- 13 hours ago
- #cenimaluxmoviesseries
Cold Justice Season 8 Episode 2
#CenimaluxMoviesSeries
https://www.dailymotion.com/Shumedia
#CenimaluxMoviesSeries
https://www.dailymotion.com/Shumedia
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00A hundred percent.
00:01I hold these secrets inside my bones.
00:07But this case is one of the oldest ones we've worked on.
00:11How old were you in 1988?
00:13Twelve.
00:13That was the year I got married.
00:15Lisa and I are here in Illinois to look into one of Will County's most well-known cold cases.
00:20On December the 9th, 1988, Joan Bernal, a 34-year-old wife and mother, was getting ready for a holiday road trip with her family.
00:31Just before leaving town, Joan and her husband Gil had to change plans.
00:35There are multiple versions of what happened next, but shortly after they left town, Joan disappeared, and she's been missing for 36 years.
00:43The history of domestic violence between Gilbert and Joan was pretty evident.
00:51I don't know that there was a witness that knew her that didn't talk about seeing her with bruises and injuries.
00:58The youngest daughter, Serena, reached out to try and get Cold Justice to work on this case a couple of years ago.
01:05Probably heard some of her interviews on that podcast.
01:07I have spent my 34 years always picking up for my dad, defending him, and always being his voice.
01:15Who is my mom's voice?
01:16She was an amazing person in all of this.
01:19I feel like that's what's been lost.
01:21She did sound conflicted in the podcast.
01:23Wouldn't you be?
01:24Her gut is telling her that her father is probably involved in her mother's disappearance, but she doesn't want to believe it.
01:31Right.
01:32This case has actually taken many shocking turns.
01:34From one witness claiming to have actually seen Joan's murder to others insisting they've seen her alive.
01:40It's difficult to prove a murder without a body, but whatever happened to Joan, this is a case we need to solve.
01:46Maybe we can have some good luck.
01:51Welcome to the Wilcox Sheriff's Office.
01:53I'm Sheriff Michael.
01:53Nice to meet you.
01:54Lisa, nice to meet you, sir.
01:56It's a good time, man.
01:57Hi, I'm Sally.
01:58Detective RG Austin.
01:58Nice to meet you.
01:59Thank you for inviting us.
02:00You're welcome.
02:01Anytime.
02:02This is an old one.
02:02Luckily, about three years ago, the sheriff let us start a cold case unit up.
02:07Wow.
02:08It started with myself.
02:09Yeah, the cold case guys.
02:10Yeah.
02:11I mean, this is a nice building, so I'm assuming y'all got a fancy place for us to work.
02:14We'll follow you.
02:15Joan Bernal was a mother, sister, daughter.
02:19I remember that family still vested in wanting to know what happened to Joan.
02:23I think it's important for the family to get closure 36 years later.
02:28It's challenging because, number one, you have no real cause of death.
02:34You can't get any evidence from a body.
02:37It takes away a big piece of the puzzle.
02:39It makes it even harder than a normal case.
02:41All right, Sarge, you want to start off talking about Joan?
02:45By all accounts, everyone says Joan was super nice, friendly.
02:48She worked at the Pace bus barn as a bus driver.
02:52She met Gil, her husband there.
02:54He was like the head maintenance guy, mechanic.
02:57Joan and Gil Bernal were both married to other people when they met, but they left those relationships
03:02and got married in 1985.
03:05Joan had two children from her past marriage, and Gil had three.
03:09Joan gave birth to their only child together, Sarita, in 1986.
03:15But Joan and Gil's relationship deteriorated almost as quickly as it started.
03:20They were talking about going through a divorce, although Gil had made mention that he would
03:24never get divorced from her because he didn't want to lose Sarita.
03:28Gil was very controlling, very temperamental.
03:30All people had witnessed him batter Joan on several occasions.
03:34She stayed in shelters many nights just to get away from them.
03:38Joan moved in and out of a domestic violence shelter several times, and I have never seen
03:43such well-documented shelter records before.
03:46They clearly show the cycle of violence where time after time you could tell that Joan had
03:52been beaten and threatened, and he would convince her to come back home.
03:56Okay, so let's talk about when Joan went missing.
03:59December 9th in 1988, Joan, her husband Gil, Gil's biological children, Gil Jr., Gabriel, and
04:07Carissa, and Joan's biological children, Lex and Larissa, along with the baby, Sarita,
04:13they were taking a family trip to Texas for a couple weeks over the Christmas holiday to
04:19see some of Gil's family.
04:21They're ready to leave.
04:22They go to pick up Joan's children from Joan's ex-husband Larry's house.
04:29It got a little messed up because Joan didn't tell her ex-husband that she was actually going
04:35to take the kids to Texas.
04:36He thought they were just going to stay in Juliet.
