The Last Time We Saw Her Read online

  It was around 4:00 P.M. when the first CPD officer arrived at the Oak Park Apartments complex and spoke with Stephanie Hansen and Kris Horner. He noted the vital statistics about Brooke—her age, height, weight, and what she had been wearing when last seen. Around this same time Brooke’s sister Shannon Cordon also arrived to join in the hunt for Brooke. Shannon later said, “It wasn’t like Brooke not to tell anyone where she was going. She just wouldn’t disappear on her own.” This fact was soon amplified by finding Brooke’s purse, car keys, and other personal items in the Hansens’ apartment. Brooke’s car was also still in the parking lot. Shannon told authorities, “She didn’t have anything with her except the clothes on her back.”

  More and more officers began arriving at the Oak Park Apartments in the search for the missing girl. They were taking this seriously and already starting to look at the situation as an abduction rather than just a missing person. Mike Morrow and his team of Benton County Emergency Services (BCES) workers joined the hunt at around 6:00 P.M. By six-thirty, they were setting up a staging area in the Oak Park Apartments complex parking lot to take in and coordinate volunteer searchers. It was amazing how quickly the word spread to people in the area—OSU students and especially members of the local LDS Church.

  Terry Malaska was a member of this latter group and she soon told a reporter, who had gotten wind of the situation, “When something like this comes up, we call the ward and say, ‘Help!’ And at that point we’ve got what are called home teachers, so it’s kind of like an automatic phone tree. Every household has a home teacher that contacts them, and within a few minutes you can talk to a lot of people.”

  Jared Cordon, Brooke’s brother-in-law, agreed, saying, “What happened was just amazing. We soon had several hundred people doing search-and-rescue work on Monday night. We had every local and regional law enforcement agency there. We got people taking two and three days off from work to help.” Cordon added that LDS members started using the Internet and ham radio to spread the word about Brooke. They also started passing out “Missing Person” flyers, which were coming off copiers at an incredible rate.

  Thousands of black-and-white copies of flyers showing a photo of Brooke were soon being distributed around Corvallis. The Kinko’s in town donated free color copies of a “Missing Person” poster as well. The poster had a photo of Brooke and in large red letters at the top, the word Abducted. It noted that Brooke was five-four, weighed 105 pounds, was nineteen years old, with blond hair and blue eyes. She had a scar on her right forearm, which ran from her wrist to her elbow. This was from a gymnastics accident. She was last seen wearing a gray BYU Soccer T-shirt, a blue FreshJive sweatshirt, and had a ring engraved with the letters CTR.

  The poster related: Brooke Wilberger is believed to have been abducted on 5/24/04 at approximately 10:50 AM from the 1200 block of SW 26th Street in Corvallis, Oregon. Evidence suggests that Ms. Wilberger was alone, working in the parking lot of an apartment complex when she was abducted.

  A Corvallis Safeway grocery store provided free food to the hundreds of citizen volunteers, who had arrived at the Oak Park Apartments staging area, and the nearby Hilton Garden Inn provided free coffee and restrooms for the throng. Domino’s Pizza started donating free pizzas for the searchers.

  Peggy Pierson, of BCES, told a reporter, “The response is phenomenal. More than three hundred volunteers signed in. And those were just the ones who signed in.” The volunteers fanned out through the Oak Park Apartments complex, into the neighboring streets and the OSU campus. They searched parks, wooded areas, and along streambeds. Before long, the true number of searchers was probably around five hundred. Flyers began being distributed in other towns besides Corvallis, such as Philomath, Lebanon, Monroe, and Albany.

  Citizen volunteers weren’t the only ones on hand. By the night hours of May 24, there were law enforcement officers from the Corvallis Police Department, Benton County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO), and the Oregon State Police (OSP). Soon the Mary’s Peak Search and Rescue (MPSR) unit was there as well. These were the professionals in search-and-rescue missions. In their first foray, they went out with twelve volunteers, showing them how to do a grid search where every nook and cranny was thoroughly searched in an area. When MPSR came back from the first round of searching, there were seventy new volunteers waiting for them at the staging area. Jerry Smith, of MPSR, said of the volunteers, “They searched around Avery Park. They did phenomenally well.”

