Very town where brooke disappeared. right here in corvallis. joel courtney then disappeared, for about 36 hours, before returning to dina s home in the portland suburbs. he walked through the door and announced kind of loudly, you ll never believe where i ve 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 joel s chronic drug abuse. he s delusional? uh-huh. you just think he s coming off some bad drugs? uh-huh. you don t call 911? no. dina says she didn t feel like she was in danger in that moment, so she did not call authorities. but all those months later, sitting with investigators, she
Mischievous kid with a sweet little spirit and hilarious laugh. days before, corvallis police got that call from albuquerque and heard joel courtney s name for the first time, dina received a call herself. it was from joel s 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, that she felt like the truth needs to come out. but the truth was hard to figure out in 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 childhood milestones and we were a very, very happy family. at some point did you see a shift? when he was probably 11-ish, he started hanging out with some older kids.
Joel courtney then disappeared, for about 36 hours, before returning to dina s home in the portland suburbs. he walked through the door and announced kind of loudly, you ll never believe where i ve 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 joel s chronic drug abuse. he s delusional? uh-huh. you just think he s coming off some bad drugs? uh-huh. you don t call 911? no. dina says she didn t 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.