Going West: True Crime - Kayla Berg // 229

Episode Date: August 24, 2022

In August of 2009, a 15-year-old girl left home to hang out with friends in a neighboring Wisconsin town, and never returned. Her brother's 24-year-old friend had actually been the last person to see her, claiming to have dropped her off at the home of her ex-boyfriend. But her ex-boyfriend claims they didn’t even have plans to see each other. So which of these men is lying? Or was it someone else entirely? This is the story of Kayla Berg. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. NBC: https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/wisconsin-mother-still-searching-10th-anniversary-daughter-kayla-berg-s-n1041041 2. Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-reacts-to-video-police-say-may-have-links-to-kayla-berg-2016-10 3. Crime Watch Daily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0q30OrSbO8 4. Missing Kids: https://www.missingkids.org/poster/ncmc/1129610/1.html/mainposter 5. Disappeared: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.10ae371f-4482-8b21-3ace-051697b08331?ref_=imdbref_tt_wbr_pvc_truecrime&tag=imdbtag_tt_wbr_pvc_truecrime-20 6. WSAW: https://www.wsaw.com/2021/08/11/antigo-police-hope-new-information-12-year-mark-hits-kayla-berg-disappearance/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Teev. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in to yet another episode of Going West. We got a very devastating announcement last night or update last night regarding Kylie Rodney's case. I'm sorry to talk about this in the beginning of Kayla Berg's case, but this just happened. They believe that they found her car and her body in Prasar Lake, which is right next to the campground where she went missing, and it seems like she may have driven into the lake and passed that way, but they're still waiting on confirmation if it is her body,

though police believe it is, and her cause of death, of course. So we just wanted to give you guys a little bit of an update. We may do a bit of an update episode if that's something that you guys want to hear about, but other than that, we don't have a whole lot of announcements. Yeah, it's kind of tough with cases like Kylie's that are happening now.

Like we would never want to exploit a case or hurt the family by talking about it further after a body has already been found, especially in her case if it's not connected to file play. So our hearts are really just with her family and thank you guys for doing everything you have to spread her story as well. Yes, thank you guys so much for sharing that case, but also please share today's case because it's another crazy story that really needs answers. as well. In August of 2009, a 15-year-old girl went to hang out with friends in a neighboring Wisconsin town, and she never returned home. Her brother's 24-year-old friend had actually been the last person to see her, claiming

to have dropped her off at the home of her ex-boyfriend. But her ex-boyfriend claims they didn't even have plans to see each other. So which of these men is lying? Or was it someone else entirely? This is the story of Kayla Berg. Kayla Mayberg was born on August 29, 1993 in Anago, Wisconsin, to hope Springer and James or Jim spanbauer. And she grew up with an older brother named Jimmy whom she adored and who was very protective of her. Anago is described as a quintessential Midwestern American farming town with a population of about 8,000 people, and it sits about an hour and a half inland from Green

Bay. Kayla, Jimmy, and their parents were a very outdoorsy family and loved spending time camping together. Their parents split up when Kayla was a toddler, but according to her mother hope, they definitely had an open door policy and the kids were allowed to see either parent whenever they wanted. Shortly after they split up, Kayla's father James was diagnosed with cancer and placed on dialysis, and he moved back in with his own parents so they could kind of help him through his treatment. Kayla's friend Megan remembers, quote, he loved Kayla.

She was the light of his life. Kayla was always a kind and generous soul, but while going through this experience with her dad, she really learned to put others first and take care of those around her. And her mom remembers her as kind and nurturing and someone who could put a smile on anyone's face. Hope said, quote,

Kayla was sweet and kind-hearted. She talked to everybody. It didn't matter the click. Kayla's extracurricular passion was gymnastics, so she started competitive gymnastics at a young age and was a very gifted gymnast. While her dad was undergoing his struggle with cancer, her mom was enduring her own problems. She was having trouble finding consistent work in Antigo and her family back in Texas where Hope had grown up assured her that she would have a soft

place to land and plenty of job prospects down south. About 20% of the population in Antigo lives below the poverty line and it's also been reportedly hit very hard by methamphetamine and opioid use. So Hope kind of wanted a fresh start for herself and her daughter. So in June of 2009, after Kayla wrapped up her sophomore year of high school, she and Hope made the 20-hour drive down to Texas. Now her older brother, Jimmy, had already graduated high school at this point, so he just stayed behind and moved in with some friends. Hope remembers Kayla being sad to leave the life

that she knew behind in that she had a tight knit group of friends that she hated to leave. And that would be really difficult when you're entering your, I'm sure some of you have done this, entering your junior year and you have to do the next two years of high school somewhere else and kind of start over at that age. And a completely different state.