  Dean Carlozzi, of MPSR, related, “My group found scraps of shoelaces and every hair-tie scrunchie that’s ever been dropped in that park.” Everything of possible evidentiary value was gathered for later analysis to see if it belonged to Brooke Wilberger.

  A disabled volunteer rode a motorized scooter, back and forth, relaying messages and handing out water. A local woman showed up with a bag full of flashlight batteries. Every item and contingency that came up was handled in one way or another by volunteers.

  Flyers went out, in ever-widening circles, to Salem, Newport, and Lincoln City. Every corner of the neighborhood and the OSU campus was searched in a thorough manner. It seemed that wherever someone looked on the night of May 24 through May 25, there were flashlight beams and volunteers looking under bushes, under cars, and over fences. It was almost surreal as flashlight beams danced around in the dark, like so many fireflies.

  Despite all of the search efforts, by the afternoon of May 25, there were still no tangible clues as to where the missing young woman was. CPD captain Bob Deutsch told reporters, “We’ve come up with nothing so far, which is disappointing. As time goes on, the distances and places to look are greater.” Deutsch noted that 70 to 80 percent of the CPD resources were being used in the search at this point.

  More news about Brooke started filtering into the media around this time as well. AP reported that she attended BYU in Utah and was in her second year there. She lived in an all-female residence hall and was studying speech pathology. She intended to work with children with speech impediments after she graduated.

  Once again, family members said that Brooke wouldn’t just leave the area without telling someone first. Jared Cordon noted, “She’s a great person. She’s a bubbly, beautiful girl. It’s extremely out of character for her to disappear.”

  By Tuesday afternoon, May 25, even the FBI was involved. An FBI spokesperson from the Eugene FBI office said that their agents were assisting the other law enforcement agencies in any way they could. One of their main tasks was in profiling who the abductor might be—his possible characteristics and the way he operated. This could help the other law enforcement agents focus on high-priority suspects first, since time might be of the essence. And already, hundreds of tips were pouring in.

  By Wednesday, May 26, more than twenty detectives from local and regional offices of law enforcement agencies were involved in Brooke’s case. This did not count the numerous patrol officers and sheriff’s deputies who were involved as well. By that point more than three hundred tips had come in from as far away as New Mexico, Illinois, and even Maine. CPD lieutenant Ron Noble told reporters, “None of the tips have led to suspects. But we’re looking for someone who might have something, hoping they give us a call.”

  Reporter Jesse Sowa, of the Corvallis Gazette-Times, interviewed volunteer Bob Carleski to get an idea of what it was like for volunteers out in the field. Carleski’s regular job was a data consultant doing contract work in Albany, Oregon, about eleven miles from Corvallis. He took time off from his job to join one of Jerry Smith’s MPSR search teams. Carleski’s team consisted of eleven men and one woman, and their area of search was in foot-high ivy in the woods near Philomath Boulevard. Carleski spoke of how thorough the search was and the spirit of the crew he worked with. Everyone took their work very seriously.

  Steve Calton, an LDS volunteer, was a Hewlett-Packard employee. Calton told Sowa, “They (Hewlett-Packard) could do without me today. I can’t imagine what the family is going through.” About why he was there, Calton sa
id, “It’s about helping your brothers and sisters.”

  The LDS Church members were not the only ones concerned about Brooke’s welfare. Gazette-Times reporter Carol Reeves looked into this aspect of the case with various other churches and religious institutions on campus and in Corvallis. College minister Mark Troncale, of OSU’s Calvary Chapel, spoke of a Tuesday meeting where they prayed for Brooke Wilberger. He related, “We prayed for her, for her family, and for the authorities.”

