scandi said:
<...>
If he were - and I said IF, involved then LE would have to outsmart him to catch him. Do you think this is why the green minivan was introduced by LE in the case, to draw him out as he would feel most comfortable by now. I mean these cops are very smart. Why would they sit on Zac if they thought he was guilty for a whole year? If he were guilty of this there would be some sign for LE to pick up on and they would be on to him.
Scandi
Scandi,
Zak. Z-A-K. That's how he spells his name. He spelled it out at the press conference because so many people get it wrong. It's not Zach, Zack, or Zac. Zak.
I know it's his sweatshirt because he said so in an interview. I know somebody in that complex has a green minivan because there was one parked out there four days later. As for the rest, you need to read these articles. Once you do, you'll see what I'm talking about. These are very recent:
Holding firmly onto hope
By
Peter Chee
The Daily Barometer
Justin Runquist
The Daily Barometer
Zak Hansen, brother-in-law of Brooke Wilberger, stands Thursday in the
parking lot of Oak Park Apartments, south of the OSU campus, where
Wilberger was last seen on May 24. She had been cleaning the light pole
pictured behind him when she disappeared.
Brooke Wilberger enjoys snowboarding and has a soft spot for frogs.
That's what
Zak Hansen, Brooke's brother-in-law, says.
It wasn't quite noon yet on Thursday at Oak Park Apartments. A clear
sky stretched overhead, crossing higher yet with the white vapor trail
of a passing jetliner. It was a bright day, but
Hansen stood quietly in
the parking lot, mere feet from the light pole where his sister-in-law
was last seen nearly a year ago.
It was bright and sunny that day, too,
Hansen said.
In the time since Brooke went missing on May 24,
Hansen says the
Wilberger family has been set on a "roller coaster" of emotions, with
the search and abduction investigation drawing nationwide support and
media coverage.
Investigators most recently sent out a request to the general public
asking anyone with a "FreshJive" hooded sweatshirt (made between 1999
and 2000), similar to the one Wilberger wore when she disappeared, to
submit dye and fiber for the crime lab to help in the investigation.
Hansen, a Corvallis native and father of three, said he and other
members of the Wilberger family are not attention-seekers. But
Hansen
meets for interviews and appears at press conferences because media
attention accomplishes one thing: keeping his missing sister-in-law
fresh in the minds of the public.
"It can be very tiresome, it's very emotionally taxing,"
Hansen said.
"I said on that first day that we'd look for Brooke, if I can help in
some way I'll do it."
It was around midday when Wilberger was most likely abducted,
Hansen
said. It was in broad daylight with heavy traffic along the highway
adjacent to the small parking lot where she was last seen.
Hansen says he believes people possess an "innate" sense to notice
things that appear out of place or wrong. He is convinced someone
witnessed something.
"She could be anywhere," he said. "Somebody out there knows something;
they just may not know it."
To
Hansen, Wilberger was part of his immediate family, living with them
in the summer months, staying at Oak Park during the week and going
home on weekends.
"She is family," he said.
Wilberger and
Hansen would snowboard together often.
Brooke Wilberger
"She was getting pretty good," he said.
To
Hansen, Wilberger was a typical college student who happened to like
frogs. Wilberger enjoyed comedy in movies; the last movie
Hansen saw
with her was the Ben Stiller and Jack Black comedy "Envy."
"She would see the humor in a lot of things,"
Hansen said. "There's not
a day I don't think about her."
On May 24,
Hansen was in town securing a job offer. Otherwise, he would
have stayed at the apartments, which he managed with his wife,
Stephanie (Brooke's sister), to help Wilberger clean the light poles
lining the south end of the complex beside Philomath highway.
The bucket Wilberger was using to clean the row of small, white, light
poles was found beside the second to last pole.
"She had two more to do, then she was done," he said.
Hansen has replayed the day's events over and over in his mind. It's
best not to dwell on the "what ifs," he concluded.
But still, there are nightmares, he said.
"I was devastated," he said. "I kept looking for her; in my mind, I
couldn't see this happening in Corvallis."
Hansen said he figured Wilberger stubbed her toe and had gotten a ride
to the doctor. The thought of Brooke being abducted had not yet entered
his mind.
After his own search proved unsuccessful,
Hansen was the one who made
the first call to the police. It was 3 p.m.
Having been born and raised in Corvallis and as the son of OSU alumni,
Hansen never thought an abduction was possible, especially one
involving Wilberger.
"I grew up a big fan of the university," he said. "This community is
where I wanted to raise my family."
Earlier in the 2003-04 school year, the near-abduction of a female
student shook the BYU campus, where Wilberger was studying to become a
teacher.
Because of the incident,
Hansen said, Wilberger was well aware of her
surroundings and especially her safety.
"Brooke was extremely conscious of these things," he said. "We know she
fought hard."