Yeah, and without your brother, without your dad, you know, it's just you and your mom that is such a difference from what she was used to. Yeah, I mean, I totally agree. That's obviously something that's very hard for young people to do, especially teenagers. But the move was also kind of for her as well. Kayla had been struggling a bit with the past year and her mother, Hope, worried that she was on a bad path.

So during her sophomore year of high school, 15-year-old Kayla had started partying with friends on the weekends and began dating a 19-year-old man that she had met at one of these parties named Miguel Marrero. The four-year-age difference kind of alarmed hope and she discouraged Kayla from pursuing this relationship, especially considering Kayla still had a couple of years left of high school and Miguel was already out of high school. Hope also worried about Kayla's exposure to drugs and drinking, especially knowing that that was a problem plaguing that area at the time.

Two of her best friends Megan and Natasha were called that, on those nights out, their parents never really knew where they were. Megan had introduced the girls to a group of friends, with whom they went out with when they were just 13. They would attend these wild weekend parties with people of all ages in the neighboring town of Wassa, Wisconsin, which was about 35 miles or 56 kilometers from Antigo. To the comparatively small city of Antigo, Wassa was a big city. Wassa is home to about 38,000 people, 30,000 more than Antigo, and it sits along the Wisconsin

River and is even home to a ski resort. So just a few weeks after moving down to Texas, Kayla's dad took a turn for the worse. So with this, you know, Kayla was miserable, especially with being in this new town where she didn't know anybody, and she just really missed her hometown and her family and friends. And to top it all off, her new school didn't even have a gymnastics team. And that was her one passion. So nothing was looking up for her here in Texas.

So after only two months, Hope and Kayla moved back to Anago, Wisconsin. And this is a decision that Hope now says haunts her. Kayla stayed with her grandparents and her dad while her mom was looking for their new home. And the living quarters were less than ideal for Kayla in her grandparents' small house. And she had to sleep on a cot in the upstairs hallway. But apparently she was just happy to be back in Wisconsin. Like she would take

sleeping on this hallway cot over being in Texas. Yeah, I mean, this is where all her friends are. Yeah, this is this is her home. So she and, you know, of course, she's she knows she's going to be getting a house with her mom soon and this is just a temporary situation. So she and her friends picked up from where they left off, of course, since it only been two months, heading to Natasha's every weekend to get dressed up and then going out to parties in a large group of friends. On Friday, August 7th, 2009, just soaking up the last of their summer vacation, the girls were heading out to a big outdoor party together and were planning on spending the night at Natasha's

house afterward. The next morning, when Natasha's mom checked on the girls, she found that they hadn't returned home. Suspecting that the girls had been in Wasa, which is 40 minutes away, Natasha's mom called Kayla's mom and both were worried about the circumstances immediately. And this makes sense because they're so young, they're only 15 years old, so they didn't come home, this is super alarming. But neither of the girls had cell phones, so the mothers had no way of getting in touch

with them. Almost immediately, they met up at the police department to file missing persons reports for Natasha and Kayla. But as they were completing the report, Hope, who again as Kayla's mom, got a call saying that they were safe, relieved but angry, the girls got in earful, and Hope told Kayla that she was no longer allowed to run off to Wassa. On Tuesday, August 11th, when Hope was at work, Kayla called her mom and asked if she could hang out with Natasha, which Hope agreed to.

