[Unsolved] Kelly Bergh: Abducted During a 911 Call in 1982

Who Was Kelly Bergh?

Kelly Bergh was born on August 30, 1961, in Virginia. She was one of five children and grew up as the middle child among her siblings—two sisters, one brother, and a foster sister.

Kelly was extremely close with her family, especially her younger sister, Elaine, who shared a bedroom with her and had a special bond that lasted throughout their lives.

Kelly's parents separated when she was young, and her mother remarried a man named Fred Bergh in 1971. Fred adopted Kelly and her siblings and became the father they all cherished.

In 1975, the family moved to Bridgewater, Virginia—a small town of about 3,000 people, located about 20 minutes from Harrisonburg, home to James Madison University.

Kelly was fearless, fun-loving, and creative. She never shied away from a challenge. Elaine recalled a time when a boy pulled down Kelly's tube top, and Kelly punched him without hesitation.

Kelly was also athletic and bold. She was the kind of person who stood her ground and spoke her mind.

The Night of June 1982

On a quiet night in June 1982, Kelly was working the graveyard shift at the Imperial Gas Station in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

At 2:27 AM, Kelly made the first of three calls to police. She reported:

1.She had received an obscene phone call

2.She noticed a suspicious person lurking outside the gas station

3.A silver or gray car was parked outside

Just minutes later, at 2:30 AM, Kelly made her third desperate call to police.

While she was on the phone with the dispatcher, Kelly was abducted.

The dispatcher heard the abduction happening in real time but was powerless to stop it.

The Investigation

Police immediately responded to the gas station, but Kelly was gone.

Despite an extensive investigation, no arrests were ever made. Kelly's body has never been found.

For over 40 years, Kelly's case has remained unsolved.

Elaine's Fight for Answers

Kelly's sister, Elaine, has never stopped fighting for answers. She worked with Moms and Mysteries to share Kelly's story and keep her memory alive.

Elaine remembers Kelly as someone who was fearless, creative, and full of life. Losing her sister in such a horrific way has been devastating, but Elaine refuses to let Kelly be forgotten.

The Search for Justice Continues

Kelly Bergh was 20 years old when she was abducted from her workplace while calling for help.

Her case remains unsolved. Her body has never been found. Her family has never received justice.

But they have not given up hope.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Kelly Bergh in June 1982 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, please contact:

•Harrisonburg Police Department

Kelly's family is still waiting for answers. Please help bring them closure.

TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a True Crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi, verruca of the Sea. How are you doing today? Wait, is it, oh, the uch Salt of the Sea. Yes. Um, I'm not too salty today, I guess. Ooh, I feel pretty good. How are you? I'm doing quite well.

Real quick, my. We'll, we'll explain the Baruch salt thing in a minute, but my daughter turned 16 this week and I am kind of having a moment. Mind blown. Yeah, she's, yeah. So great and wonderful and I adore her and I'm just, [00:01:00] it's so cool to see her grow up. But when we started this, our older ones were both nine.

Is that right? I don't think so. Eight. Eight. Wait, that can't be right. Okay. Don't ask me to do math. 17 in real time. Eight years ago. Eight, they would've been eight years old. So like half of their lives we've been doing this. Yes. Yes it is. It is truly, um, wild to think that they're turning 16 this year.

It's got me a little emotional and I try not to be emotional, but I guess. I'm also old, so having a six year, 16-year-old, it's fine. We can be emotional about our babies turning 16. That's like a huge milestone. It is. So anyway, I'm just, I'm, I'm just, I adore her and I'm very excited for her and what life has in store and she'll never hear this 'cause there's no way she lives in store show.

Right. Does she, um, have any big plans for her how to, how she's gonna celebrate this year? Yes. So, uh, this weekend I'm bringing her and two of her friends to the beach. And we're staying like in an Airbnb, they're just like. [00:02:00] I love that. That's so nice. Yeah, it's like she wanted like a SpongeBob birthday kind of thing, so like it's not going to be a wild party breaking out to meet boys kind of thing, which is nice.

So it'll just be very low key and they're excited to like go to the boardwalk and stuff like that. So I think it'll be a lot of fun. And I just get to like. Be a little bit behind them, you know, love doing everything that, and still like chaperoning. So yes, of course. Oh my gosh. Well, I hope that she has the best day with her friends and you.

Of course. Yeah. I know that she will appreciate having you there. Maybe not on the day, but later on Yeah, she'll appreciate that you were there. I mean, I can drive, so that's, that's your choice. But Mandy, I mentioned uch salt here or the uch salt of the sea because recently we did a bonus episode where you talked about your time.

At sea and your cruise and uh, anyway, so it just reminded me of that. And if you're interested in hearing bonus episodes like that, just chat episodes or the things like Jerry Springer. We're doing [00:03:00] two part episodes of episode one in episode two of the Jerry Springer documentary on Netflix and how we can't believe any of us survived during that time and don't have really, really, truly.

