Arizona man who pleaded for missing girlfriend’s safe return now facing first-degree murder charge
Jon Christopher Clark faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of Kiera Bergman
Clark from Arizona last month held media interviews pleading for his missing girlfriend’s safe return
Clark, 23, was asked not to attend a vigil held for Kiera last month after her parents said they suspected he was involved in their 19-year-old daughter’s disappearance
Kiera Bergman’s body was found Sept. 3 near a state highway, one month after she was last seen alive at her Phoenix home
Clark likely will face charges related to murder, improper removal of a body and evidence tampering
A bond of $1 million was set during a court appearance by Clark on Tuesday night
Kiera’s family said “We hope if Jon is guilty he is convicted and he rots in hell”
Kiera Bergman’s body was found along a highway in Phoenix Ariz on Sept 3, a month after she vanished from the apt she was sharing with her boyfriend and another female roommate
An Arizona man who gave media interviews pleading for his missing girlfriend’s return is now facing a first-degree murder charge in connection with her death.
Kiera Bergman went missing on Saturday August 4th in the Glendale area of Phoenix, Arizona. The 19-year-old’s body was found Sept. 3 near a state highway, one month after she was last seen alive at her home.
Phoenix cops say Jon Christopher Clark will likely be charged with murder, improper removal of a body and evidence tampering.
Jon-Christopher Clark faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of Kiera Bergman
Clark remains in the custody of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office after being arrested last month on unrelated charges.
He told the Arizona Republic in an interview published Aug. 16 that he had “nothing to do with anything that’s going on.”
“I love Kiera with all my heart, I want Kiera to come home,” Clark said at the time.
The pair had been dating since December, Clark claims. Bergman reportedly moved out of her family’s San Diego County home in March to live in Phoenix with Clark, her mom Kiersten Bragg said.
However, a few weeks after she moved, Kiera told her family the two broke up and that she moved into an apartment with her old school friend, Destiny Hall-Chand.
In another bizarre twist, Clark said he moved in with the two in mid-June after he reconciled with Bergman. Hall-Chan also confirmed the living arrangement, during an interview.
The topsy-turvy nature of the relationship between the pair that occasionally resulted in one abruptly leaving for a few hours at a time during an argument, was confirmed by her dad Chris Bragg who described his daughter’s relationship with Clark as on again, off again.
The day she disappeared Bergman had left for work that morning at a Glendale business that arranges furniture leases for customers.Destiny Hall-Chand also worked at the same job.
Clark showed text messages to The Republic from that day, where he messaged Bergman “I love you Kiera,” at 7:02 a.m. that morning.
“I love you too,” Bergman responded.
At 10:26 a.m., Bergman messaged Clark “you need to come get me.”
“I love Kiera with all my heart, I want Kiera to come home,” Clark who is seen[left with Kiera], told a newspaper lat month
Hall-Chand, who works at the same business, said Bergman seemed noticeably upset at work that day and left early when Clark picked her up.
Clark however said they had been bickering over some financial issues: “She’s trying to keep me in good spirits because it’s my birthday. But I was kind of sad because we weren’t really doing anything and then we just started getting into a little bickering, arguing and then she got upset and then she left,” between 12:30 and 1 p.m.
“Where did you go,” Clark asked Bergman in a text message sent at 1:06 p.m.
Kiera responded with her last message at 1:54 p.m., referencing an issue the two were arguing about but did not disclose her location.
At 4:08 p.m., Clark messaged Kiera again “Where are you at??”
Hall-Chand said she had a text exchange with Kiera as well later in the day.
“She told me that she was picked up by someone, someone that she had met at the store a couple of days ago. This person is unknown. … nothing makes sense.”
She did not specify what time that conversation took place.
Clark and Hall-Chand sent several messages to Bergman throughout that Saturday evening and Sunday as well.
Hall-Chand said, “I was just figuring she’s just upset right now, maybe she needs some time to cool off. When she didn’t go to work that Monday [Aug. 6], I knew there was something wrong.”