And this is just what like four days after they hadn't come home from that previous outing. Right. So very soon after. Yes. So they said that they loved each other and then they hung up. And that would be the last time that Hope would ever hear from her daughter again. Natasha and Kayla spent the day at a park and then headed to Natasha's house because she was starting a new job at a restaurant that evening.

Kayla hung out at the house after Natasha left because her brother Jimmy, Natasha's brother, and a 24-year-old friend of theirs, Kevin Kielchewski, were all hanging out together. So, 24-year-old Kevin and 15-year-old Kayla got to talking and made plans to meet up later, and then Kayla went back to her grandparents' house, and her dad reported her being picked up that evening around 9pm. So obviously this is not good because she's 15. This guy's 24 and he's trying to make plans to hang out with her. Yeah, it's very bizarre and as we'll kind of go into later,

Kevin did know the family because like Heath's just mentioned, Jimmy, who is Kayla's brother, is friends with Kevin. Natasha's brother is also friends with Kevin and friends with Kayla's brother. So it's like all these older brothers or friends and maybe it's innocent, but it is also weird to make a plan to meet up later. Like it'd be different if maybe she caught a ride home from him or something like that, but why are you hanging out? Yeah, I mean, and this seems like, you know, some after hours kind of activity where it's not just like, oh, we're hanging out during the day and there's other people there.

It's like, I'm gonna come pick you up from your house. I'm a 24-year-old man and you're 15. Yeah, at 9 p.m. Yeah, sorry, it just, that, that throws me off a little bit. But anyway, let's move on. So when she wasn't home the next morning, her dad assumed that she had spent the night at a friend's house as she often did. So he called Kevin to ask about her whereabouts, because remember Kayla didn't have a cell phone. And Kevin told James, who again is Kayla's father, that he had dropped Kayla off at a friend's house the evening prior. Because it was summer break and Kayla and her friends would frequently bounce around each other's houses, her dad kind of didn't really think much of it.

The following day, which was Thursday, August 13th, 2009, hope notice that she had missed a call from her ex-husband James the previous day. She called him back and learned that Kayla hadn't been home in almost 48 hours, but especially given their scare less than a week before, both parents assumed that she was still with friends and would check in soon. And how horrible that this scare did happen because it made them realize that these things happened

and kind of steered them away from assuming the worst, which is such an unfortunate scenario for this investigation in this case. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's like the parents had already gone through this scenario previously of having to keep tabs on Kayla and try to tell her that don't go off to Wasa by yourself or with your friends, and then this happens.

Right. So when Friday, August 14th rolled around, a alarm bell started to go off for hope, and she decided to call around and make sure she could locate her daughter. Kayla's friend Beth from her gymnastics team had a new piece of information for her. Kayla and Kevin had apparently been out

for a drive together on Tuesday night and it stopped into McDonald's where Beth worked at 9.30 p.m. to say hi. Now this would have been 30 minutes after Kayla got picked up by Kevin from her house and they're just going to get some food. Going to McDonald's. Right, but just weird. Well, I don't know. Again, it's weird that they're hanging out.

He shouldn't be doing this. Totally agree. So Jimmy, who again is Kayla's older brother, then told his mom that he heard Kayla had been staying with another friend whom Hope had yet to talk to and Hope was able to relax because now she's like, oh, she's just with a friend. It's no big deal, right?

But Hope later stated, quote, there was a lot of miscommunication. The following day, Saturday, August 15th, she found out that Kayla had actually never been at that particular friend's house, and now hope was in panic mode again. Yeah, and this is such a frustrating situation because like you said previously, they don't

have cell phones like these girls don't have cell phones in Kayla in particular. So it just makes it so hard when your daughter is going to party, is hanging out with friends and you just can't contact her. And when you're hearing all this different stuff, she was with Kevin. Oh, actually, she's with this other friend. It's like, how do you possibly track her down? Yeah, exactly. So remember, Kayla is 15 years old, but just a couple weeks shy of her 16th birthday. So she's obviously still very young, and although it was summer, it seemed that

