the coffin. But will that help bring brooke home. In the months after joel of course, they cant wait to grow up. But tonight, it wont take much to slow down the clock. If only for the next 86 minutes. Low prices. Every day. On everything to make tonight a blockbuster. Walmart. I was not aware of how much acidity was in my diet. That it was damaging the enamel. I wanted to fix it right away. My dentist recommended pronamel. He said pronamel can make my teeth stronger. Pronamel is helping me lead p the life that i want to live. Does your makeup remover take it all off . Every kissproof, cryproof, stayproof look . Neutrogena makeup remover does. It erases 99 of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. Need any more proof than that . Neutrogena. Good morning with ingredients like roasted hazelnuts and cocoa, nutella gives you so many delicious options every morning. Send them to school smiling with nutella, spread the happy in the months after Joel Courtney had emerged as a suspect in Brooke Wilbergers disappearance, brookes mom had desperately tried to hold on to the hope that her daughter was still alive. But her heart was finally giving in to what her head was telling her. I just had this sick feeling, even though i would never give up hope, you know, my motherly hope was always there. I knew deep down that she was probably gone. And it would be another mom in another state who would move the story forward. Joel courtney had already been interviewed by the fbi but refused to answer any questions and when shown her photo, he denied ever knowing brooke. But when confronted by his own mother, courtney came perilously close to a confession. She actually asked him, point blank, joel, did you do this . And he said, its not really what it seems like and ill never be held accountable for this. He said that to your mother . Uhhuh. Theyll never hold me accountable to this . Uhhuh. Why did he say that . Because i dont think he feels the need to be held accountable for the things that he does. Power . Yeah, power, and doesnt have to play by the same rules that other people have to. The rules, to investigators, it did seem like Joel Courtney thought he was playing a game. The inmate whose sister said he had above average intelligence knew that without physical evidence or brookes body it would be nearly impossible for investigators to charge him with murder. By the spring of 2005, fbi scientists were working feverishly examining every inch of that green minivan joel once drove, hunting for dna evidence. On the day marking the First Anniversary of brookes abduction, her family and police dutifully held a news conference. Privately, the family had held the secret for months that the police had a strong suspect and that brooke was likely no longer alive. Yet, in public, they held fast. You still have that hope, though. You dont give that up. One year after Brooke Wilberger disappeared, her tattered picture is still posted on street signs in corvallis. But as local stations played the story of a grim anniversary, the real news was about to break. We were heading back to eugene and we got a call and they said, how far out of town are you . And we said well, not too far. They said, could you come back . Unbelievably, that very day, on the oneyear anniversary of brookes disappearance, special agent joe boyer received a longawaited call from the lab. They told me, youre not going to believe what we found, and i said what is that . They said we found Joel Courtneys dna in the van. And i said, well, thats good, but that doesnt quite get us there. And they said, we also found Brooke Wilbergers dna in the carpet of the van. It was the physical evidence theyd been waiting for. Beneath the backseat in the carpet, analysts found material consistent with a mixture of male and female dna belonging to Joel Courtney and Brooke Wilberger. What happens here at Corvallis Police headquarters when you find out . Thats the smoking gun. Thats the nail in the coffin. The wilbergers return to corvallis to get the news themselves. They said, we got a dna confirmation that brookes dna and his dna were in the van together. Did you breakdown . No. You get up for certain things. You just steel yourself for that. It was like yes, you know . And then, of course, i sobbed the whole way home. The dna evidence revealed details no mother should ever have to hear and no witness had yet disclosed. It was the nature of the dna evidence which told an even bigger story. Benton county oregon District Attorney john haroldson. The dna evidence was in the form of bodily fluids which were commingled, that told us a story in terms of what had occurred in that van. The commingled dna indicated that brooke had been raped so Joel Courtney was charged with that crime in addition to kidnap kidnapping and murder. So youve got him in corvallis, near the point of abduction, youve got evidence that she was in his van, that he assaulted her in that van, the only thing you dont have is Brooke Wilberger . Yes. You charge him with the Death Penalty . Correct. I believe it was justified by the evidence we had before us. News of indictment hadnt leaked out yet. Joel courtney sat in a new mexico Court Hearing on that case and he was served with the oregon charges. They came to court, gave it to me, i gave it to the defense attorney