Hansen said it's been months since he had last seen Oak Park
Apartments. He and his family were already considering moving out of
their apartment of four years because of a new job offer when Wilberger
went missing.
Walking through the complex on Thursday morning,
Hansen noticed subtle
differences amongst the light yellow buildings: new flowers planted in
one spot, a tree removed from another. He said his family made good
friends with many of the tenants over the years.
Hansen said the ongoing joint law enforcement investigation has been
"very professional."
For
Hansen, every person removed from the person of interest list is
progress in the investigation. He says he meets frequently with local
police investigators.
"I look at these guys as friends," he said. "I know they're working
very hard."
Many of the investigators have been personally affected by the case,
Hansen said, mentioning one detective in particular who feels close to
the investigation.
"In his mind, she is family now," he said.
For the Wilberger family,
Hansen says there are good and bad days for
everyone. But when support is needed, the family has always stuck
together.
"We're doing OK. We've had a strong family," he said.
Hansen said he is continually amazed and thankful for the outpouring of
support from the public.
"A lot of people are genuinely concerned; it's good to see that people
still care,"
Hansen said.
In the weeks following Wilberger's disappearance,
Hansen said it was
difficult for him to see young women walking alone. For a time, he
considered moving away from his hometown.
But the immense response from the Corvallis community with hundreds
helping in search and investigation efforts quickly changed his mind.
Hansen works as an assistant director of development for the OSU
Foundation. He said he's always moved when seeing students wearing pink
"findbrooke.com" bracelets.
"Seeing students with them on, that's neat," he said. "Brooke wasn't an
OSU student, but that doesn't matter."
He said he often approaches students wearing the bracelets and
compliments them.
"I'll never be able to thank enough people," he said.
Hansen said the Wilberger family is well aware of statistics involving
kidnapped victims, but at this point, there is no reason for them to
believe Brooke isn't still alive.
In time,
Hansen said, he hopes that there will at least be closure, an
answer, be it for better or worse. He said her 20th birthday was in
February.
"Brooke is a very caring individual,"
Hansen smiled. "She is the glue
to our family."
Peter Chee, city editor
Wilberger's family looking for
sweatshirt
By Jennifer Nitson
Gazette-Times reporter
Zak Hansen doesn't quite remember where he got his indigo-blue
"FreshJive"
sweatshirt - maybe it was left behind when a renter moved
out of one of the apartments in the complex he manages, he said.
He knows where he last saw it though. Brooke Wilberger,
Hansen's
sister-in-law, put it on before going out to clean lampposts at the
apartment complex on the morning of May 24, 2004.
She has not been seen since.
To assist the multi-agency taskforce in it's investigation of the
19-year-old Veneta woman's disappearance, her family recently posted a
new appeal on the "Find Brooke" Web site for help from the public:
Anyone with an indigo FreshJive
sweatshirt, with the logo printed in
white, similar to the one Wilberger wore the day she was abducted, is
asked to call the Corvallis Police Department at 766-6989. An image of
the shirt can be found at
www.findbrooke.com.
The FreshJive company made and marketed the indigo sweatshirts during
1999 or 2000, said Capt. Jon Sassaman.
The request for an identical or similar
sweatshirt does not indicate
any new leads or developments in the case, Sassaman said.
"There's no comparisons that we're making right now," he said. "The
sweatshirt would be used in the future if we ever needed it for fiber
comparison."
Investigators had no trouble pulling together samples of jeans or a
T-shirt like Wilberger wore, Sassaman said, but the specific indigo dye
color of the
sweatshirt is not easy to duplicate. The taskforce was
recently informed by FreshJive that, following an exhaustive search,
the company was not able to provide a replica.
Wilberger's family welcomes the chance to help the investigation in any
way,
Hansen said of the Web site request.
"We understand that this (the
sweatshirt) is just another part of it
and that sooner or later they may need this type of tool," he said.
Corvallis police detectives, along with the FBI, Oregon State Police,
the Benton County Sheriff's Office and the Benton County District
Attorney's Office continue to follow leads on three unnamed "person's
of interest," Sassaman said.
Sung Koo Kim, 30, of Tigard, and Loren Krueger, 46, of Lebanon have
recently been removed from the list, following investigations into both
men that began shortly after Wilberger disappeared.
To
Hansen this means the investigation is active, he said.
"A lot of people have asked if we were disappointed when Mr. Kim was
eliminated as a person of interest,"
Hansen said. "I see it as a
positive thing that people are taken off (the list) and they've gone
through their processes of eliminating these people."
Hansen added that he has confidence in the task force and that he and
his family have come to regard some of the detectives as friends.
"I've just seen nothing but good work and real professionalism,"
Hansen
said. "They're working really hard. I'm confident, personally, that
we're going to get an outcome at some point. ... There's times when you
get impatient, but as a family we want the investigation to be
thorough."