Sick brains. Uh, anyway, you can find that at patreon.com/moms and Mysteries podcast, or on Apple Podcast subscriptions. You really nailed like a very long stream of consciousness, like perfectly. Put it into thought, into words perfectly. Okay, I'll take it. Let's go. Let's do this. All right, so we will get right into the story for this week.

On a quiet night in June of 1982, 20-year-old Kelly Berg Dove was alone working the graveyard shift at the Imperial Gas Station in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The early part of her shift really just ticked by Uneventfully until 2:27 AM when Kelly made the first of three chilling calls to the police. Kelly reported that she had received an obscene phone call, and then she [00:04:00] reported that she noticed a suspicious person lurking outside the gas station and a silver or gray colored car parked outside.

Just minutes later at 2:30 AM during her third desperate attempt at calling for help. Kelly was abducted while on the phone with the dispatcher. Her case has left more questions than answers and has remained a haunting mystery for over 40 years. And Kelly's sister, Elaine actually was able to meet with Hailey and help us put this episode together.

So we just want to say a very special thank you to Elaine for allowing us to share her sister's story and for helping make this episode possible. Kelly's story began on August 30th, 1961 in Virginia where she was born to parents, Rachel and Ernest. Pernell. Kelly was one of five kids, and she grew up as the middle child amongst her siblings.

She had two sisters, one brother, and foster sister. Kelly was always extremely close with her family, especially her younger sister, Elaine. The two not only shared a bedroom, but they also had a very special [00:05:00] bond life, of course, wasn't without challenges though, and Kelly's parents separated when she was still young.

Her mom remarried a man named Fred Berg in 1971, and he went on to adopt Kelly and her siblings. Fred became the dad. They all cherished. So when we refer to Kelly's father throughout this episode, just know that we're actually speaking about Fred. In 1975, the family moved to the small town of Bridgewater, Virginia, where they found a quieter life in the close-knit community, about 20 minutes away from the larger Harrisonburg area, which is actually home to James Madison University.

At the time, the town of Bridgewater had a population of about 3000 people. Kelly was the kind of person who really lived her life boldly and fearlessly. Elaine recalled her sister as being fun-loving and creative, and said she never shied away from a challenge. Kelly was also someone who stood her ground and she stood up for herself like the time a boy pulled down her tube top [00:06:00] and she punched him without hesitation.

Love it here for it. Me too. That's what I, when I read that little detail, I was like, wow. You go girl. Exactly. Elaine, when speaking about Kelly said if someone bothered her, she would speak her mind. Her fearlessness was evident in her athletic side as well. Kelly could do strings of back handsprings, skateboard barefoot, down steep hills, and she could tackle any new experience with an enthusiastic sense of adventure.

Elaine said that Kelly's daring spirit often made her feel invincible too. Kelly always encouraged Elaine to try new things and she cheered her on, but Kelly also had a softer side about her. She loved animals and she'd pushed the family cat around in a doll carriage. She was very imaginative and didn't mind hanging out in her own company if no one was around to play with or to hang out.

One of Elaine's favorite memories of Kelly perfectly captures the mischievous and playful bond that the two shared. So as the story goes, it was Christmas time [00:07:00] and when the phone rang both of the sisters sprinted over to answer it and accidentally knocked down the whole Christmas tree in their rush to get to the phone.

But before their parents came into the room, the girls were crawling out from under the tree and trying to stand it back up, hoping no one would really notice. I love that. And their dad ended up tying the tree to the wall to prevent another holiday mishap. I love that too. The dad was just like, you know what?

Like we'll just tie the tree to the wall and Exactly. Move on. And just like the urgency when you're younger, like. Back in the day where the phone rings and you gotta have a chance to get it. You don't know. There's no caller id, there's nothing. It could be anyone. Yeah, right. It could be Publisher's Clearinghouse, you dunno.

So you never know can get it. Yeah. So I just love that story. Kelly's Teen Years brought some big changes while she was in high school. Mutual friends introduced her to Dale Dove, a construction worker that was five years older than her, but despite their age gap, the two of them fell for each other. And Kelly soon got pregnant at [00:08:00] the age of 15.

Fred was initially upset about the pregnancy, but Dale promised to take care of Kelly and the baby and said he wanted to get married and be there for his family. And Fred agreed to this on one term, and that was that Kelly must finish high school, and she did. She worked really hard and graduated early, all while raising her baby girl, Tammy, who was born in December of 1977.

Despite being young herself, Kelly was really excited to be a mom while she was still pregnant. She and Dale moved into an apartment about 20 minutes away from Kelly's parents. Elaine though, was really devastated when Kelly moved out and she just struggled to adjust to a life without her sister being there 24 7.

