The developments ended one of the most publicized murder investigations in Oregon history and put away a man who also was convicted of raping another student in New Mexico.
Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson made the surprise announcement today.
The Brigham Young University student vanished in May 2004 from an apartment building in Corvallis.
Defendant Joel Courtney avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty to aggravated murder and revealing the location of Wilberger's remains.
Courtney was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after entering the plea in Marion County Circuit Court in Salem.
Joel Courtney looks behind him during a court hearing Tuesday.
Brooke Wilberger of Veneta, Ore., was 19 years old on when she disappeared from a Corvallis apartment complex on May 24, 2004.
Searchers combed western Oregon looking for her, while police eventually narrowed in on one suspect: Joel Courtney.
Wilberger's family walked into the Benton County Courthouse Tuesday as the man accused of killing their daughter was taken in another door in shackles.
Courtney sat silently as a woman testified that Courtney kidnapped her and tried to rape her at gunpoint in 1993.
The woman, who we aren't identifying because she is a victim of a sex crime, said she was just 14 when Courtney attacked her in Portland.
"He came after me and once again showed me the gun and forced me into his car," she told the court.
She says Courtney told her to undress and put on handcuffs, but she escaped after saying a prayer for him.
"I looked at the gun and I looked at the door and it was unlocked and I got out and ran," she said.
Tuesday's court proceeding is just an preliminary hearing, but it is important to the prosecution's case. Prosecutors want to use Courtney's past sexual offenses in court.
Prosecutors say Courtney targeted women from 1984 to 2004. New Mexico convicted Courtney of rape in September 2007. In April 2008, while serving time for the rape in New Mexico, he was brought back to Oregon to stand trial in the Wilberger case.
Prosecutors want jurors to hear about Courtney's sex abuse conviction in 1984, the accusation of attempted sex abuse in 1993, and the stories of two women who say Courtney tried to take them the same morning in the same green van that he is accused of using to abduct Wilberger.
Courtney's former co-worker also testified that they drank and did crack until 6 a.m. the day Wilberger disappeared. He said Courtney took off in the green van and that two days later, he brought it back dirty.
Defense attorneys argue prosecutors are throwing mud, hoping some of it sticks to Courtney. Prosecutors say the words of these women will help them prove courtney had a plan, opportunity and intent to rape and kill Wilberger.