no one had seen her in a couple of days after all. So after discovering this, hope came upon another piece of information. After grilling Kevin about their evening together, the last time that Kayla was confirmed to have been seen, Kevin told Hope that he had dropped Kayla off at the wassa home of her ex-boyfriend, 19-year-old Miguel Marrero. And this was obviously bad news for multiple reasons. Miguel and his brothers were the ones who threw the all-ages ragers known for their underage drinking and drug use, and Hopet voiced her disapproval of her daughter dating a man four

years her senior many times before, and she was open about how she thought Miguel was a bad influence on Kayla. Because of the scare with Natasha, Hope had expressly forbid Kayla from going to Wasa just days before. So she called Miguel trying to put a timeline of the evening together, but Miguel said that he hadn't seen Kayla that evening, and that she hadn't been to his house. And this is tough, because she doesn't really trust this guy anyway, nor does she like him for dating her daughter.

So what is she supposed to believe? Her son's friend or this older boy she wanted out of her daughter's life. Yeah, I mean, that's a very tough thing. So finally, after multiple dead ends and a lot of misinformation, Hope reported her daughter missing on Monday, August 17, 2009. And at this point, she hadn't been seen for six days. Police initially questioned if she was a runaway, but Hope knew better. And she was adamant that, especially after Kayla and Natasha's ordeal

from the weekend before, Kayla would not have put her family through that again. Police question Kevin first, of course. weekend before, Kayla would not have put her family through that again. Police question Kevin first, of course, makes sense. He's a last person, last person to see Kayla, who said that he often gave rides to Kayla and her friends. And you may think it's weird and even creepy that like a 24 year old is hanging out with teenagers and we agree. Yes, we do.

But Kayla's friends came to his defense and said that Kevin had never been anything but a friend to them And that they found him harmless and that they didn't suspect he had anything to do with Kayla's disappearance and more over Being friends with Kayla and Natasha's brothers. He felt trustworthy Of course, that doesn't mean that he is But that's just what they said at the time So I think their opinions do matter, but you know, it doesn't mean that what they're saying is true. Yeah, I mean, they're also friends with Kevin, so they're probably not going to just

throw him into the bus and be like, oh, yeah, he's a creepy older guy. And they're so young too. So maybe he was creepy and they didn't think it was because when you're that age two, someone who's 24, you don't think it's weird they're hanging out with you. You just like they're hanging out with someone older. Yeah, exactly. So I know that feeling. Yeah. So you're not really looking at it from the way maybe other people are. But anyway, police also felt like something was just off. They were a bit hesitant. Yes. And they uncovered a whole and his story that he had been telling since the beginning.

So Miguel no longer lived at the house at which Kevin had been telling everyone he dropped Kayla off at. In fact, the city of Wasa had deemed it unfit for living and condemned it, and it sat empty and in shambles. So obviously this doesn't make any sense that he's saying, oh yeah, I dropped Kayla off at her ex-boyfriends house. He doesn't even fucking live there. Yeah, it's like a cruddy old building that nobody lives in because the city deemed it

so. So when this happened, when the city deemed it unfit for living and condemned it, Miguel had rented a different house about a mile away. So he promptly moved and lived not in this house, but in one, not too far away, but definitely not this one. Now Kayla's friends confirmed that Kayla had visited Miguel at his new home just days prior to her disappearance, so there was no reason for her to have gone to his old residence like Kevin had claimed she did. But Kevin maintained his story and said that he hadn't waited for her to get inside

the house, just dropped her off in front and driven home, so he had no idea what had happened to her after. Very convenient, isn't it, Heath? So Hope called his bluff on this as well, telling police that Kayla was irrationally afraid of the dark and would never have allowed someone to drop her off at the lot of a dark, vacant home late at night. Both Miguel's prior residents and his current residents were searched, and there was no sign of Kayla. Natasha remembers that Kayla was supposed to call her that night when she got home, and she didn't. So with that, she was officially classified

as an endangered missing person instead of a runaway. Tips poured in as rumors swirled around the small town of Antigo, but so far none of them amounted to anything. On August 26th, 15 days after Kayla had last been seen, a tip came in that she may have been spotted at a local Walmart, getting out of a Ford Taurus and into a black pickup truck. So police and Kayla's family hoped that she had still been alive at this point, but still didn't understand what had happened if that were the case. But when police obtained the surveillance footage and showed it to Hope, she assured them that

