Prosecution of Missing Student Suspect Facing Delay

PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 19, 2005 — -- The extradition of the man charged with murder, kidnapping and rape in the disappearance of a Brigham Young University student will be delayed because his defense attorney in another case has been fired.

New Mexico authorities said they will not send Joel Courtney to Oregon to face charges in the disappearance of Brooke Wilberger until they try him on unrelated charges involving another student. Courtney was scheduled to go on trial Sept. 6 for allegedly kidnapping and raping a University of New Mexico foreign exchange student.

Sources close to the New Mexico case told ABC News affiliate KATU the New Mexico trial has been delayed because Courtney's public defender was arrested last month for drunken driving for the third time and has been fired. The judge in the New Mexico case will appoint a new attorney to represent Courtney, but his trial is now not expected to take place until late spring or early winter 2006.

Under Investigation for Other Homicides

In Oregon, Courtney faces 19 counts including aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape and sodomy in the disappearance of Wilberger, who vanished from the Corvallis apartment complex her sister manages on May 24, 2004. Wilberger's body has not been found.

Police say Wilberger, 19 at the time, was last seen helping with some cleaning chores. Authorities believed Wilberger's disappearance was suspicious because her cleaning supplies were left behind, her flip-flops were found in the apartment complex parking lot, and her cell phone and other personal items were left behind in her sister's apartment.

Bernalillo County, N.M., District Attorney Kari Brandenburg has said Courtney is "a possible suspect in other homicides" involving college students.

Courtney, authorities said, has lived in a number of places, including Beaverton, Ore.; Cape Canaveral, Fla.; Anchorage, Alaska; and Albuquerque, N.M. In New Mexico and Oregon, Courtney's alleged victims were both young college students and it is possible that other victims also were college age, Brandenburg said. Investigators are trying to determine whether evidence links Courtney to other unsolved slayings.

Reported by ABC News affiliate KATU-TV in Portland, Ore.