As we said, they shared a room. They had really just grown up and had this very special bond. So you can just imagine that. Yeah, like now you, now you're in your room, your sister's gone. Like she really struggled with that. But Kelly really took to motherhood like a pro. She was [00:09:00] loving and resilient, and even though she was a little scared about having a baby so young, she doted on her daughter and she worked at the gas station to provide for her.

Kelly's older sister. Debbie was actually the manager at the gas station, which was located near James Madison University on an isolated stretch of road, and it was kind of a family affair at the gas station with Debbie not only managing the store, but Kelly's two other sisters also worked there as well.

There was a pretty good chance that someone from the family was going to be in the gas station at any given time. Elaine said Kelly worked a lot, but she spent all of her free time with Tammy. Elaine who was 13 when Kelly moved out would always go over and visit on the weekends to hang out with Kelly and the baby.

And when Kelly was working a babysitter kept Tammy in Bridgewater. According to Kelly's mom, Rachel Kelly had big dreams and she wanted to go back to school and become a nurse so that she could give herself and Tammy a better future. She actually registered for [00:10:00] classes at Blue Ridge Community College, and she had plans to start in September of 1982.

Meanwhile, she worked tirelessly and she saved every penny she made at the gas station because she wanted to pay for her education herself. At some point, Kelly asked her parents if she and Tammy could temporarily move in with them while she was looking for a place of her own, and so they could help her while she was going to college.

At this point, she was still with Dale, but their relationship was fizzling out and it's likely that Kelly was going to end things. So Kelly was really just trying to get her ducks in a row so that she could take care of Tammy tragically. Kelly's dreams and plans were cut short on June 18th, 1982. She actually wasn't supposed to be working that night, but her sister had asked her to swap shifts at the last minute, and Kelly agreed.

While it was normal for the siblings to work the overnight shifts, Kelly normally worked the day shift. Dale dropped her off at the gas station at 10:00 PM. That night, Elaine stopped by the gas station, as she often did when one [00:11:00] of her sisters was working. Elaine said that that night she was upset by something her other sister Debbie said to her.

So she went to the bathroom and Kelly followed behind her to cheer her up. Kelly told Elaine that she'd see her over the next weekend, which was actually Father's Day weekend, and they told each other they loved each other before Elaine left. Then in the early hours of June 18th, Kelly made a series of increasingly desperate calls to nine one one.

The first call came in at two twenty seven. Kelly was really calm and told the dispatcher that she was working at the gas station and that a man had called the store and said obscene things. She also mentioned that a guy had come in earlier that night and that he was dressed improperly. Those were her words, but she didn't really elaborate on what that meant.

She said she ignored the guy but thinks he was the one who called because he drove through the parking lot. A few seconds before the phone rang, Kelly asked if they could send an officer to keep an eye on her. Police speculated that the man may have [00:12:00] exposed himself to Kelly. It was actually not uncommon for the female employees at the gas station to receive inappropriate calls or deal with inappropriate behavior.

Two minutes after the first call, it's now 2:29 AM Kelly calls 9 1 1 again and reports that the same man was now outside the station. Oh my gosh. Terrifying. Absolutely. She said he was in a silver or gray car, possibly a Ford, and that he had come into the gas station and harassed her and he was now lingering outside.

She was clearly uneasy, but she was still professional and calm as she relayed what was happening to the dispatcher. At 2:30 AM Kelly made her third and final call to nine one one. This time Kelly's voice was full of fear and urgency. As she said, quote, please hurry he's back. She said that the man had called her from a payphone outside the gas station and had made obscene comments.

Suddenly though the line went dead. Police later said that a shuffling sound could be heard in the [00:13:00] background, followed by the phone slamming down. By the time police arrived at the gas station just one minute later, Kelly was gone. And we still have more to get into after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors.

Before the break, we were getting into the story of the abduction of Kelly Berg, a 20-year-old woman who vanished while she was working an overnight shift at a gas station in Virginia. Kelly's mom, Rachel said that when she listened to the 9 1 1 calls, her daughter made, she could hear Kelly's fear intensify with each call, and by the third call it was clear that she was panicked.

Her sister, Elaine later said that Kelly was normally somebody who wasn't afraid of anything. She described her sister as being even what you might call scrappy, so hearing her sound so scared was very unusual, and her family knew that She truly must have been very frightened. The family was also grappling with anger over the police response time with Rachel telling the media that she felt like the police should have been more concerned and should [00:14:00] have gone out on the first call rather than waiting for the second or third one.

She said she believed that Kelly was staying calm during the second call because she believed that help was actually on the way already. The lead investigator later did admit that a quicker response might have changed the outcome, though he said that he wished the seriousness of the situation had been made more clear.

Which, you know, I feel like that's kind of a frustrating response because she called 9 1 1, um, which is usually pretty serious. Right. You knows that's actually the first serious step you take when something is serious. Right, exactly. So I feel like that should have been enough to convey that it was an emergency, but I digress.