  Beth Crawford, of Westminster House at OSU, said that students in that institution were praying for Brooke and her family as well. Beth stated, “Her disappearance has left members of the campus community feeling vulnerable and has reminded people how fragile life is.” She added that Westminster House was open to any student who wanted to share their thoughts or concerns about Brooke.

  Not only were the campus religious communities involved, but the wider religious community in the area as well. Reverend Ron Johnson, pastor of the Corvallis Evangelical Church, said, “The people in our church are deeply concerned for this young woman and her family, and many have been praying for her return. Our leaders began to pray for her almost as soon as we heard the news about her.”

  The main religious-based effort, however, still remained with the LDS members of the area. Much of the effort was being coordinated at the stake level. A “stake” in the LDS Church is a combination of several churches in an area. In the Corvallis stake headquarters, located on Hamilton Street, there was a coordinating center for the volunteers, who were pouring in. Many of these volunteers had young children, and a child care center was set up for the kids while their parents went out on search missions. Along with the child care center, there was a general information table, a table full of flyers, and another table with volunteers handling incoming phone calls.

  The main effort at the center was sending new volunteers out to the search-and-rescue teams in the field, which were being coordinated by the professionals, such as MPSR. Terry Malaska at the stake center related, “They (the professionals) direct all of the search-and-rescue operations. They tell us what time and how many and where, and we try to give it to ’em.”

  Those who didn’t go out on actual ground searches were sent all over the area distributing flyers with Brooke’s photo and pertinent information. Terry related that by the afternoon of May 26, more than ten thousand of these flyers had been distributed in an ever-widening circle.

  Despite all of the prayers, and despite all of the massive searches by volunteers, there were no valid clues as to where Brooke had been taken or by whom. And although the legions of volunteers were very welcome, it was the law enforcement personnel who were vital in the massive operation. The heart of their coordination by May 26 was the “incident room” in the Law Enforcement Center on Fifth Street in Corvallis. Up to ten people in there were manning the phone lines and taking in a flood of tips about Brooke Wilberger. Many of these tips were useless, but all of them had to be taken seriously until rejected as not being valid or helpful. Nothing could be overlooked at that point.

  Corvallis Police Department captain Bob Deutsch told reporters, “Most of the tips are from people who think they saw her somewhere. Some are from self-styled psychics. A lot of unfounded tips have no validity whatsoever.”

  Besides being a command center for the incoming tips from the general public, the incident room also coordinated the efforts of the detectives from the CPD, BCSO, and Linn County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO), Albany Police Department, and OSP. Deutsch said that a lot of these detectives were checking out the criminal records of known sex offenders in the region. They were contacting these individuals and those who were on probation or parole. Deutsch called these people, “the usual suspects” in a crime of this nature. He added, “It’s basic, traditional, old-fashioned detective work. That means checking backgrounds, checking alibis, interviewing people, reinterviewing people, looking at criminal histories, and checking out leads.”

  On top of all of that, some law enforcement officers were going door-to-door in Brooke’s neighborhood, talking with people there and asking if they could check out their homes and backyards. And if that wasn’t enough, the Corvallis PD had the task of keeping the regional media and national media informed about the progress of the case.

  Lieutenant Ron Noble was handling most of the media contacts. Besides individual interviews with news stations and reporters, he was conducting three press conferences per day as well. The CPD knew that the more people who watched the press conferences in outlying areas, the better were the chances that Brooke would be found. By now, national early-morning television news shows had aired several segments about Brooke as well. The news about her spread far beyond the confines of Oregon’s Willamette River Valley to every corner of America.

  Besides fear in the Oak Park Apartments complex about what had occurred to Brooke, there was now a sense of unease on the nearby OSU campus as well, especially for female students. A reporter for the Gazette-Times interviewed several female OSU students on this issue. Connie Folse, who was an OSU student, and lived three blocks away from where Brooke had last been seen, spoke about her concerns. Connie was a student and a special-events coordinator for the Women’s Center on campus. Connie said, “I was shocked by the apparent abduction in broad daylight. Honestly, I felt so safe in Corvallis. But am I really that safe? It puts things in perspective. When I’m walking around, it’s in the back of my head.”