who gave it to courtney in the jury box with other inmates. And he starts laughing. When hes reading Death Penalty, Death Penalty, and hes laughing. Hes laughing . Hes laughing and hes showing it off to all of the other inmates like this is a badge of honor somehow. What does that tell you . We read him exactly right. That this is something hes proud of. I think he felt at that time, particularly because he knew in that case he knew they didnt have the body, this was something that he could enjoy because it wasnt going to really effect him in the long term. And from that day forward, Joel Courtney did everything that he could to delay and disrupt his own case. He knew that the charges here in new mexico of kidnapping and rape would have to be dealt with before he could ever be sent back to oregon. So he did all could to turn to proceedings here into a farce. That meant he sometimes didnt communicate with his own legal team. He even fired one of his own attorneys and at other times he refused to show up for Court Appearances and then finally Joel Courtney claimed that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial. Once that was brought up, when he would come into court, he would come in all bowed down, he would shuffle, he would only look at the floor. His whole demeanor had changed because now he wanted to be incompetent. Because we couldnt try him. What did you really think was going on . It was totally an act. It was absolutely an act. Nonetheless, courtney had to be tested by Mental Health experts at the Mental Hospital in new mexico. I was concerned for the entire time he would be looking for an opportunity to escape. He was fluent in spanish. I felt that he was going to head south, cross the border where hed live before and disappear into mexico and make it very difficult for us to find him. As the fight over whether or not courtney was competent to stand trial dragged on through 2007, brookes mom was struggling. For her, the mission to find her daughter was no longer a rescue mission but one of recovery and her hopes were being threatened by what many saw as the courtroom shenanigans of Joel Courtney. I can remember one time i was near the edge. I knew that if they found him mentally incapable that that was a black hole for us. Because we would never get brooke. He would never come to oregon. He would be there forever, you know, playing this game. It was nearly a year before a new mexico judge finally ruled in january 2007, nearly three years after brooke disappeared, that Joel Courtney was competent to stand trial. We were on our way to San Francisco and we got a phone call and he said, they found him mentally stable. And we got out of the car, the girls and i did a dance around the car. I just felt like the world was lifted and i didnt realize how close i was, maybe, you know close to what . To just a breaking point. Until i felt that being lifted. And then it was like, okay, we can do this. Later that year, in september 2007, Joel Courtney would finally plead guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting that university of new mexico student he snatched off the street. The young woman who somehow escaped. At his sentencing, another circus. It didnt take long for joel Patrick Courtney to tell district judge kenneth martinez, exactly what he thinks of him. I have no respect for this court. This is youre the rudest person i have ever met. I do believe, sir, that you are, again, attempting to delay this matter as you have repeatedly. The judge sentenced Joel Courtney to 18 years in prison but not before courtney took a parting shot. I would spit in your face if i was close enough. Time had finally run out for Joel Courtney. He would soon be back on his way to oregon where investigators were ready for his head games. Their goal, the same as it had been for years, find brooke. There was a degree of vigor. You are not going to win, Joel Courtney. We will. Brookes family issues a plea to Joel Courtney to help them finally find brooke. We just wanted her back. We just wanted to bring her home. To making memories at the touch of a button. All without missing a beat. Walgreens. 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Get up get up get up get up loop me bring back the awesome yeah yeah yeah with the great taste of Kelloggs Froot loops. Follow your nose daddy gator couldnt push the throttle on his little boat any harder if he tried. Hes beached here, gazing out on an unforgiving landscape. For while the people who come in here use quilted northern, a toilet paper that works so well they completely forget their experience. Daddy gator sees all and forgets nothing. Ive got to motor out of here, he thinks. This is no place to raise a child. Quilted northern. Designed to be forgotten. Joel courtney was finally in an oregon courtroom, pleading not guilty to murder charges. It was the spring of 2008, a full four years after Brooke Wilberger had disappeared. The man charged with stealing a beautiful 19yearold from her loved ones had also stolen years from their lives. He had manipulated the legal system, forced delays in new mexico to avoid returning to oregon to face charges. If he were convicted now, it could mean the Death Penalty. Did you think that he deserved to die . It didnt matter. It was we know the end result, how did it