A patrol officer arrived at the gas station at 2:31 AM just one minute after Kelly's final call, which had ended so abruptly, but by that point, the scene was eerily quiet. The store was empty inside, but there was no sign of a struggle. Kelly's purse, which had money [00:15:00] inside, had been left behind the counter, along with a magazine that she had been reading, and there was a partially smoked cigarette and an ashtray on the counter.

The cash register in the gas station was also untouched and had no cash missing. Lieutenant Myers and investigator with the police department later said that it looked as though someone had just taken a quick break to the restroom or stepped out for just a second. The case was quickly classified as an abduction.

At first, the police believed that Kelly might have been taken in her own car since there were no other vehicles in the parking lot, but they soon learned that her husband, Dale, had actually dropped her off that night, and Kelly didn't even have a vehicle there. Then they turned their attention to the silver or gray Ford that Kelly described in her 9 1 1 calls, but they weren't really even sure.

The description was entirely accurate because she would've been looking through the window, and of course it was dark outside, but at least it was a start. Investigators determined that the abduction likely happened [00:16:00] very quickly, likely in as little as 15 seconds, which is absolutely horrific to think about.

Oh yeah, something like that happening so fast. Her family and investigators agreed that whoever took Kelly must have been armed because there's no way Kelly would've gone without a fight otherwise, they feel sure that the man was armed and that he took her by surprise. The door to the gas station was no more than 10 feet away from the phone that Kelly would've been using.

So the police theorized that her abductor had pulled his car up to the door, which made it easier to quickly force Kelly into the vehicle. Elaine remembers her mom's voice when she found out the horrifying news. She said, quote, they can't find Kelly. We need to find her. The family rushed to the gas station where they searched in the field nearby, but their efforts turned up nothing.

Kelly had seemingly vanished and the nightmare was just beginning for her family. When Kelly's family arrived at the gas station, they were shocked to see that the scene had not even been secured, despite police having already [00:17:00] arrived. There was actually no police tape up and customers were still going in thinking that the store was open.

No fingerprints were taken, and it seemed like nothing was really being done to investigate a crime. Kelly's mom. Rachel was actually the one who suggested that the police do something to secure the scene and she was treated rudely and dismissively. One encounter with Lieutenant Meyers actually left Rachel in tears.

The detective kept referring to Kelly as that woman in news interviews rather than by her name, which was really part of a pattern of insensitivity that left Kelly's family feeling disrespected and unsupported during one of the most frightening moments of their lives. Police said that taking fingerprints at the scene would be futile due to the high volume of people that come and go from the gas station.

But Kelly's family thought that was a poor explanation and that this early misstep undermined the investigation. Despite the early shortcoming, investigators worked to piece together a [00:18:00] timeline. They conducted interviews with employees and customers of nearby businesses and determined that Kelly was last seen at about 2:15 AM which was just 12 minutes before she made the first nine one one call police focused on this narrow window as they began to search for her abductor.

An employee from a nearby convenience store told police about a man driving a two-one silver car. This employee saw the car circling the area multiple times on the night of Kelly's disappearance with the last sighting about 30 minutes before she vanished. The driver of the car was described as being a thin white male between the ages of 20 and 25 with shoulder length blonde hair who was wearing a light colored shirt.

The employee also told the police that the same man had exposed himself to a female employee at their store. Just two weeks earlier, a composite sketch of the man was created and widely distributed. It offered really very little [00:19:00] help as it resembled quite a few young men at James Madison University, which was just a mile away.

As the investigation was going on, Kelly's family took matters into their own hands and started searching for her or for any clues that might lead to her whereabouts. Kelly's best friend. Connie had her husband search nearby creeks and Kelly's mom. Rachel took her dog to search Kelly's husband. Dale drove aimlessly through the streets looking for any sign of her.

He told the Associated Press quote, I know it's a wild goose chase, but it's better than sitting around. Kelly's sister. Debbie joined in the efforts by venturing into the nearby mountains in a four-wheel drive vehicle, hoping to spot anything that might lead to her sister. The family also kept an eye out for cars and for men that matched the descriptions that were provided in the investigation, particularly the Silver two-tone car and the thin blonde-haired man since Dale was Kelly's husband.

Of course, he was questioned multiple times to [00:20:00] explore any potential connection that he might have to her disappearance, but they never found anything that tied him to it. At first, Kelly's dad entertained the idea that Dale could have still been indirectly involved, such as by hiring someone. And Elaine admitted that she had also thought about that too on different occasions.

But Dale was never formally accused of any wrongdoing and the case eventually ended up pointing to a different suspect entirely as we will get into. And Kelly's family no longer thinks that Dale had anything to do with it. On June 29th, 1982, a thousand dollars reward was offered by an anonymous citizen, which would be equal to over $3,400 today.