04:38Larry said, no, you can't take them.
04:40A big argument ensues.
04:42They go back to Gil's house.
04:43On the ride home, Gil and Joan argue about it.
04:46They were screaming at one another, and obviously there was three other kids there, and they
04:50were old enough, 11, you know, eight years old.
04:52They were old enough to know there was a bad argument.
04:54From this point, the story becomes unclear.
04:57Gil's three children and baby Sarita were ordered to stay in the truck while Joan and
05:01Gil went inside the house and started arguing.
05:04A little while later, Gil comes outside alone and drove his three kids to his ex-wife's house.
05:10Then, according to Gil, he stopped by his workplace to fix the headlights on his truck.
05:16That next morning, he said that he and Joan and baby Sarita left for Texas.
05:23Gil says that on his way down to Texas, Joan says she doesn't want to do this anymore.
05:28She wants to be with her other kids back at home.
05:31Gil says, fine, if that's what you want to do, I'm going to drop you off at the bus station.
05:36They're in McAllister, Oklahoma.
05:38He says he gives her $1,500.
05:40He says Joan walks towards the bus station, last time he ever sees her.
05:44Then he goes down to Texas, celebrates Christmas, gets back to Joliet.
05:49Joan's still never seen or heard from anybody else.
05:53He then files a missing person December 27th.
05:57Gil's story sounds suspicious.
05:59Why drop Joan off down the street from a bus station?
06:02Why was it over two weeks before he reported her missing?
06:04Also, investigators found no bus tickets purchased, suggesting she ran away.
06:10But without a body, Joan's case went cold.
06:12I am Sergeant Martin Schiff from the Will County Sheriff's Police.
06:16The president is Gil Burnell Jr.
06:18Then five years later, Gil's son, Gil Jr., came forward with a new part of the story.
06:23Something that he saw before being taken home that night.
06:26I looked through the window, and I saw my dad jerk Joan's head, grabbed Joan by his neck.
06:35And he jerked back and went forward, and that was it.
06:38Then he dragged her through the living room.
06:40And that's the last time he ever saw Joan.
06:43Okay.
06:44He gives a very detailed account of what he witnessed through the front window of the property.
06:50Gil Jr. sees Gil put his hand around her throat, grab the back of her hair, and then violently
06:57rock it back to where he says the eyes go black.
07:00And then she crumples to the floor.
07:02And talking to the detective who interviewed him the first time, he was so detail-oriented,
07:07a kid couldn't make that up.
07:08Yeah.
07:08Then they take it to the grand jury.
07:10He gets arrested.
07:11And he does about nine months in a county jail.
07:14Then the state drops the case.
07:16What happens is, two witnesses actually come forward, and they say one saw Joan at a women's
07:21shelter, and another one sees her in Tennessee.
07:25A total of three women claimed to have seen Joan alive after she went missing.
07:30One of those women later recanted, and the other two were pretty much found to be not
07:35credible by the detectives.
07:36The one recants pretty much quickly because she says drugs have fried her mind.
07:40The other one fails a lie detector test, and then a later does recant.
07:44These claims caused some doubt with the case.
07:48The charges against Gil were dropped, and Joan's case stalled again.
07:52The question is, today, did Joan really abandon her life and her kids, or can we prove she
07:58was really murdered?
08:00But first, we want to meet with Sarita.
08:04Hello, Sarita.
08:05Hi.
08:05Oh, my God.
08:06I'm going to cry just looking at you.
08:08Don't do that, because you'll make me cry.
08:10We're so excited to see you.
08:14I didn't think this would ever happen.
08:24I'm a mom.
08:26I have three kids.
08:27We talk about my mom as much as we can.
08:30Each of my kids has a picture of her in their room.
08:33And I tell them what I know and what I can, but I don't know my mom's smell.
08:38I don't know her presence, her voice.
08:41Those are all things I don't know.
08:45I don't remember very much about my mom at all.
08:48You're just good.
08:49Unfortunately.
08:49Right.
08:49I have a few flashbacks, is what I really call them, all basically happy.
08:56My grandma always says she was the sweetest person in the world.
08:59She could do the sweetest things, but my mom knew how to push people's buttons.
09:04My mom spoke her mind.
09:06If she felt a certain way, you were going to know it.
09:09And just kind of seeing how her life played out, you could accept that maybe she did run
09:16away.
09:16My mom was very broken inside.
09:21My dad, he was a very controlling man.
09:24What did your dad tell you about the night that led up to your mom?
09:30My dad's always told me he dropped her off at the bus station and never heard from her.
09:36And that was it?
09:37And that was it.
09:38Anytime I asked about my mom or wanted to talk about her, there was never anything good
09:43to say, ever.
09:43And like, if he was ever coming down hard on me about something that I did or that I
09:49said, you know, I got a lot of, you're just like, you're f***ing.
