Edmond Police Find Julia Gilbert's Body in Wrecked Car

A missing OU student was found dead Sunday inside her wrecked silver Jetta.

Sunday, January 10th 2010, 4:01 pm

By: News 9


News9.com

EDMOND, Oklahoma -- A missing OU student was found dead Sunday inside her wrecked silver Jetta.

The silver 2002 Volkswagen Jetta, belonging to Julia Gilbert, was found upside down in a creek bed near Waterloo and Morgan roads in Kingfisher County at about 3 p.m. Sunday. A passerby saw the car and notified Edmond police.

According to the police report, the 21-year-old went off the road for an unknown reason and her car overturned off a bridge. She was pinned inside the vehicle and died due to injuries sustained from the crash.

Police say it was lucky anyone saw the car at all because of where it landed in the ravine.

"The underside of the car is all you can see and it was the gray under side of the car and it just blended in with the area around it," said Edmond Police spokesperson Glynda Chu.

Edmond police, the Civil Air Patrol, and over 100 volunteers had been searching for Julia Gilbert since Friday.  

She had last seen at about 3:30 a.m. Friday, leaving a friend's house in the 600 block of Belle Air Avenue in Edmond. Police had tracked her last cell phone call near MacArthur Boulevard and Covell Road around Deer Creek High School.

The investigation has been handed over to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

Once it was determined the car was Julia's and she was inside, the tragedy began to sink in for family and friends at scene.  

"All of a sudden you realize what you're looking at and you hope it's not that and it is," said Cheryl Coy, who helped pass out missing person flyers for Julia Gilbert. "After a few minutes it sank in. It was actually comforting to know now the family knows."

Questions still remain over how Gilbert ended up near Deer Creek. Friends and family say she was headed toward her parent's house in north Edmond after she left her friend's house and the drive should have only taken 10 minutes. Instead, she ended up in Kingfisher County over 15 miles in the opposite direction.

Julia's family said she was on new pain medication to treat her Lyme disease and they fear it may have disoriented her on her drive home.

The State Medical Examiner's Officer said Julia died from a fractured neck. Toxicology results will take at least a month.

Julia Gilbert was a senior at OU. She was scheduled to graduate in May.

More on News9.com: Family Offers $10,000 Reward to Help Find Missing OU Student

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