happen and where is she. And so it wasnt a feeling of revenge or retribution. It was just, okay, what now, how do we find her and recover her . The family simply needed to know. Remember, thousands of searchers had covered dozens of square miles in every direction from oregons Coastal Range of mountains to its rocky coast without any success. Joel courtney had not said a word to police or prosecutors since asking for a lawyer years before. The man who had studied law books in jail had to know that despite dna evidence linking him to brookes rape and murder, without a body, the prosecutions case would be much harder to prove. So if courtney knew where to find brooke, he was keeping the secret to himself. D. A. , john haroldson. You cant appeal to this man to just do the right thing, can you . I never saw that as an incentive for him. I felt that the incentives were probably going to be more based from the perspective of a narcissist. Selfish . Yes. What can you do for me versus what can i do for society. And so the prosecutor thought, what could be more precious to a narcissist than his own life . After consulting with the wilbergers, the d. A. Offered courtney a deal. Admit to brookes murder, reveal the location of her body, and avoid the Death Penalty in an exchange for a sentence of life in prison without parole. Actually, thats what we hoped for, because the Death Penalty would draw it out years. But you wanted something in return . We wanted brooke. We wanted her remains. Why was that so important to the family . We just wanted her back. Our goal was still really the same. That we just wanted to bring her home, clearly, not the way that we had hoped, but i think that it was important to us to have her back, just to get her back. So the prosecutor went to courtney with the deal and true to form, the inmate made everyone wait again, for months. Until his defense lawyers delivered the word. Joel courtney was not interested. He did not return a counteroffer. He outright rejected our offer. Feels like holding her family hostage in some ways, you know. Courtneys sister dina watched all of this unfold, knowing a trial would mean she would have to testify about the times joel tried to rape her as a teenager, about his unexpected visit to her oregon home just before brookes abduction, and about his incriminating, presumably druginduced statements. Dina knew her testimony could help put her own brother on death row. My mom and i actually talked about this before she got sick and talked about, you know, weve always said that we believe in the Death Penalty and here it is your brother. My brother, her son. And so if you believe in it for some person that you dont know, does that still hold true if its your loved one . And we did a lot of thinking and praying about it and we came to the conclusion that, yeah, we still did. Dina says she was ready to testify but what she didnt know was that the pressure was building on her brother to find another way out. In new mexico, the courts rejected his appeals and life in oregons jails wasnt pleasant for a notorious crimes against women were well known. More than once courtney was beaten by fellow inmates as you can see in this jailhouse video in which courtney is being tended to by medical staff after one particularly brutal beating. Then there were new charges of assault after courtney threw a fax machine at a prison doctor wanted. That was the very beginning of the end. Why do you say that . We knew then she was he was frustrated. He was feeling it. It was getting close because he threw the fax machine because he couldnt get some antianxiety medication. So we knew that he was feeling very anxious. But still no sign Joel Courtney was willing to reveal the location of brookes body. The prosecutor was fed up. He was ready for a trial. Still, the judge wasnt quite ready to move on. He asked both sides to try one last time to settle the case before trial. During weeks of tense talks with Joel Courtneys attorneys, the prosecutor finally discovered the one incentive that might appeal to courtney, and give the wilbergers their daughter back. Courtney wanted out of oregon. He might admit to murder and reveal the location of brookes remains if he could serve his prison time near his own family in new mexico. The wilberger family quickly agreed. Anything, they thought, to get brooke back. We needed to have the approval of the oregon governor, and we needed to have the approval of the new mexico governor. Those were the two final pieces. You would think they would give their approval. We were becoming extremely concerned that this process was taking so long that Joel Courtney was going to change his mind and walk away and we desperately needed that approval and we needed it now. But while oregons governor signed off on the deal almost immediately, new mexicos did not. Brookes family couldnt believe it. I was frustrated to think that Something Like that could stop this whole process that had gone so far. And youve come so far. And we had gotten so close and here we were at this point and then to think that it could all fall apart because of that. So brookes mom decided to make a personal plea to the governor of new mexico to try to get her daughter back. This one was unusual. I wanted full details and i wanted to be sure that i did the right thing. I said that we had gone through a lot already. Youre appealing to their hearts . I was. The emotional plea from brookes mother for the deal that would finally solve the mystery, where was brooke. 