09:52Just like your mom.
09:53Yeah.
09:53What made you decide to do the podcast?
09:55Tired of not knowing.
09:57I wanted answers.
09:59And just a lot of, you know, guilt on myself.
10:03Like, how could I have believed this person for so long?
10:07Because he's your father.
10:08I think that's normal.
10:09Everybody's going to understand that.
10:11Did you ever confront him about what you thought?
10:14No.
10:14And then once the podcast came out, I'm like, all right, he's going to know that I know.
10:19And then that was it.
10:21It's been four years.
10:22It's the last time I have spoke to him.
10:24It's really hard to listen to Sarita talk about what it's like to grow up without your
10:30mom your whole life and trying to figure it all out yourself.
10:33I can't imagine how hard that had to have been.
10:36Sarita wants some answers and we need to try our hardest to try and get her some.
10:41You should know that we don't want to let you down, but we can't make any promises.
10:45I know.
10:45So, so what we're going to do is we're going to try everything.
10:49You're the one that got all this started, you know.
10:52You set the wheels in motion.
10:54I still feel like it's not enough, though.
10:57She's my mom.
10:58In the shelter records that I have, first of all, they were this big, and this is what
11:20I kept that I still think is important with highlighted points.
11:23It's hard to believe that Joan Bernal would have just walked away from her babies 36 years
11:28ago, but when you don't have a body, it makes a murder case that much harder to prove.
11:33This is just beautiful.
11:35These women talk about their conversations and her state of mind and their advice, and
11:41the day she decides to take him back, it's in here, and it's the whole cycle of violence.
11:46Joan's shelter records document so much about the abuse she went through, but we also want
11:53to talk to all the people in their world who knew them back then.
12:00My dad had custody of me and my sister Larissa, so we'd only see her every other weekend and
12:06every Wednesday, and there was a lot of weekends that we'd spend in the fatted woman's shelter.
12:11Lex and Larissa were Joan's children from her first marriage.
12:15They were only 11 and 6 at the time, but were wondering what they can remember about Joan
12:20and Gil's abusive relationship.
12:23Would you describe him as controlling over your mom?
12:26Yes.
12:27He would take her paychecks.
12:28My mom never had money.
12:30Anything that we wanted to do, it was always you had to ask Gilbert, or no, because Gil doesn't
12:35like that.
12:36She was always trying to please that man.
12:39Yeah.
12:40Even if it meant putting us on the back burner.
12:44Yeah.
12:45I know she loved us, and that's not what I mean.
12:49He was very, very controlling.
12:51Did you ever see Gilbert strike your mom, or ever get physical with her?
12:56Oh, yeah.
12:56My sisters and I were down the hall watching TV and heard a ruckus, whatever you want to
13:02call it.
13:03Mm-hmm.
13:03So I come walking down the hall, and he knocked her around pretty good, and actually, she was
13:09laying on the ground, and he had his boot heel on her head.
13:13Oh, God.
13:14I remember one time, he didn't like that she smoked cigarettes, even though he smoked,
13:18so she would hide it all the time.
13:20Yeah.
13:20And I remember, she just came home from work, and she said she was going to hop in the shower,
13:26and he had sits up about her hiding the cigarette smell.
13:29I remember seeing him smack her, and I think that's one of the times that we went to the
13:36shelter.
13:36There was one time we were at a restaurant, so we started in on her, and the next thing
13:40I remember, he was behind her and had a steak knife from the table to her throat.
13:46Really?
13:46Lex and Larissa's firsthand accounts of all the abuse they saw of their mom really helped
13:53strengthen the case.
13:54And while it's possible Joan may have wanted to run away from her abuser, every time she
13:59fled to the shelter, she took her kids with her.
14:02Would she ever leave you guys?
14:03Just walk away.
14:04Or just walk away?
14:06No.
14:07No?
14:08Yeah, it's crazy that he even says that.
14:16Lillian, my name's Lisa.
14:18Hi, Lisa.
14:18Hi, it's very nice to meet you.
14:19You have beautiful blue eyes.
14:21We want to talk to the women from Gil's past.
14:24They're listed in the reports as also having been abused, and it would be interesting to
14:28learn what types of incidents caused Gil to become violent towards them in the past.
14:33I really love Joan.
14:34She was nice, and I trusted when my kids went with her, and I knew I'd get them back.
14:39Yeah.
14:40She was a good stepmom to them, for the most part.
14:42Lillian was Gil's wife before Joan.
14:44They have three kids together, including Gil Jr.
14:48She came to my work when I worked at Barrett's.
14:50She had some sunglasses on, and we were talking, and she took her glasses off, and she had black
14:56eyes, and she wanted me to help her, and I go, I don't know how to help you.
