Similarity of victims infers link to suspect.

Byline: Rebecca Nolan The Register-Guard

Both women were pretty, blond and college-aged.

Both were abducted in broad daylight - one while cleaning light fixtures in an apartment complex parking lot, the other while walking home from work.

The main difference between the alleged kidnapping of 19-year-old Brooke Wilberger and that of a foreign exchange student in Albuquerque, N.M., is that the second woman escaped her abductor, whom police have identified as Joel Patrick Courtney, 39, of Rio Rancho, N.M.

Courtney was charged this week with rape, kidnapping and murder in Wilberger's disappearance. She has not been found.

The similarities have prompted some to wonder whether Courtney - who has been convicted of neither crime - might be a serial criminal.

"Any behavioral scientist will tell you that if you look at his M.O., if you look at his two victims - their similarities - if you look at the fact that both happened in broad daylight and you look at his record, it might lead you to assume he's not new to this type of behavior," said Kari Brandenburg, Bernalillo County district attorney, whose office is prosecuting the New Mexico assault.

Interviewed by telephone Thursday, she said news reports that quote her calling Courtney a "serial killer" are inaccurate.

However, Brandenburg predicted that investigators in other cities will review old cases to see if they share any similarities to the two alleged assaults now tied to Courtney.

"That's often how a serial killer is found," she said.

Courtney plans to fight extradition to Oregon to face 14 counts of aggravated murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count each of rape, sodomy and sexual assault related to the Wilberger case. Each murder count represents a different theory of how the crime occurred.

Courtney, a married father of three, appeared briefly in an Albuquerque court Thursday. Metro court Judge Sharon Walton gave Oregon officials 30 days to file extradition papers, though that deadline could be extended to 90 days.

Raised in Veneta, Wilberger had just returned from her first year at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and was working at an apartment complex in Corvallis managed by her sister and brother-in-law when she disappeared May 24, 2004.

Court records and police reports show that Courtney has a long history of violence against women.

Courtney remains in the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque, where he awaits trial on kidnapping and sexual abuse charges stemming from the November incident near the University of New Mexico.

In that case, Courtney is accused of kidnapping a young blond woman at knife point as she walked down the street about 6 p.m. last November, according to a report in The Oregonian. The woman told police that the man threatened to kill her unless she undressed and performed oral sex on him, the newspaper reported.

He tied her up, gagged her and assaulted her. The woman wriggled free and escaped when the man stepped outside the car, the report said. A passing motorist stopped to help and called police. Courtney was arrested a short time later, after the woman identified him as her attacker.

In June 2004, Courtney was arrested at his home in Rio Rancho for allegedly beating his wife and threatening his children. His 12-year-old son called police after Courtney, who apparently was drunk, allegedly pushed his wife into a garage wall.

Courtney was charged with battery against a household member. His brother told police that Courtney "has a bipolar condition and hasn't taken any of his medication lately." The charges were later dismissed.

Portland therapist Stephen Kahn was appointed by a Washington County court to evaluate Courtney after a 1984 attempted rape in Beaverton. Kahn did not return messages left at his office Thursday.

He told KOB-TV in Albuquerque that Courtney "had a deviance for violence with women, he liked to have violent sex," the news station reported.

"I think he'll be in prison for life," Kahn said.

Kahn worked with Courtney following his arrest in December 1984 for beating and sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman in Beaverton, where he grew up. Courtney was 18 at the time. He admitted to the assault. He was sentenced to 90 days in the county jail and probation, which he later violated.

One week before Wilberger's disappearance, an Oregon State Police trooper stopped Courtney for speeding on I-84 in La Grande. Courtney was driving a green 1997 Dodge Caravan with a Minnesota license plate.

Two months ago, Corvallis police announced they were looking for a man named Brian, who called 911 about an hour after Wilberger vanished to report a green minivan driving erratically in the mid-Willamette Valley area.

Police never found Brian, but they found a green minivan in another state and have tied it to Courtney. Benton County District Attorney Scott Heiser said Wednesday that "the green minivan is the link."

On the day Wilberger disappeared, Courtney failed to appear in Lincoln County on a drunken driving charge. He called the court from Corvallis to say he was driving to Newport. He never arrived.

Courtney's trial in Albuquerque is scheduled to begin Sept. 6. But Theresa Whately, the senior trial attorney who is prosecuting Courtney, said she expects delays. If no plea deal is struck, the case will probably go to trial later in the fall.

Once that case is resolved, Courtney can be extradited to Oregon. The maximum penalty for aggravated murder is death.

- The Associated Press contributed to this report