Posted on 05/28/2004 9:42:07 AM PDT by johnfrink
Police have cordoned off a gravel pit after searchers looking for a missing 19-year-old university student found "a strange discovery" near the Willamette River, a police spokesman said Friday.
"It was enough to call investigators. They secured the area and began again this morning," said Lt. Ron Noble, a spokesman for the Corvallis Police Department. "If this is related to Brooke's disappearance, we don't want to take the chance of missing anything at all."
Noble would not elaborate on what searchers might have found just before dusk on Thursday, and stressed that there was no immediate indication that "there is a person out there." But he said authorities are working with the Oregon State police's crime lab to investigate the scene.
The discovery was made four to five miles away from the apartment complex where 19-year-old Brooke Wilberger was last seen. Wilberger, a student at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, has been missing for four days.
Hundreds of volunteers have been combing the area looking for Wilberger, whose parents live in nearby Veneta, outside Eugene.
The missing woman's mother, Cammy Wilberger, has tried to be positive. She talked about a "girls only" trip she and her daughters had planned to San Francisco this summer.
"We're still hopeful and we think we'll have Brooke with us soon," she said.
Corvallis police have interviewed about a dozen "persons of interest" in Wilberger's disappearance, but none can so far be considered a suspect, Lt. Ron Noble said Thursday.
He also said authorities have fielded over 500 tips from around the country and are continuing to interview sex offenders in two Oregon counties.
Wilberger vanished Monday morning from an apartment complex where her sister lives, leaving behind a pair of flip-flops in a parking lot.
Wilberger was cleaning the bulb covers of the tall lamps that line the complex's parking lot Monday morning when her sister, Stephani Hansen, left to drop off her child at preschool. When Hansen returned about an hour and a half later, her sister was gone, she said.
On the Net: www.findbrooke.com
Bump and prayers for Brooke and her family... I hope this isn't as bad as it sounds.
Fox News is covering this now.. Greta was just on a few minutes ago talking about it.
You're right about the similarity to Dru. It's eerie and scary. I feel so bad for these girls and their families and friends.
You're right. here is a link to the site mentioned.
It makes me sick. IF she was killed (and I am praying that she was not, but, let's face it, the odds at this point are not good), no doubt the suspect will be someone who, like Dru's killer, has a history of violent sexual offenses but who was allowed to be released into the community. And the public will be asked to believe that this is just an anomaly and that nobody could have predicted it, when in fact anyone could predict it.
Ugh.
Lots of Mexicans around the Willamette Valley.
You folks make me "proud!" They call we Conservatives, people who don't care about the unfortunate. But you as many others continue to make feel great pleasure at the level of concern that each of you shows for your fellow man! Thank you!
Hubby and I were talking about this last night. We were talking about how all these stories about these college-age girls coming up missing are on the news lately, and how they are all very, very pretty. So yes, anyone with a brain can predict that the sin of "coveting" is hitting frightening heights. But there aren't enough of us out there.
Your guess that it will be a suspect released early is not far off from mine, as is a possible illegal.
Don't see what that has to do with it--Edmund Morris, Christian Longo, Ward Weaver--Oregon's most recent notorious killers...all white. Race is beside the point in times like this.
And when you do care about the unfortunate, they accuse you of not doing enough. Greta accused me of it.
How sad, she wasn't doing anything to put herself in harms way, and still the worse may have happened.
As the father of daughters around that age this hits close to home, and we can only pray that no matter how bad this looks there could still be a positive outcome.

It sounds bad... spokesman on FNC now with Linda Vester talking about evidence of a "fresh dig"...
"...no doubt the suspect will be someone who...has a history of violent sexual offenses but...was...released into the community."
Well, it is Oregon. Just as liberal as most of the people here in Washington.
Spokesman: there's probably 150 people on that list (sex offenders) to investigate. Narrowed it down to 6-12 "strong" people of interest. Brooke's boyfriend is cleared as he is out of the country in S. America on a Mormon mission.
Posted by beelzepug to johnfrink On 05/28/2004 10:16:20 AM PDT #15 of 14
I was lurking latest posts when I noted your post to be 15 0f 14, now that's fast!LOL!
Sounds like the way they count votes in Chicago.
Sadly, Oregon is hardly unique in that respect. Again, note the Dru Sjodin case (the guy was freed despite tons of evidence that he was a high-risk level 3 offender), as well as the guy in Florida who kidnapped and killed that 12 year old girl (the one caught on video at the carwash). Our country has a problem admitting that some people are beyond rehabilitation.
What else is there? Forgive my naivete.
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