Suspect may have killed others

PORTLAND — The man charged with aggravated murder in the disappearance of college student Brooke Wilberger may have killed three other women in Oregon, according to an alert posted on the FBI’s Web site.

Joel Courtney, 39, was indicted on aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape and sodomy charges. He is in custody in Albuquerque, N.M., where he awaits trial on charges he raped a student there.

Oregon prosecutors labeled Courtney a “suspected serial killer” during a court hearing last month on media access to court records. The FBI Web posting is the first time authorities have released any information about how many victims there might be.

The alert said investigators have identified three victims that Courtney may have sexually assaulted and killed in Oregon. It does not identify the victims’ names or hometowns.

“He is inclined to abduct white females, 15 to 25 years of age, with blonde hair and blue eyes, in an outside setting,” the alert said.

The description fits Wilberger, the 19-year-old Brigham Young University student who vanished from outside a Corvallis apartment complex in May 2004. Her body has not been found.

FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele in Portland said the Web posting came from the agency’s national headquarters. It said Courtney has traveled extensively and there is a “high possibility” that there are other victims in Alaska, Florida, New Mexico and Oregon.