But still, police had no promising leads and they admitted in a press conference that they learned absolutely nothing in the case so far. They said they were investigating reports of similar incidents in Virginia and beyond, and they'd chased down dozens of tips, but they'd all led to dead ends. As time went on, [00:21:00] investigators concluded that Kelly was not specifically targeted and her abduction was likely a crime of opportunity that was carried out by a man who noticed that she was working alone at an isolated gas station late at night.

The fact that the crime was so random made solving it all the more difficult as there was no physical evidence or clear suspects, and eventually the investigation stalled. So weeks turned into months without progress, and by late July, it had been six weeks since Kelly was abducted and still there were no answers.

Lieutenant Myers sat down with the media and gave an update admitting that with each passing day, the chance of finding Kelly alive we're growing slimmer. The investigation continued to focus heavily on men who had a history of sexual offenses or other unusual sexual behaviors as they believe that the crime may have been sexually motivated due to the obscene phone calls that Kelly received.

Moments before she was taken. These type of calls had been relatively frequent, [00:22:00] but after Kelly's disappearance, they only received one such call. In a desperate attempt to find a break in the case, the police department consulted a psychic for the first time in its history, but Lieutenant Myers declined to give any specifics about what insights the psychic may have had.

Only saying, we're willing to try anything. By far the most leads came from members of the community callers pointed out different shady characters or men who own vehicles resembling the one that Kelly had described. Some callers mentioned seeing individuals behaving suspiciously, but nothing was really leading anywhere.

At one point in the investigation, Lieutenant Meyers said that this case was probably the most challenging thing he'd ever gotten himself into in his 31 years working for the Harrisonburg Police Department. He said, quote, sooner or later we're gonna get a break on it. We will find that woman in quote, which again, there he is saying that woman, she has a name.

[00:23:00] Police dismissed any notion that Kelly had simply run away and said they had ruled that out very early on. It was clear that she did not leave voluntarily. Dale agreed and said quote, there's no way she would've gone off on her own, not with money and cigarettes there and the magazine open, and her little girl.

Dale said that he had to keep hoping, even though he knew the odds were against her. Dale also revealed that their 4-year-old daughter Tammy, had come to terms with the situation as much as a young child possibly could, and that she had accepted the explanation that somebody took her mother. In the aftermath of Kelly's disappearance, Dale agreed to let her parents take custody of Tammy.

The Burke family felt that this was the best arrangement, and Dale agreed that it was really in Tammy's best interest. As the search for Kelly entered its second year, the family and police remained haunted by her absence. By January of 1983, Lieutenant Myers gave an update on the case, and this time he revealed some [00:24:00] of the previously undisclosed details about the involvement of a psychic in the investigation.

He said the psychic claimed to channel both Kelly's and her abductor's perspectives and described roads, a residence and a burial site. Many of the descriptions appeared to match areas in Rockingham County, which reignited the investigation's focus on these local regions. The psychic also suggested that the abductor might drive a refrigerated truck and possibly had a knee injury.

But despite these potential leads, no significant progress was made. Also shared an unusual piece of evidence from another informant who had undergone hypnosis. This one I thought was like kind of interesting because. I'm interested in hypnosis for sure. I'm fascinated by, by it at least. Uh, I will say that.

But this informant was able to recall nearly all of the characters of a license plate seen [00:25:00] on a silver car around the time of Kelly's disappearance. And this clue generated hundreds of new leads, including one car registered to somebody who was aboard a ship at sea. But despite a huge follow-up effort, the trail once again ran cold.

Lieutenant Myers said that the investigation had explored every possible angle, but said since we got no leads, that she was alive since she was a family woman. She's dead and she's buried within 50 miles. I feel like this guy just has, does not have a way with words. No, no, no. Well, he does, but they're all wrong.

They're terrible. They're not great. It's a terrible way with words. Yeah. He reiterated that the police, the family, and even the FBI had all been involved in the search for Kelly and that still nothing had turned up. Rachel was more frustrated than ever and thought that the police had missed critical opportunities to conduct a thorough investigation right from the beginning, but she tried holding onto the hope that her daughter would be [00:26:00] found.

However, the weight of the uncertainty was very overwhelming. Rachel said she couldn't even make the drive to work in the morning without wondering whether she was passing Kelly's body along her route. Eventually Fred, Rachel, and Tammy moved away from Virginia, which Rachel said was necessary to preserve her mental health because she said being there was destroying her.

But despite being miles from where the tragedy occurred, the Berg family never gave up hope that one day they would find out the truth. We have more to get into after one last break to hear a word from this week's sponsors. So before the break we were talking about the investigation into Kelly's disappearance and her parents at this point really just had to move away with her daughter Tammy, to kind of get away and to be able to really reset their lives.