  On the same theme of surprise that an abduction had occurred in Corvallis in daylight hours, OSU graduate student Debi Stabler related, “It seems so out of the blue. It has changed my assumption about Corvallis. It made me think it can happen anywhere.”

  Other female students spoke of carrying Mace, air horns and whistles with them whenever they walked alone to and from campus. Many made sure to walk in pairs at all times. And Alisha Bickett, from the small nearby town of Lebanon, said that she was even concerned in that outlying community. Alisha declared, “It’s scary to know someone could be doing yard work, minding their own business, and be abducted.”

  Marisa Birky and Michelle Raethke were two typical female roommates and friends at OSU. They lived in Bloss Hall and were studying nursing on campus. More than ever, they made sure to walk in each other’s company whenever they could. Birky said, “I’m more paranoid than normal. I used to feel so safe, and now I feel unsafe. Any little noise will set me off.”

  What really made the reporter’s ears perk up was a story told by Marisa and Michelle. They said that a friend of theirs, three days before Brooke went missing, had a scary encounter of her own near campus. According to this friend, she had been walking on Twenty-sixth Street at night when a strange man suddenly came up from behind her. At the same moment a car drove up near her. The strange man told the young woman to get into the car. Instead, she bit his hand and fled into the bushes. The man didn’t follow her, but rather jumped into the nearby car and it sped off. This friend of Marisa’s and Michelle’s hid in the bushes, and apparently had a cell phone. She called a male friend, who eventually arrived on the scene.

  Captain Bob Deutsch, of CPD, addressed this story, saying that it was being checked out. In fact, the Corvallis PD had first heard about this incident after it was printed in the newspaper. At present, Deutsch didn’t know if it was true or not, or if it had anything to do with Brooke’s abduction. Deutsch said that there were a lot of tips coming in every hour, and some of them were eventually discounted.

  A short time later, Ron Noble told a reporter for the Salem Statesman Journal, “We unfortunately do not have any good solid leads at the moment. We are waiting for one lead that will give us something solid to go on.” Noble added that more than five hundred tips had come in by this point.

  Then Noble told reporters about a gravel pit on private property that had been thoroughly checked on the previous day. The gravel pit had been searched because a tip had come in about disturbed soil there that looked suspicious. Searchers had not only discovere
d freshly dug earth, but also what they described as “odors of oil and decay.”

  The gravel pit was owned by the Morse brothers in neighboring Linn County. A team of OSP forensic experts were called in and they noticed fresh footprints and tire tracks around the disturbed soil. The team used a cadaver dog to sniff around the area, but it gave no “hits” that the ground had any connection with Brooke Wilberger. Despite the dog’s reaction, the team members dug four feet down at the area of the disturbed soil. Lieutenant Ron Noble related, “They found nothing. We are discouraged and disappointed.”

  Noble went on to say, at a press conference, that CPD had identified five persons of interest in the case. These individuals had a pattern of behavior with women who matched Brooke Wilberger’s description. Noble added, “We are not calling them suspects. We do, however, have knowledge of a history that makes them more interesting to us.”

  Then Noble told a reporter for the Statesman Journal, “As we’re looking at backgrounds, history, behavior, we are finding things that make us somewhat concerned. These may be important to this case, or just people who treat blond white women poorly. None of the five we’re looking at had previous contact with Brooke Wilberger, that we know of.”

  Noble was, of course, keeping many details of the investigation out of the media. He did admit that law enforcement authorities were constantly in touch with an FBI profiler, and Noble related that polygraph tests had been used with several persons of interest. Just what the polygraph questions were or the results of the tests had been, he did not divulge. Nonetheless, the CPD was looking at these individuals very closely. In fact, before long, several persons of interest would pop right up to the top of the chart. And once they did, their names and stories were all over the region’s newspapers and on television news channels as well.