it was not her daughter. Now calls came in from all around the area that she had been seen at parties or in and around Antigo, but none of them were confirmed to be Kayla. The close calls in speculation devastated hope, as we can imagine, especially considering all the false tips, which seemed to come up in every missing person's case. One rumor even came out that Kayla was pregnant, but that the father hadn't wanted the baby and had killed Kayla to get rid of it. Suspicion especially fell on Miguel as her ex-boyfriend, but Kayla's friends remembered him

as a sweet and devoted partner when they were together, and that their relationship may have even been on the mend. Since she had moved back from Texas, Kayla had spent the night a few times at Miguel's new home in Wasa. And Megan and Natasha refused to believe that Miguel was to blame for Kayla's disappearance. And they also questioned why she would have gotten a ride with Kevin when Miguel would have gladly come to pick her up. Well, that is a good point to make, but I will also say that.

Megan and Natasha, at least at this point in the story did not suspect Kevin either. And not that it has to be one of them, but especially considering Kevin was the last person to see her. But then he says that Miguel was because she went to Miguel's like, it's so complicated already. But yeah, to me, it seems more clear that she was hanging out with Kevin and not just getting a ride from him. Yeah, it's seem to McDonald's right.

It seemed like they had actual plans. Yeah, in some way, even if it was just short plans, but yeah, it seems like if it was just a ride thing, she maybe wouldn't have asked Kevin. Sure, but that is unclear as well. So a small lake sat across from the vacant lot in which Miguel used to live, which law enforcement searched extensively, and

also employed the use of highly trained cadaver dogs. While the search of the lake was inconclusive, one of the dogs indicated to a spot in a nearby pond. But still, there was no sign of Kayla. Doubt about Kevin's story grew when no one could confirm seeing either of them after they had stopped at McDonald's, and again Beth did confirm that they both showed up there together at 9.30 pm. Considering hope and just this family in general, New Kevin, hope did claim that Kevin had never

acted inappropriately toward Kayla or anyone else in the family as far as she knew. And then in fact, he had been close friends with Jimmy for years. They had shared meals with him and spent nights at their house as if he was a part of the family. She struggled with the notion that Kevin had something to do with her daughter's disappearance, but it also seemed to be the most likely explanation. Kevin's mom confirmed that he had returned to their home in Deerbrook, Wisconsin after dropping Kayla at Miguel's empty former house. And Deerbrook, by the way,

is about an hour drive from Wasa past Antigo, because remember, Wasa is like 40 minutes past Antigo, so Deerbrook is even further. So Kevin claimed that he dropped her in Wassa around 10.30pm, so an hour and a half after picking her up, and arrived at his parents' home in Deerbrook around midnight, so this timeline checked out. But as police pushed him further about the circumstances and the details of that night, he stopped talking and obtained a lawyer. At this point, Hope said, quote, every moment I'm feeling more and more like she's not ever coming back.

And again, I mean, what a stir of emotions, especially for Jimmy, knowing this guy is his friend, and then having to question if he had something to do with his sister's disappearance because there still isn't any actual evidence that he is with police just feeling strongly that his telling of the night was incorrect and that he may be lying. But it's just a very tough position for the family not knowing what to believe but wanting all the answers. Well, let's talk about police's next move regarding Kevin. So Antico police may have not been able to indict him on charges related to Kayla's disappearance,

but they were able to pen a related charge on him. On October 26, 2009, police issued an arrest warrant for Kevin for reckless endangerment of a minor. Now the affidavit stated that the two had smoked marijuana together, that Kevin had driven her around in his car, and then, as he claims, that he had left her in a dangerous location alone, never to be seen again. So if he wasn't liable for the disappearance, he could at least be held accountable for the circumstances which attributed to it.

Yeah, I mean, to be smoking weed in a car with a 15-year-old when you're 24 is so just like wrong and creepy. So I'm glad police were able to conjure up some type of charge for him because everything you said is correct. Yeah, and it's so hard because, as we've mentioned already so many times, the family was really close with him. So it's like you don't want to believe that something like this is going on, but at the end of the day, you got to call a spade a spade and that situation should not have been taking place.