As the years passed, there were sporadic attempts to revive interest and reexamine potential leads. But by the early nineties, the media had shifted its attention elsewhere for the most [00:27:00] part. Leaving Kelly's family burdened with so many unanswered questions. At 1.1 possible leave was found when Kelly's mom, Rachel saw a car that was parked on the street that actually matched the description of the car.

Kelly reported in her 9 1 1 call. The police actually asked the owner of the car if they could search it. The owner agreed police vacuum the trunk and place what was found in evidence. At some point, Rachel requested that the Virginia Bureau of Investigation get involved in the case, which actually upset Lieutenant Myers.

He felt that Rachel was undermining his authority in the case, but in 1989 when the case still hadn't been solved, after eight years, Kelly was declared dead. In 1993, it was reported that there might be a link between Kelly's abduction and another case involving 18-year-old Paula Jean Chandler. Paula Jean was a restaurant worker who went missing from a nearby town just one day after Kelly was abducted.

[00:28:00] Paula's body was found two days later in a reservoir near Charlottesville, and her murder remains unsolved to this day. It was also thought that the disappearance of a 12-year-old girl named Katie Ky in Charlottesville, who went missing around the same time, could be linked. Katie was never found in her, remains have never been recovered, but a 23-year-old man named Glen Barker was convicted of murdering her.

He was sentenced to just 18 years. Glenn Barker had previously abducted an 18-year-old woman at knife point, but this woman escaped. Glenn was arrested, but he was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of assault. Additionally, Glenn drove a car that matched the general description of the vehicle in Kelly's case and was known to frequent the area.

To make things even more suspicious to me, this was the most suspicious. It was learned that Glenn actually painted his car a different color within days of Kelly going missing. The police told the daily [00:29:00] progress that while they did briefly view Glenn as a suspect in Kelly's disappearance, they ruled him out as a serious suspect after they identified another car that also matched the description.

This blows my mind because me too. How on earth are you gonna have somebody who matches this description, who has a history of hurting women and say, well. You know, uh, there's another car. Let's go look at another silver car. That's crazy. So Glenn was never interviewed in regards to Kelly's case, but police said they didn't totally eliminate him as a suspect.

They just didn't have any other evidence that tied into the case either. Well, they didn't really look for any. To be fair. Absolutely. So Rachel's frustration with the investigation was really a focal point of her public statements. She was fed up with what she felt was a lack of cooperation and the reluctance to pursue actual leads, especially those involving Glenn Barker.

She told the media quote. If they had done their job right [00:30:00] from the beginning, maybe we wouldn't still be wondering what happened to Kelly In 1992, Glenn Barker was released from prison for killing Katie Wars. He didn't even serve half of his sentence. Later that year, he gave an interview where he just randomly mentioned other unsolved cases, and although his recollection of and the timing of the exact events was a little bit off, it was clear to the police that he was referring to the killing of Paula Jean Chandler, and the disappearance of Kelly Berg.

Glen claimed he brought up these cases to illustrate how the police were just under a lot of pressure to find the person or people who were responsible in Katie's case because of these other two victims, and that he had just been picked up along the way because the police just had to arrest someone.

So there were very few updates in the media after this, and it appears that Glenn was ruled out in Kelly and Paula's cases. But interestingly, in 1993, he was caught with a pellet gun and [00:31:00] handcuffs, which police believed was what they were calling a murder rape kit. So that's terrifying. Uh, and then in 1996, a woman that Glen was dating was actually found murdered along with her daughter.

Glenn was not charged in that case, but many believed that he was responsible. In the years following Kelly's disappearance, her family tried to create some semblance of normalcy. Fred and Rachel focused on raising Kelly's daughter, Tammy, who as we said before, was just four years old when her mom vanished.

Tammy grew up surrounded by stories of her mom, but not having any closure was something that loomed over her life. Tammy's dad, Dale kept a low profile as time went on, though he consistently and sincerely cooperated with the police throughout the investigation, and he continued to focus on rebuilding his life and supporting his daughter from afar.

Years went by and then in 2008, tragedy struck the Berg family again. [00:32:00] Kelly's half brother Dwayne Parnell was shot and killed during a violent altercation at a Waffle House in Jacksonville, Florida. Dwayne was a construction worker who had traveled from North Carolina to Jacksonville to work on the River city marketplace.

It is believed that both Dwayne and his friend David, had been drinking heavily that day. On the night of the incident, he was at a Waffle house with David when they found themselves in a heated confrontation with a couple named Barry Edward Carrell and Melanie Barry Ayala. The couple accused Dwayne and David of using racial slurs towards Barry, who is a black man, and tensions quickly escalated from there and David ended up punching Barry and then Dwayne jumped in and got involved.

Barry's girlfriend, Melanie started throwing ketchup and syrup bottles at Dwayne and David in the heat of the moment and. Things just were really chaotic. But witnesses said that after the initial altercation, you know, kind of seemed to have ended. [00:33:00] Barry went outside while Melanie paid their bill, but then the situation took a deadly turn when Barry came back into the waffle House holding a gun.