Hall-Chand met Clark said they met at their apartment later that day, and Clark called the police.
“I understand everything that they’re [Kiera’s family], going through, that they want to find Kiera and find answers,” Clark said.
“But my heart is in the same place that their’s is, and wishing and praying for Kiera to come home safe.”
Kiera Bergman, 19, vanished without a trace from her Phoenix apt she shared with the suspect and a friend,mon Aug 4
Curiously, Clark refused to take a polygraph proposed by Phoenix police, that would have helped clear his name in the death of his girlfriend Kiera Bergman [photo].
“I didn’t want to do anything that would give the indication I was hiding anything but also didn’t want anything on the record that would have them say I was doing anything or had any part in this,” Clark told HuffPost.
“I told them I would not like a lie detector test because, ‘One, they are not admissible in court, and two, whatever you guys gather from that is basically your interpretation on my feelings,’” Clark added. “So I didn’t want [investigators] to pretty much gather [their] conclusions off of something that is not guaranteed.”
But Clark said investigators didn’t give him a choice when they picked him up at a hotel on Monday morning and took him to the police station for questioning, “I just really felt like they were treating me like a suspect.”
Clark, who said he’s been dating Bergman since December, has consistently denied he had anything to do with her disappearance.
Kiera and Jon had an up and down relationship, but they were living in before she vanished on Aug 4. Her body was found a month later
Kiera Bergman vanished without a trace from her Phoenix apartment on August 4.
According to her roommate, Destiny Hall-Chand, the two had been working at a Glendale furniture retailer that morning. Bergman, Hall-Chand told police, became noticeably upset and left work early.
Clark said he picked Bergman up from work and took her back to the apartment, where he also lived. He claimed they got into an argument over finances. Bergman mistakenly thought Clark was leaving Phoenix, where the two had moved together from San Diego, for a job in Texas. The last contact Clark said he had with Bergman was when she walked out of the house around 1 p.m.
“When she left there was no immediate concern because we have had arguments in past where either me or her have left for an hour or a couple at a time to go clear our head,” he said. “I didn’t really find it unusual until she wasn’t in contact with me.”
Bergman was not at the apartment when Hall-Chand arrived after work. Hall-Chand, a former classmate of Bergman’s, told police she texted her roommate several times. Bergman eventually responded, saying she was going to go out with a man she’d recently met.
Bergman’s father, Chris Bragg, said he and his wife did not discover she was missing until Aug. 6, when they received a phone call from Hall-Chand.
“Around noon she called my wife and told her what was going on and asked if they should report Kiera missing, and my wife said, ‘Absolutely,’” Bragg said.
We don’t buy his act: Kiera Bergman’s family say “We believed from the beginning [Clark] was involved, but without any information we didn’t want to put him out there as a bad person without knowing some facts”
The suspect was tripped, authorities in Phoenix said when police found several items with the personal identification of other people as well as items indicating forgery in his vehicle. At the time Jon Clark was being questioned by police in relation to Bergman’s disappearance.
Clark was arrested and booked into jail for 22 counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of forgery. there were reports that he may have also violated his probation terms in connection with another case.
All through his denials, Kiera’s family did not buy his act though, Clark was asked not to attend a vigil held for Kiera last month. Her parents told the Republic that they suspected he was involved in their 19-year-old daughter’s disappearance.
“We believed from the beginning he was involved, but without any information we didn’t want to put him out there as a bad person without knowing some facts,” Kiera’s father Chris Bragg told ABC 15.
Clark had been questioned last month about Kiera when police found other people’s identification in his vehicle. Investigators have not said how Bergman died.
A bond of $1 million was set during a court appearance by Clark on Tuesday night.
“We hope if Jon is guilty he is convicted and he rots in hell,” Chris Bragg said in written statement to the Republic.
A GoFundMe page has raised more than $23,000 for her family.
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