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Tonya Papanikolas ReportingSome startling developments in the case of Brooke Wilberger's suspected murderer. The FBI now says it believes Joel Patrick Courtney is a serial killer and sex offender.
It's looking like Wilberger may not be his only murder victim. The FBI says it's identified three additional victims in Oregon that Courtney may have sexually assaulted and killed. The women have not been named and Corvallis Oregon aren't talking about specific evidence, but they say the cases fall into Courtney's victim profile.
Joel Courtney has a history of sexual abuse. In 1985, Courtney pled guilty to sex abuse in Oregon. Six years later, he was picked up again. And in November of 2004 he was arrested in New Mexico, charged with abducting a college student and sexually assaulting her by knifepoint.
A court-appointed therapist in Oregon counseled him after his first charge and said Courtney's disturbing tendencies never went away.
Dr. Stephen Kahn, Courtney's Former Therapist: "He had a deviance for violence with women. He liked to have violent sex. I think he'll be in prison for life."
In August, Courtney was charged with murdering BYU student Brooke Wilberger, who disappeared from a Corvallis, Oregon apartment complex in broad daylight. A district attorney in New Mexico says Brooke's case held parallels to the one in New Mexico.
Theresa Whatley, Bernalillo County, New Mexico Assistant DA: "The fact that the two women we know had similar characteristics, this is an individual who has done this before."
Both women had blonde hair and blue eyes, were 15 to 25 years old, and were abducted from an outside setting. The FBI says this is Courtney's typical victim profile. Since he's moved around so much, the FBI admits it's a high possibility he's also assaulted victims in other parts of the country, from cities in Florida to New Mexico, across Oregon and even into Alaska.