Witnesses tried to stop him from entering the building, but Barry pushed his way inside and opened fire. Both Dwayne and David were shot, leaving Dwayne dead and David critically injured. Barry and Melanie fled the scene, but they were later apprehended by police. During the trial, Barry's defense argued that the shooting was an act of self-defense and claimed that he was attacked when he went back into the restaurant and feared for his life due to the racial slurs.

But prosecutors argued that the fight had actually already ended, and it was Barry who escalated the situation unnecessarily by going back into the building with a gun. In the end, Barry was convicted of third degree murder, attempted second degree murder, shooting deadly missiles, and two counts of aggravated assault.

He avoided the conviction for [00:34:00] second degree murder, but he still got a lengthy prison sentence with a release date set for 2077. Barry has appealed his conviction multiple times, including once in 2023, but all of them have been denied so far in 2020, nearly four decades after Kelly vanished, her family was still fighting for answers.

Her sister Elaine, was at a polling station in Virginia when she crossed paths with Delegate Tony Wilt and took this opportunity to share Kelly's story and to explain her desire and goal of passing a law that would require there be two employees working overnight shifts at convenience stores as a safety measure, which.

Yes, that is, yes. Incredible. A hundred percent. However, we can support that we want to. Tony was actually familiar though with Kelly's case and said he was shocked that nothing had been done and that nobody was helping the family. The very next day, the Harrisonburg police Department called and said they were going to reopen Kelly's case.

Detective Brooke Weatherill from the Major Crimes Unit, [00:35:00] was assigned as the lead investigator. She took the case very seriously and she even carried Kelly's case with her when she got a promotion within the department. Another detective who was related to the original lead investigator, which was Lieutenant Myers.

Also took an interest in the case, which Elaine actually thinks was motivated by a desire to make amends for the strained relationship her family had with Lieutenant Myers. All those years ago. The reopening of the investigation brought a fresh hope, and soon new leads started coming in. Remember that evidence that we mentioned earlier, the evidence.

That was from vacuuming the trunk of a car that Kelly had reported seeing. Well, the contents were bagged for evidence, but now in 2020 they finally got around to actually sending it off for testing. So they've had it. Oh my gosh. It's so frustrating. It's incredibly frustrating to, because why? Why do it?

Why do it? If you're not gonna do that, right. Why collect it if you're gonna just let it sit there for decades? Like that [00:36:00] makes no sense. It's infuriating. At this time though, it was also revealed that the trunk of that same car that they vacuumed to get evidence also had a shoe print from a tennis shoe that matched Kelly's shoe size.

While it's unclear the type of shoes Kelly was wearing when she was abducted, this detail does add further suspicion. In 2022, detective Weatherill revealed that she had been working with the DMV to gather records of vehicles that matched the description of the car. Reported that night, but she admitted that there were some challenges with investigating a case that spanned over four decades.

She said, quote, this happened 40 years ago, and the people we need to talk to are not always still around. For Elaine, though, the fight is far from over. She doesn't know if the evidence testing has revealed any new answers yet, but she remains committed in her pursuit for justice for Kelly by 2023.

Detective Weatherall had spent years unraveling the mystery of Kelly's disappearance and had [00:37:00] pieced together fragments of evidence that had grown colder with time. She outlined hurdles with the investigation, including sorting through this evidence and figuring out what was most valuable to the investigation.

She said having DNA is not as simple as it sounds. Anything we have might have DNA on it. What if that sample is degraded? The biggest challenge for us has just been identifying and getting clean samples, which we learned so much when we got to visit the Author Lab in Texas about how it really isn't just as simple as having, even just like having a little bit of DNA, like, there's so much more that goes into it than that.

Yeah. And so. That part alone is kind of frustrating. Just realizing that like even if you have like things that you need, you could still be missing. There's some component that like is preventing you right from really being able to get to the next level. But Detective Weatherall said she was determined to move the investigation forward despite these obstacles.

Over time, more progress was made. She re-interviewed every suspect that had [00:38:00] previously been questioned and ruled them all out until she only had one single individual left. According to Elaine, the remaining suspect is a man Kelly went to high school with. He had a history of indecent exposure and obscene phone calls, and he matched the sketch from the case and even owned a car that resembled the one from the description in the reports.

Elaine says she doesn't think Kelly actually knew this man very well, even though they went to school together. After all, Kelly had become a mom very young and got married to Dale, so her social life really didn't have, you know, a lot going on. She, she didn't have a lot of time for friendships outside of her immediate circle.

Elaine said that the man in question is aware that he's being looked into as a suspect. At one point the Harrisonburg Crime Solvers received an anonymous letter about Kelly's case that mentioned the suspect by name, a name that has actually not been publicly released. Detective Weatherall responded to the letter but never heard [00:39:00] back, but she hopes that whoever wrote it will respond and that they might hold the key to arresting the suspect in 2024.

