The boyfriend of missing Arizona teen Kiera Bergman reportedly said that he and Bergman had an argument about finances the day of her disappearance.
Jon Christopher Clark, 23, told HuffPost that, on the day in question, he picked Bergman, 19, up from work and took her back to her apartment, where he also lived. He said Bergman became upset after mistakenly believing he was leaving for a job in Texas. He claimed the last time he saw her was at 1 p.m., when she left the apartment.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Bergman vanished August 4 after leaving her job at a furniture retailer in Glendale. Reports indicated that Bergman sent her roommate a peculiar text and hasn’t been heard from since.
“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,” Clark told HuffPost. “I didn’t really find it unusual until she wasn’t in contact with me.”
The roommate, Destiny Hall-Chand, described the text to AZFamily: “She was saying that she was going to go out with some guy she met at the store a couple days ago which is something that’s not like her, that’s not something she would do.”
According to HuffPost, Hall-Chand, who also worked with Bergman, told police that Bergman appeared upset at work and left early.
Posted by Kiera Bergman on Saturday, November 12, 2016
Police have since arrested Clark on 22 counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of forgery. KPHO reported that authorities searched his car and recovered several items with personal information, including social security cards, that didn’t belong to Clark or Bergman. Friday’s arrest is said to be unrelated to Bergman’s disappearance.
Clark’s arrest comes after he revealed that he refused to take a lie detector test. He told HuffPost that he’s cooperated with police but didn’t feel the need to take a lie detector as they’re inadmissible in court.
“I didn’t want [investigators] to pretty much gather [their] conclusions off of something that is not guaranteed,” he commented.
READ More: URGENT! Woman still missing 11 DAYS after sending roommate a strange text message
While authorities originally said they weren’t treating Berman’s disappearance as criminal in nature, police recently deemed her case “suspicious.” This comes days after the 19-year-old’s father, Chris Bragg, told ABC News that Bergman’s wallet, purse, and car were found at her apartment.
“This remains a missing person case; however, circumstances related to her disappearance are suspicious,” Phoenix Police Seargent Vince Lewis said in a statement issued to KNSD.
This is an ongoing investigation. Anyone with information regarding Kiera Bergman’s whereabouts is urged to call the Phoenix Police Department Missing Persons Unit at 602-534-2121 or email caleb.morris@phoenix.gov.
[Featured image: Kiera Bergman/GoFundMe]