So true. This obviously created a lot of tension between Jimmy and Kevin, and now their long time friendship was over due to this suspicion. Kevin and Miguel's cars were both brought in for testing, and some spots in Kevin's car reacted to luminal testing for blood. As you guys probably know, luminal is a chemical compound often combined with hydrogen peroxide to react with the protein groups in blood to produce a blue glow. And the same cadaver dogs were brought in again

to use on the vehicles this time. And they lined 10 cars up, including Kevin's and Miguel's. And the cadaver dogs indicated only to Kevin's car. That to me is a huge deal also with them finding these spots in his car. But I also did read that either police have not determined what these are,

or they haven't released it, because we don't know if this was blood, is it Kayla's blood, this information is not available. So to know that, but then also to know that cadaver dog's indicated to his car out of 10 cars total, it's pretty, I mean, that's pretty strong. Yeah, that's a huge detail. Yeah.

So while neither Miguel nor Kevin were cooperating with the police at this time, and they both had obtained lawyers, and to go police, were able to subpoena Kevin's and Miguel's cell phone records and found that both seemed suspect. Now, the last calls in or out of Kevin's phone on the night Kayla disappeared were with the landline at Kayla's grandparents' house

where Kayla and her dad were staying. The final call was to their house at around 9 p.m. And after that, Kevin's phone was either turned off or the battery died, which is never a good sign. So this kind of helps us determine maybe he called, you know, her grandparents house at 9pm and said, Hey, I'm outside or I'm almost there, kind of thing. And then he didn't make any other calls and his phone turned off. And then his phone wasn't used again until 2pm.m. the next day, even though he claimed

he had gotten home at midnight, so he didn't use his phone all day. Miguel's cell phone showed no activity from that day at all. However, his cell records indicated that he had an old cell phone that he was still in possession of. And this phone pinged in Lincoln County near Marl, Wisconsin, which is 30 minutes directly north of Wassa, where Miguel lived, and where Kevin claimed that he had last seen Kayla.

So that's really weird. Yeah, seems very suspicious. The phone made two very short phone calls, only a few seconds long each, about three hours after Kayla was said to have last been seen by Kevin. At this point in the investigation, with both Kevin and Miguel under suspicion, the local police department called in the National Guard to fly over WASA, Antigo, and the surrounding areas to search with an infrared thermal imaging camera.

The cadaver dogs were employed to search yet again, and this time in areas where the men were known to frequent. The dogs indicated two different spots in their search. Kevin's parents' home where he was living at the time, and the potato farm on which he worked. So that's really suspicious too, because it feels like the dogs are indicating to everything relating to Kevin. Yeah.

His car, the house where his parents lived and where he lived and his place of work. Yeah, that's a lot to me. Yeah, it does say a lot. Even though it is weird, I think Miguel's phone situation is also weird, his cell phone records and pings are bizarre, but the fact that Kevin's phone just went off, that's always a big red flag to me.

Absolutely. Because he don't want to be tracked. But, you know, with no concrete evidence, no charges could be filed against him in the disappearance and possible murder of Kayla Berg. But Kevin and Miguel both initially declined to take polygraph tests, although Kevin eventually permitted.

But then, every time he was supposed to meet with the FBI, he came up with an excuse to get out of it. He allegedly had a test performed by a third-party agency and passed, but this is seen as unreliable as neither the FBI nor the police department could control what was on this test. In what's worse, in 2011, the charges against him for the second degree reckless endangerment were dropped. The presiding judge ruled that it was Kayla's choice to get in the car with Kevin that night, and Kayla who directed him to drive her where she wanted to go.

But we don't even know what happened. Like, that's a silly thing to say, because if we knew for a fact that Kevin had dropped her off, that might be a little bit different, but we don't know what happened in that car at all. Exactly. So, you can't go ahead and say that everything was Kayla's choice when we don't even know what the hell happened to her. Sure.

