Posted on 05/26/2004 12:34:10 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg
Last modified Tuesday, May 25, 2004 11:49 PM PDT Brook Wilberger
The search intensifies
By JESSE SOWA Gazette-Times reporter
Police believe Wilberger abducted
Shoes and personal items were left behind Monday morning outside a Corvallis apartment complex, but there was no other sign of Brooke Carol Wilberger. She was gone without a trace.
On Tuesday, police continued interviewing people and searching the Corvallis area for the 19-year-old Veneta woman, whom police believe was abducted.
Wilberger was last seen about 10 a.m. Monday at the Oak Park Apartments, 1219 S.W. 26th St., where her sister and brother-in-law, Stephanie and Zak Hansen, manage the housing complex.
Searches and investigations Monday and Tuesday brought no solid leads, said Corvallis Police Capt. Bob Deutsch. Any potential witnesses to the apparent abduction have not come forward, he added.
"We've come up with nothing so far, which is disappointing," Deutsch said.
Wilberger's family said they would continue to search and are hopeful that she will be found.
"That's our goal. We need to get her back here today," said Jared Cordon, Wilberger's brother-in-law.
Wilberger, who recently completed her freshman year at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, had arrived in Corvallis on Monday from her Eugene-area home. She was cleaning lamp bulb covers at the complex and had been in town for about one hour when she disappeared. Her family noticed that she was missing at 10:30 a.m.
Some of Wilberger's personal items and the bucket and cloth rags she was using were left behind, Deutsch said. Her purse, keys and other personal items were found in her sister's apartment.
Wilberger's disappearance is being treated as an abduction and a major crime investigation. Corvallis Police Lt. Ron Noble said Tuesday that police were following all of the many leads that had been reported.
Deutsch said that evidence left at the scene and Wilberger's character make police believe she was kidnapped.
"We don't have someone who would walk off," he said. "We have a very responsible young girl."
The Corvallis Police Department is being aided by the sheriff's offices from Benton and Linn counties, Benton County Emergency Management, Oregon State Police and the FBI.
"As time goes on, the distances and the places to look are greater," Deutsch said.
The Associated Press reported an FBI spokeswoman saying that agents from the bureau's Eugene office are assisting with the investigation. Agents will provide whatever help local authorities request, such as behavior specialists and federal arrest warrants if a suspect is identified and leaves the state, the spokeswoman said.
Tuesday, searchers canvassed the area near the Willamette and Marys rivers on foot and in the air. Deutsch estimated that 75 to 80 percent of the Corvallis Police Department's resources were being used for the investigation and search.
The search began at about 5 p.m. Monday — a few hours after Wilberger was reported missing to police — and continued until the early morning hours Tuesday. The search resumed later Tuesday morning.
Wilberger, an honors student and 2003 graduate of Elmira High School, is a pre-elementary education major at BYU and is enrolled for next fall term, the Associated Press reported. A university spokesperson there said that she is enrolled for next fall term and has lived on campus in an all-female residence hall.
Her family said that she has been studying speech pathology and hopes to work with children with speech impediments.
Wilberger is white, 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs about 105 pounds. She was last seen wearing a T-shirt with "BYU Soccer" in small print; an indigo Fresh Jive sweatshirt; blue jeans and no shoes. She was wearing a ring engraved with the letters CTR, small hoop earrings and possibly a silver watch.
She has a piercing in the top of her right ear and a scar on her right forearm from her wrist to her elbow.
Wilberger was staying with another sister and brother-in-law, Shannon and Jared Cordon, at Santana Apartments, a complex the Cordon couple manages. That complex is directly across 26th Street from the complex where Wilberger was last seen.
"The way things were left, we immediately knew there was something wrong," Jared Cordon said. "We immediately feared she had been taken."
Paul Davis is a friend of the family and a Corvallis ward councilor at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where the Cordons and Hansens attend. Davis said the family has remained strong through the crisis.
"They're doing pretty good," he said. "I think the adrenaline is wearing off and it's sunk in what happened."
Jared Cordon said family members are less concerned about their own welfare and more about finding Wilberger.
Her family told police that she is a devout, studious church member. Her longtime boyfriend is currently in Venezuela on a Mormon mission, the family said. Her parents, Greg and Cammy Wilberger, live in Veneta near Eugene.
Cordon said it is "extremely out of character" for Wilberger to disappear.
"She's a great person. She's a bubbly, beautiful girl," he said. "We're just thinking for her and looking for her."
Anyone with information about Wilberger's disappearance is asked to call the Corvallis Police Department tip line at 766-6989 or after 5 p.m. at 766-6911.
Jesse Sowa covers general assignments for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at jesse.sowa@lee.net or 758-9521.
Search Web site http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~rpandey/missing Copyright © 2004 Corvallis Gazette-Times
I lift her up to God - He knows where she is, and He is with her now. May those who can, listen; may those who hear, help. Father, I call on You, for You are God. Nothing is impossible for You -
In Jesus name, let her be set free...
Early bump.
Missing college student bump.
Burnout on missing chicks?
The several missing college students in/around Minnesota is a very disturbing scenario. A google of "missing college students" turns up a disheartening amount of sites.
Creepy.
?
Connection by whom with whom?
Yes, the family was on Fox News last night. Greta said something horrible to them, something utterly thoughtless.
I wrote her about it, telling her she should apologize.
She sent me a somewhat nasty email back. Nice!
What did she say?
I was floored. Brooke's family had just found her shoes, flip-flops, ripped, where she disappeared.
So I sent Greta this email:
Sent: 5/27/2004 1:51 AM
Subject: Please apologize!
Greta,
I can't believe you asked the parents of the missing girl Brooke if the best they could hope for at this point is that she is like Audrey, and took off on her own.
How could you say that to near-grieving parents whose only clue to their daughter's disappearance is that they found her shoes?
That was disgraceful. You interview victims and their relatives all the time. Haven't you learned compassion yet?
I'm disappointed.
(Mrs Koz)
xxxx, CA
go ahead and criticize ....but i am doing much to help find missing people..may i inquire, what are you doing to help? or do you only criticize?
Interesting. Sex offenders let loose to commit more crimes by the damned lawyers. After all, they make the laws that keep them in business...and that keep a fresh pool of victims. Sex offenders can NOT be rehabilitated. And neither can lawyers.
BTTT
Please ping this to someplace it will be seen, like FRONT PAGE NEWS, CRIME, CURRENT...THANKS
Where's Gary Condit these days?
In that pic Brooke resembles Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Very pretty. I pray she's allright. These things don't have a good track record tho.
Thanks, Indie.
We need to get this out there.
I think I saw him with the Olsen twins.
Too many missing college students these days.
More prayers for her safety.
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