Kelly's husband Dale passed away at the age of 67. His obituary stated in part, in 1982, his wife Kelly Berg Dove was abducted and he always had hopes of her return. They had a beautiful daughter, Tammy. As of today, the suspect still has not been named, and Kelly is still missing. Kelly's case is still unsolved, but her sister Elaine refuses to let her memory fade away.

She told the daily news report that Detective Weatherall had paid more attention to this case in the last two years than anyone at the police department had done before. Elaine and Rachel worked tirelessly to keep Kelly's story in the public eye, and they clinging to hope that one day someone will come forward with vital information.

Elaine said that some people question how they can still have hope after 40 years have gone by. And she said that sometimes [00:40:00] hope gets distant, but you have to keep that hope alive. Elaine told NBC quote, this man took away a sister, daughter, mother, and my best friend. He took away her future, her chance to have more children and to enjoy being a grandma to two amazing little boys.

I never knew I could miss her more today than I did when she first went missing. End quote. Just breaks my heart so sad. Yeah. Elena's convinced that people know more than they're letting on and says she's had unsettling encounters over the years that have led her to believe that. One time the mother of her son's high school friend mentioned needing to talk to Elena about Kelly, but then later avoided the topic entirely.

Detective Weatherall tried to get in touch with the woman herself, but she ignored the calls. Encounters like this have led Elaine to believe that people are scared to come forward with what they might know. Along the way, though Elaine has found support in unexpected places. If you're a regular [00:41:00] listener of our show, you might remember us talking about the cases of Emma Compton and Brenda Lambert.

Two women who have a similar case as Kelly's. Elaine has actually made friends with Emma's sister, Shauna and Brenda's sister Christie, and the three women now call themselves sisters and take comfort in sharing their experiences. So just to recap everything that we have kind of talked about today, Kelly Berg Dove was 20 years old when she went missing on June 18th, 1982.

She was last seen at the Imperial Gas Station on South Main Street in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Kelly was five foot one with brown hair and brown eyes. She weighed between a hundred and 120 pounds. She had a partial dental plate that replaced her two front teeth and a scar on the back of her head, as well as one on her forehead along her hairline and a scar on her right wrist.

She also wore contact lenses and glasses. At the time of her disappearance, Kelly was wearing a light colored pin strip sweater, or top [00:42:00] and tan or cream colored slacks. She also wore a Turner Ashby high school class ring with the initials KJB inscribed inside. The ring might have a para dot stone in it.

The suspect was a thin white male between the ages of 20 to 25 with shoulder length, blonde hair, and wearing a light colored shirt. He was driving a silver or gray vehicle that was possibly a Ford. So here are some ways that you can help. Um, you can share this episode and you can share Kelly's flyer so that her story gets spread around and might encounter somebody who has information in the case.

And as always, we will have a link to the flyer in our show notes. We'll post it on our social media so you guys can find that there. And Elaine hopes that the suspect sees the information about Kelly being spread and knows that Elaine isn't going to stop fighting for her sister until justice is served.

Those with information about Kelly's case should contact Detective Weatherall at 5 4 0 4 3 2 7 7 8 8 or by [00:43:00] email at Leslie. That's L-E-S-L-I dot weather@harrisonburgva.gov. And those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Solvers at (540) 574-5050. Man, one thing that really just hit me was how. The quick succession of the phone calls.

It was like two minutes, then one minute. It was clearly upsetting her. Yes, it was. If you're calling back to back on 9 1 1, like something is way wrong and it should be. Yes. And it's clear. Exactly. And it's clear that, um, something is like. Something very, uh, chaotic is unfolding like right that minute to have the back-to-back calls that you can really tell that she was kind of not sure what was going on, and then realized very quickly that this was actually something somebody needed to come out and Yeah, and, you know, help her.

And that is like the most terrifying thing for me is to think of her calling 9 1 1 for help and [00:44:00] then them arriving one minute later, one minute, even one minute too late. That's just. It's heartbreaking, and I do just love that Elaine has found support with, you know, Emma's sister, Shauna and Brenda's sister Christie.

Me too. That's something that those of us who haven't experienced that, or a family member missing or anything like that, that we can never truly understand, try as you may, we're never gonna have that, um, we're never gonna be able to empathize. But these three, having each other to lean on and to support.

They know exactly what the other one's going through, or at least to some degree and just, I don't know. It warms my heart to know that they, and they're all incredible. They really are. You know, we've worked with all of them, you know, to put together stories about their loved ones, so it makes, it really makes me so happy to hear that they have found some support in each other.

Absolutely. Okay guys, thank you so much for listening. That was the episode for this week. If you are looking for more content, check us out on Patreon. Otherwise, we will see you back next week. Same time, same [00:45:00] place. New story. Have a great week. Bye.