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Debbie Dujanovic ReportingA potential lead sits behind bars tonight as police and volunteers expand their search for a 19-year old missing BYU Student.
It's now Day 6-in the Brooke Wilberger case. Friends of the missing woman stepped out of LDS Church services in Oregon early today. The service itself focused on Brooke, but her best friends say they needed to do more so they left their ward to join the search party in Corvallis.
Brooke's closest childhood friends say they had to go. Church is important they say, but today Brooke takes priority.
Friend: "Brooke is just a really great girl and we’ve just got to get her."
The girls joined volunteers and police. As the search area grows they're hopeful Brooke's alive.
Lydia Foster, Brooke's Friend: “The last few days I’ve had that feeling, she’s out there somewhere. She’ll be famous when she’s back.”
Tia Ponciano, Brooke's Friend: “I don’t know. I have the same feeling. She’s there, she’s fine; we just have to get her. She’s just waiting for us.”
Already 1,000 acres behind them, today's search leads volunteers into thick wooded areas and a nearby river. Brooke's family thanks volunteers as they return to base-camp.
Zak Hansen, Brother-in-law: “Brooke’s going to come back. We’re just waiting for the people we need to come forward with information to help us find her.”
For the first time since she vanished, hope came Saturday with the arrest of 30-year Sung Koo Kim on unrelated burglary charges for breaking into college dorms and stealing women's underwear. Detectives haven't linked him to Brooke.
Lt. Ron Noble, Corvallis Police Department: “If there is a connection at all, we want to discover it. If there’s not a connection, we don’t want to be wrong.”
Nearly a week has gone by since the 19-year old BYU student disappeared from the parking lot of a Corvallis apartment complex. 30-police investigators are now assigned to the Wilberger case, following up on 1,000 tips.
Tonight a $30,000 reward fund is growing and her family hopes money talks.
Zak Hansen, Brother In Law: “Someone out there may decide money’s more important than keeping a secret, something they may know.”
Police say they're also looking at three other "persons of interest", plus following up on yet another lead. This one an attempted kidnapping in the Corvallis area, a few days before Brooke disappeared.
In that case, the woman got away and police have her description of the two-suspects.