Yeah, you shouldn't, you should be investigating it as, as a case. Yeah, and that's sad that the judge concluded that. Absolutely. But since then, since that moment, there has been no new evidence in the case of Kayla's disappearance. However, in 2016, an eerie video started making the rounds on YouTube that was initially thought to include Kayla, and had been posted just two months after her disappearance. Okay, so I'm going to describe this video a bit and then also put the audio in because

it's only 57 seconds long. So basically, YouTuber user or YouTuber, YouTube user,, HiWalter, it's me Patrick, posted the video entitled, HiWalter, I got a new girlfriend today, in October of 2009, just two months after Kayla went missing. The disturbing video features a man and is mid-20s with dark brown hair and glasses, speaking to the camera as if he's addressing his friend Walter, so it's as if we are Walter.

He says, Hi Walter, I was at the mall today and guess what happened? I met the most wonderful girl. So after explaining how he met this girlfriend, he goes on to say that she's camera shy, but that he wants to introduce her anyway. So then he props up the camera and opens what looks like a padlock door in an unfinished basement where a young woman is laying on the floor next to a toilet and a sink. She screams, why are you doing this before the man enters the room to join her and the door is closed behind him? So really quick I'm just

going to play the audio from that so you guys can hear it. It's definitely very creepy. Super creepy. Hi Walter. I was at the mall today and guess what happened? I met the most wonderful girl. We went shopping at JC Penney's and she tried on a lot of clothes and she ended up buying a whole lot of them, you know what I mean? We decided to go and take a look at some of the jewelry at KJullars and she picked out this most awesome necklace That the most amazing necklace I've ever seen and I know she wanted me to buy it for because she kept it looking at me and Kept on giving me that look you know know the look. And then we got kind

of tired of the mall and I barred back to my place and I know I know she hates cameras Walter but I'm gonna show you around anyway, do you ready? So then the video just ends and this was posted to YouTube and basically Reddit user Hammer Force 9 posted it under the subreddit unsolved mysteries asking if anyone thought the girl in the video bore a resemblance to Kayla Berg. And basically, this video had been sitting on YouTube with very few views for years. But this mention by this user on Reddit brought new attention to it and it went viral. With multiple people sending the video into Kayla's tip line, claiming it looked like her. And I will say, you guys can watch it if you want.

We've given you all the details to look it up, but it's hard to say if it looks like her because the woman in the video is, or the girl in the video, rather, is in the back, like, again, in this dark room on the floor. And she's like a gag in her mouth, so. Yeah, she's maybe like 20 feet away. And like you said, she's in a dark room.

So it's very hard to tell facial details. Yeah, so I wonder how somebody saw this video initially and said, oh, I wonder if that's Kayla Berg. Like, that's super specific. But anyway, hope said watching it made her feel sick to her stomach. The woman tied up and hunched over on the floor is a thin young woman with

light brown hair just like Kayla. After pouring over it for hours, Hope agreed with speculation that the girl did resemble her daughter. But after much investigation, Antigo PD released a statement that they had been able to locate the actors in the video and that it was just supposed to be a creepy short film. Well apparently these guys, these filmmakers, got across what they meant to do, which was to create fear and make it look as realistic as possible. Yeah, and I mean, obviously you're more than allowed to post these types of videos on YouTube and make consensual video content of this kind.

But like, at least make it clear that this is a short film. Since the video was taken down, I don't know what the original caption was or the original description box rather. So I don't know if it did say that, I'm assuming it didn't or else people would not have thought that it was Kayla Berg. Yeah, they would have said, oh, this is just a short film. Right. So they were probably trying to creep people out. But it's like, that's also a very dangerous thing to do

because of how disturbing the video is. And it makes me so sad to think that Kayla's mom watched it and pondered if it was real and it was her daughter. Like, just having seen the video, thinking that might be your kid, like Jesus Christ. I can't even imagine. And she probably didn't initially want to watch that video, but she felt like she had to.