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Brookes suspected killer, Joel Courtney, had agreed to tell investigators where brookes body was if he could spend the rest of his life not in an oregon prison, but in new mexico. Oregons governor was set to sign the agreement. It was now up to new mexico governor Bill Richardson who hesitated. Youre talking about a convicted sapist and a man whos accused of a heinous murder. Imagine you must have thought, dont know if i want this person in our state. Well, thats true. He was a very bad guy, and i said to my staff, lets be sure of all the facts. Lets be sure that were doing the right thing. The governor wanted to hear from brookes family. Brookes mother called the State Capitol and spoke to a top aid. Do you remember the words that you used in that call . I remember that i said we had gone through a lot already and that we were hoping that this could be the end of it and that we would just hope that they would consider it. Oure appealing to their hearts . I was. How critical was that phone call, that personal phone call from the wilberger family to your office . Well, it was absolutely critical. As long as their is life imprisonment, as long as the family of Brooke Wilberger f t that this would bring closure, i was comfortable in signing this agreement. It was done. The word police in corvallis had been waiting for. I think we were all kind of on pins and needles for several days there. That call finally comes . Yeah. I remember learning that the document was signed, the plea was done. Now its a matter of, weve got to find a way to get from him where she actually is. What had happened to brooke . Her family and investigators who had spent more than five years trying to answer that question would in the coming days get their first details from her killer, Joel Courtney. Courtneys lawyers relayed the story to the d. A. , who then told brookes family. I thought everything had been difficult until that time but when he told us the details of the crime, it was the first time i heard some of them and it was all i could do to just sit there and just look straight ahead. And i just kept thinking, you can get through this day. You can get through this day. The story told by Joel Courtney was this. He said that morning in may, he was high on cocaine. When he drove up to brooke in the parking lot in his green van, asked for help delivering a package and when she came closer, he pulled out a knife and pulled her into the van. Brooke began scr ming as he tore her out of her flipflops. From there, courtney said he drove west towards the town of philomath. He kept brooke tied up in the van for hours, even going through the mcdonalds drive through, he said, doing more drugs before night fell. He raped brooke and when she fought back, he killed her by bludgeoning her in the head with a piece of wood before concealing her body in the forest. But to know that she fought, you know, which didnt surprise usd, it was just a really difficult time and very emotional i think for all of us as a family. And in addition to those details, Joel Courtney provided the most critical piece of information, what brookes family and investigators had been waiting for. He drew a rough hand sketched map that he says depicts where he took her. Do you know this location . Its not too far away. Detectives drove from the Police Department past the apartment complex where brooke was abducted west five miles through the small town of philomath and then five miles further off the highway on to a logging road shown on the map. Had you been there . Not precisely. Close by searching . Absolutely. Ten miles is so close by. Yeah, but it may as well be an eternity. We went up into the woods and were trying again to be quiet. We dont want the world to know and were looking and were not finding and i remember being rather frustrated. Did you think he lied . Well, that certainly crossed our mind that he lied. The team called it a night. But the next day they went back with more details supplied by Joel Courtney. Okay. Its about 9 40 a. M. On september 19th. And with the help of a cadaver dog, through heavy timber, just a few hundred yards off that highway chief deputy medical examiner came back and said, i think we found her. On a hillside investigators found some clothing, including a sweatshirt and before long small flags sadly marked several spots where human remains had been recovered. One of oregons most timeless mysteries had apparently been solved. I certainly cant sit here and tell you that i wasnt choked up a few times. Yeah, there were emotional times there. But it would take time to identify the remains so searchers told the District Attorney about one particular item found on that hillside. They wanted him to ask brookes parents about it. He texts me and said, can you watch . That was the watch that you gave her for christmas . Uhhuh. That beautiful watch that brooke had wanted so badly, one one of the last gifts cammy would ever buy for her daughter now signaled the time had come. So i described the watch and he said, we found her. It was like having the