Arrest Made in Brooke Wilberger Case

CORVALLIS, Ore., Aug. 3, 2005 — -- A man being held in Albuquerque, N.M., has been charged with the murder of Brigham Young University student Brooke Wilberger, who has been missing for more than a year, police said.

Joel Patrick Courtney, 39, was being held on rape and kidnapping charges in New Mexico, but Corvallis (Ore.) Police Department Captain Ron Noble refused to say in an interview with The Associated Press what led police to to the suspect. He said the 19-year-old Wilberger had not been found.

Courtney was arrested Tuesday at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque. He has been there since November, when he was ordered held on $100,000 bail on charges of rape and kidnapping in a case involving a student at the University of New Mexico.

Corvallis police officials are expected to hold a news conference today with the representatives from the Benton County District Attorney's office and members of Wilberger's family in attendance.

According to a record check run by ABC News affiliate KATU-TV in Portland, Ore., Courtney has a criminal history in both Oregon and New Mexico that includes sexual abuse charges.

Courtney went to prison in 1985, when he was 19, and did nine years of hard time in the Oregon Department of Corrections for a sex abuse case in Washington County.

In January 2004, Courtney was arrested on a drunk driving charge. He was supposed to appear in court on May 24, 2004, the same day Wilberger disappeared, but he never showed up.

Court records show he called the Lincoln County Court to say he was in Corvallis on his way to Newport that day, but he never made his appointment.

As for the incident involving a student at the University of Mexico, the victim told police Courtney pulled a knife on her and demanded she get into a car. She said she was then tied up with a shoestring and sexually assaulted.

She was able to break free and run for help. Her ability to identify Courtney and get him locked up may have been just the alarm Corvallis police needed to look in his direction.