Right, and she did, and even watching it, she thought it could be her daughter. So I mean, I'm glad that the police took this seriously, and we're able to track down the people in the video to confirm that it was not Kayla. But still, what, geez, what a situation. So if neither Kevin nor Miguel was behind Kayla's disappearance, it's possible that it was the work of a random attack from an unknown individual that she came into contact with

after she was dropped off at Miguel's old house. Supposedly. Yeah, supposedly. But there has never been any evidence to suggest that that is the case and what do you think i mean i was just looking at different people's theories because it's always good to know what what the majority of people out there thinking and it seems that the consensus is that kevin is potentially lying

and that he did something to her which i think makes the most sense considering the cadaver dogs hitting on his car, the luminal, you know, and just the fact that he was known to be the last person to see her. But then the fact that there's no trace of her whatsoever, the fact that Miguel is in the loop of this and he is still not fully cleared in our minds, it's just like, what? Oh my god, this is so difficult. Yeah, and I mean, just the fact that that those blood spots were found in Kevin's car, I hope that they're able to test this or that they're in the process of testing it because you never know if it just took time to do this. And was it even blood or is it something else?

And that's what's so frustrating too is it's just they just haven't released it or they don't know. Who knows? But I mean, at the end of the day, I have to go back to the facts. And the facts are that Kevin was the last person to see her and dropped her off at this vacant house. Again, apparently he did or allegedly he did. Yeah, allegedly. Right, so it's like did that even happen? I think that if he didn't, that would have been a really good

ploy to say, oh, I dropped her off at her ex-boyfriends to kind of push blame on to somebody else. Yeah. It doesn't make sense for him to drop her off there. Why would she be dropped off there? It's so bizarre. It's so bizarre. So this month marks 13 years since Kayla went missing.

In 2011, Kayla's dad James finally succumbed to his cancer after years of battling it, never able to see his daughter again. He said at a vigil for Kayla quote, I think about her every day and all night. In an interview with Hope four years ago, she said that she promised James in his final moments that she would find out what happened to their daughter. Now the FBI is still offering $20,000 for information leading to her whereabouts. Kayla Berg is 5'2", wait about 108 lbs and has brown hair and brown eyes. Her ears and belly button are pierced and she has a scar on the right side of her nose

as well as on her right shin. As of next week, since this episode is being released on August 23rd and her birthday is on August 29th, she would be 29 years old. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I just really hope that... Oh, I'm supposed to say my line. Oh God, sorry guys.

On Friday we'll have an only case for you guys that I've been to. You just went somewhere. Yeah, now we can get into it. So I really hope that there is justice for Kayla's family and her friends and that we have some answers because it just seems like there is so much suspicion and it appears that there is some evidence here. So, you know, we just gotta keep sharing this.

Yeah, diving into this case, I am so surprised to know that there's no new developments and that neither Kevin nor Miguel have been arrested for her disappearance and that no evidence of a body or any trace of her has been found that is so weird to me. And apparently they're not cooperating with police either, so that just makes everything more difficult. Right, and just the fact that we're looking at two different people who are both seemingly

suspicious, but I think we all agree that Kevin is definitely more suspicious. And I just wonder what he's doing nowadays? Yeah, like, you know, he's in his thirties now. And it seems like we talk about cases like this all the time where there's a suspect and an unsolved case. And it's like, what are they doing now? They're just living. What are the police doing now?

Is there, what are the new developments? Have they tested the blood? We need to know these things. I know, I agree. So we'd really love to hear what you guys think of this case, because there's a lot of speculation to be discussed, and a lot of just talks to be had. So let us know what you think.

I don't know what I'm saying. A lot of, a lot of speculation. We need some words and some talks to be speculating on. I feel like by the end of every episode, I'm just like brain mush. I'm like, blah, sorry. Anyway, please let us know what you think. We are on social media.

Our Instagram is at Going West to podcast, Twitter at Going West to pod, and we're on Facebook. Go join our Facebook discussion group. Yeah. Going West discussion group. Heath and I jump in there. We can get to talking about these cases. Yeah, we'll see some words and some speculation and also some talk with you guys on the discussion group. So, F you.

Alright, so get over there guys. Not you guys, Heath. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc

1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc 1 tbc sdmdc Thank you.