first day and six years and then the snowball just came down on top of you. Everything landed on you. Brookes parents then told the rest of the family. The wait was over. When she just said the words, they found brooke, it was i didnt feel excitement at all and it wasnt what i thought i would feel. I just sat there and i cried and i cried. That hope of her coming home alive was just kind of torn from me. In that moment i felt such a powerful wave of emotion and heaviness in my heart. As a human being, as a parent, i was just personally really, really struck at that point with what that really meant for the family. That the dream of an Elizabeth Smart miracle would be dashed forever. The next day Joel Courtney pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Do you remember that day . I just remember thinking, how could you have done that to that precious child . I cant imagine holding out for that long without needing to come forward and say, this is the truth. And here is your precious baby. After sentencing, most of brookes family paid a brief visit to the site where brookes remains were found. I could hardly breathe and it was wooded and shaded and someone made the comment that, you know, it was a beautiful Peaceful Place and i thought, it would be if your daughter hadnt been murdered here. At the corvallis library, a number of Police Agencies gather at the end of a fiveyear effort. And as the news broke that day, brookes mother stepped to the podium to say thank you, not only to thank those investigators that had worked so hard toward this day but also in a moment of incredible grace to thank brookes killer. It might be hard for you to understand but at this time we just really feel gratitude. Even to mr. Courtney, that he could see fit to tell us where he left brooke. And for our family, what happens to him, we are thankful that justice was served and tha he will not have the opportunity for parole but now he can go on with whats left of his life and we want to strengthen our family and to go on with our life. Did it surprise you to hear mrs. Wilberger say thank you to Joel Courtney . It didnt surprise me. They are a giving and caring family. You can only hate for so long. At some point as people we have to be able to get beyond that. People always throw the word closure around. When people use that term, they are trying to be helpful and comforting. But i think in the death of anyone theres no closure. It is the end of a horrible ordeal, one that las ed much longer that it needed to. For brookes killer, joel urtney, a lifetime of solitude awaits at the penitentiary of new mexico. You have no sympathy for this man . No. I think hes an animal. I hope he feels trapped, caged, defeated, weak. Hes been beaten at his game and, like it or not, accountable. And many wonder, would Joel Courtney have been caught if a waitress and mom in new mexico named dara hadnt taken the time to save another woman from an unknown fate . What would have happened if dara hadnt stopped . The victim would be dead. I have no doubt that he would have grabbed her again and we would never have found her. And for Brooke Wilbergers family, they keep this wrist watch of brookes along with their memories knowing that time is healing but only to a point. I dont think that i could be 80 years old and have my entire life behind me and i dont think that i will ever reflect on what happened to her and be okay with it, you know, time is not going to make that okay. She was the person you wanted to be or be like. She emulated everything that was good and she was my sister and news 4 new york begins with breaking news. An explore tear sion tears through a high school, shattering windows. I thm sibila varghs. Im david ushery, in for chuck tonight. The blasted sounded as if a plane fell from the sky. News 4 arrived at the scene, and Brynn Gingras spoke to a worker who was inside at the time of the explosion. Reporter you will hear in a minute how big and loud this explosion was to the people who live around here, and those two workers. Well zoom in. This is the parking lot of the high school. A lot of fire, fdny, other officials here, assessing the scene at this point. The mayor was here not too long ago, and he reiterated in an update how serious of an explosion this was. He arrived quickly to the scene and was briefedly officials from the Buildings Department and fdny. He says right now, it is believed the explosion happened inside a science lab of the high school. Contractors had been working on a project there since the school year ended in june, and he explai d the damage that this blast caused. The sixth floor, ver severely damaged. Three classrooms is where most of the impact is. Department of buildings is doing a full tructural revi. Well have more on that tomorrow. Reporter certainly a lot of work to be done with the explosion like this. A lot of investigating still ne seds to happen. As you mentioned, i talked to two workers who were just by the explosion when it happened. They had a lot to say about this blast. The explosion rocked this bronxn neivighborhood, fofelt a short distance away. I was in the kitchen cooking. I love on 228 street. Completely. I thought the house was going to fall down. Going on . Is it an earthquake . Theres earthquakes in the west coast, but what is happening