Brooke Wilberger's memory has faded on the BYU campus, but former roommates of the BYU sophomore who vanished five years ago in Corvallis, Ore., embraced with a sense of release Monday the news that her body had been found.
"It has felt like an eternity to every person involved in this," said Brittany Bennion, one of Wilberger's Deseret Towers roommates. "I'm happy that there is closure and I'm happy that they found her body. I know that this is what Brooke's family was hoping for."
The search for Wilberger, who disappeared from an apartment building near the Oregon State University campus in May 2004 shortly after finishing her freshman year at BYU, ended Monday when a man pleaded guilty to her murder after leading police to her body near the rugged Oregon coast.
Defendant Joel Courtney's confession concluded one of the most publicized murder investigations in Oregon history.
Courtney, who also was convicted of raping another student in New Mexico, avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty to aggravated murder and revealing the location of Wilberger's remains, said Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson.
Courtney, 43, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after entering the plea in Marion County Circuit Court in Salem. He will be returned to New Mexico to serve his prison term there as part of the plea arrangement before being returned to Oregon to serve the life sentence.
Wilberger's mother, Cammy, said the family met the news with mixed emotions.
"We are so grateful we could have her body recovered and we are grateful to everyone and to Mr. Courtney who told where she was left," she said. "We are grateful for everyone who has kept us in their prayers. It's just been an amazing, difficult 5 1/2 years."
Following directions from Courtney, police found Wilberger's remains Saturday morning in a wooded area several miles west of Corvallis, according to a source close to the investigation.
In a Monday afternoon press conference, Haroldson said police found human remains, as well as clothing and jewelry that belonged to Wilberger, at the site, and that dental records had confirmed the body as Wilberger's. Police are not announcing the exact location until the area has been thoroughly searched, he said.
The 19-year-old Wilberger was working at her summer job scrubbing lighting fixtures outside an apartment complex managed by her sister when she disappeared on May 24, 2004. Nothing but her flip-flop sandals were left behind.
A massive search that included family, friends and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to which she belonged, turned up nothing, and investigators struggled to find a lead.
Haroldson said Courtney has admitted approaching two other young women in Corvallis before abducting Wilberger. Those two women became alarmed and were able to avoid abduction.
Courtney approached Wilberger, trying to make it appear he was delivering an envelope, then threatened her with a knife and forced her into the van, Haroldson said.
Courtney said he bound her with duct tape and drove into the remote Coast Range but returned to Corvallis when he got hungry, with Wilberger in his van.
He went back to a remote spot in the mountains and raped her, and when she tried to fight him off, Courtney killed her by bludgeoning her skull, Haroldson said.
The disappearance dominated headlines in local newspapers at the time, but since the kidnapping occurred in Oregon, BYU police were not particularly involved in the case.
"It was frustrating because there was really nothing we could do," said Larry Stott, BYU's chief of police of 10 years. Stott remembered BYU students putting up fliers with Wilberger's picture on them in an attempt to find out any information that might help the search.
When a detective in the New Mexico case called Oregon investigators later that year, a troubling picture of Courtney emerged, linking him to Wilberger.
Courtney had served time in jail in Oregon for a 1991 sex abuse conviction in Washington County, where he grew up.
It was luck, bravery and the sheer determination of the student victim in New Mexico that tripped up Courtney when she escaped and called police.
When an Albuquerque police detective made a call to Oregon to check on Courtney's criminal record, evidence quickly accumulated indicating Courtney was in Corvallis the day of Wilberger's disappearance, and eventually he was charged with her murder.
Bennion, who lives in Eagle Mountain with her husband and child, has fond memories of Wilberger.
"She was really one of the sweetest, best people I've ever met," she said. "My only regret is I didn't know her for a longer period of time."
Whitney Harris, who was planning on rooming with Wilberger their sophomore year in an off-campus apartment complex, met Monday's news with mixed feelings.
"It's kind of bittersweet," said Harris, who now lives in Tallahassee, Fla. "At the time we were all freaked out. This was someone we know. Over time, it kind of faded. I'm sure her family feels good about that closure now."
Most students asked about the news on Monday had to be prompted before they remembered Wilberger's story, although some said they recalled the case.
James Dalton was a junior in high school in Beaverton, Ore., at the time, and remembered many details about the case. Dalton said the whole thing is just "very sad."
BYU grad Austin Frost became interested in the Wilberger case while he was a student in Provo and said the timing of the whole incident drew him in. He had served an LDS mission in the Portland Oregon mission, had lived in areas that were just 30 miles from Corvallis, and in 2004 he had two daughters of his own.
"It was just heart-wrenching," Frost said. "You would never think things like that could happen to nice people."
Contributing: Wendy Leonard, Emiley Morgan, Abigail Shaha and Sara Lenz, Deseret News
e-mail: mhaddock@desnews.com