SEARCH
continued from page 1
mud and bushes. Like many of
the others, she cracks a few jokes
about how difficult the task will
be, but she doesn't complain.
Bemhisel doesn't know
Wilberger, a fellow Mormon, but
she's seen her at church. In fact,
Bemhisel said she saw the Veneta
native at the Eugene Church of Je
sus Christ of Latter-day Saints In
stitute of Religion on the comer of
East 16th Avenue and Alder Street
the day before the woman disap
peared.
At about 3:15 p.m., Geiszler or
ders the team forward.
The line plunges into the grass.
Searchers beat back brambles
with sticks and level the shoulder
high grass. Bemhisel drives
through the grass, poking, prod
ding and whacking with her stick,
looking for the 5-foot-4-inch, 115
pound blond-haired Wilberger, or
some clue that could crack the
case. Bemhisel slips into a low,
muddy spot, but catches herself
and presses on.
Then, a man behind her stops
and points out a possible lead —
a water bottle standing upright on
the ground.
Geiszler orders Team Romeo to
stop.
Nobody speaks.
Geiszler asks the search team
members to check for missing wa
ter bottles.
Bemhisel checks. It's hers, she
says. She collects the bottle.
The team marches forward
again, destined to become one of
the many fruitless searches by the
Corvallis Police Department,
countless search-and-rescue units,
Mormon Church members, fami
ly and friends of Wilberger and
complete strangers who simply
want to lend a hand.
Bemhisel said she'll keep
searching for Wilberger as long as
she can keep hitching rides to
Corvallis. She already helped post
some of the 15,000 informational
fliers about Wilberger in Eugene,
and she spent one day last week
searching another wooded area in
Corvallis.
"Anything you can do to help
just makes you feel better," she
says. "1 felt like I would want
someone looking for me."
Despite unsuccessful searching,
Bemhisel says family, friends and
fellow church members are still
hopeful they'll find Wilberger.
"I don't think people would be
out here if they weren't," she says.
Behind the search effort
Dale Romrell hurried between
rooms Saturday at the volunteer
staging area, directing incoming
volunteers and coordinating the
behind-the-scenes staff who keep
the search operation working.
At the Mormon Church off
Harrison Street that doubled as
the center of operations, interest
ed volunteers flooded in to leam
when, where and how they could
help. They collected fliers with in
formation about Wilberger's dis
appearance, buttons with a pho
tograph of the woman and
pin-on ribbons.
Returning volunteers rested, so
cialized and sipped warm mine
strone soup. Volunteers — who
spent much of the morning driv
ing on country roads looking for
tire tracks on the shoulder — re
ported their findings. Those who
combed the wooded areas on
horseback or pedaled through the
city on bicycles reported in as
well. Nobody returned with any
leads.
From this location, 150 people
had been sent out Saturday in ve
hicles to search the roadways, and
another 100 went out on foot,
Romrell said. As of Sunday after
noon, about 1,200 total volunteer
searchers had combed 1,800
acres.
"People just really want to help;
we don't go out and look for vol
unteers," he said. "Some people
just walk in and want to help."
Romrell said he searched
Thursday and distributed some of
the 30,000 fliers that have been
disbursed in and around Corval
lis. He said the church created the
fliers within five hours of discov
ering Wilberger had disappeared,
and the church had 300 locals
searching with flashlights on the
first night of her disappearance.
Romrell said there's a $5,000
reward from the Carole
Sund/Carrington Memorial Re
ward Foundation for Wilberger's
safe return. That money — plus a
large contribution from Borden
Chemical in Springfield, where
Wilberger's father works — puts
the total reward at $30,000.
Still no leads
About 60 men, women and
children waited in rows of chairs
in a quiet, dimly lit room away
from the hustle of the dining area.
In this room, volunteers were
briefed on how to conduct a
search and what to expect.
Cpl. Rich Riffle of the Benton
County Sheriff s Office told mo
rose volunteers not to touch any
thing suspicious they find, but to
instead call a team leader to inves
tigate. He told them to expect
rough terrain with lots of poison
oak and blackberry brambles.
1 le said everyone should expect
to be the one to find Wilberger.
"If I send 80 of you out, 81 of
you come back," Riffle said.
But Riffle told volunteers he
wasn't going to candy-coat the
improbability of finding Wilberg
er.
"What you've been hearing in
the media is what we know," he
said. "We have no leads."
Contact the campus/
federal politics reporter
at jaredpaben@dailyemerald.com.
Tim Bobosky Photographer
Bonnie Dickman, who leads the Romeo and Sierra teams, coordinates searches Saturday with
Catherine Salter (left) and Jon Sears (bottom left).
HOW TO HELP
Updated information about the search for Brooke Wilberger and downloadable flyers
can be found at http://www.findbrooke.com.
Those interested in volunteering should call the volunteer lines at (541) 740-3640, (541)
740-3641, (541) 740-3642 or (541) 740-3643.
Those who see Wilberger or have information regarding the case should call the
Corvallis Police Department Tip Lines at (541) 766-6989 or 1-877-367-2270.
SOURCE: Corvallis Police Department
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