15:02You know, I wish I could have, but he didn't know how.
15:05I mean, you just, I guess you just had to find strength to get away from him.
15:10When Gil would be violent towards you, what would set him off?
15:13What angered him?
15:14It didn't take much.
15:16You know, that's why he had, you know, like, I didn't really like to say anything,
15:20because I might not like what's coming out of my mouth, so.
15:24He'd come home one night, and I left his car outside in the driveway.
15:31I didn't pull it in his garage.
15:33I mean, he dragged me out of bed by my hair, and just was just hitting me, and I went to
15:41the hospital, and they kept wanting me to tell them who hit me, and I wouldn't tell them
15:46because I was scared.
15:48After that, every time he hit me, it got worse.
15:50According to Lillian, Gil used to drag her by her hair, and that's exactly how Gil Jr. described
15:58his father attacking Joan on the night the trip fell apart.
16:01That certainly adds credibility to Gil Jr.'s story.
16:04When I filed for divorce, he came to my mom's house and threatened me with a gun to cancel
16:11it, and I told him that I did, but I didn't.
16:13I feel very, very, very, very, very lucky.
16:17You are, probably.
16:19Mm-hmm.
16:19And the unfortunate reality is if you didn't get away from him, you may never have.
16:23Mm-hmm.
16:24Not of your own volition.
16:33This is going to be an interesting interview.
16:35From what I gather, she has no contact with Gil, so.
16:38Well, he goes through his womb in life.
16:40Hotcakes.
16:41We tracked down the woman who was with Gil right after Joan's disappearance.
16:47Was she part of the same frightening pattern?
16:50Did you know Joan personally?
16:52No, I never met Joan.
16:54Okay.
16:55When Gil came into my life, he said he was divorced.
16:59When was that, roughly?
17:00Right at the beginning when she disappeared.
17:02Were you aware that he was kind of physically abusive towards her or anything like that?
17:07No.
17:07You were not aware of that?
17:08Not at that time, no.
17:10I mean, I had the verbal and mental abuse.
17:13There was a time when we were dating.
17:15I mean, I wanted to break it off with him.
17:18He grabbed me by the back of my hair, because at that time I had long hair.
17:22Oh.
17:23And he said, no woman ever leaves me.
17:25So he grabbed your hair, like just pulled it.
17:28Yeah, I believe he just grabbed my hair.
17:30Okay.
17:30This woman, just like Lillian, tells us about Gil yanking her hair.
17:35So more than just a pattern of abuse, this is a pattern of attack.
17:40It's time to talk to Gil Jr. about what he saw happen that night between his dad and Joan.
17:46I was afraid to leave him.
17:47I could not.
17:48You were just too scared to get away from him?
17:50I was scared to death.
18:01We got a hoe to Gil Jr. yesterday.
18:03He picked up the phone right away and agreed to come in.
18:06He kept saying, I really want to help.
18:08He even told us, you know, I haven't talked to my dad in years.
18:11I'm not surprised one bit.
18:12The most critical witness in the 1988 disappearance of Joan Bernal is her husband's son, Gil Jr.
18:19He's the one who came forward with new information about what happened the night the family vacation fell apart in 1993.
18:27My dad was mad, very mad.
18:30He was banging his hands up against the steering wheel.
18:33All the way home, he was griping at Joan.
18:36Then we got home, and then my dad told me, my brother, and sister, and my little step-sister to stay in the truck.
18:45They were in there for, like, maybe a half hour.
18:48I went out of the truck, and I looked through the window, and I saw my dad jerk Joan's head.
18:55He grabbed Joan by the neck.
18:58Then he grabbed her by the hair, and he jerked back and went forward, and that was it.
19:03Then he dragged her through the living room in the hallway of his house.
19:09And that's the last time you ever saw Joan?
19:12Okay.
19:13It's been over 30 years.
19:14If this case is going to stand up in court, we need to hear what Gil Jr. remembers today.
19:20How are you, sir?
19:21Good, how are you?
19:21Nice to meet you. I'm Kelly.
19:23Every witness statement needs to be current and credible and as clear as possible,
19:27especially when your witness was young at the time.
19:31My dad picked us up tonight, picked up Joan and Sarah, and then we went to Minooka to pick up Lex and Larissa.
19:39We're going out of town.
19:39And you guys are all in the back, right?
19:41Yeah, yeah.
19:41Okay.
19:42But Lex and Larissa didn't get to go.
19:44That's when it all hell hit the pan.
19:47Joan gets back in the truck.
19:49Dad and her are arguing.
19:51Okay?
19:51What kind of arguing?
19:52I mean, Dad was screaming.
19:54He was punching the steering wheel.
19:56We finally got back to his house.
19:58And him and Joan exited the truck, right?
20:01Yeah, and they went in the house.
20:02At least 45 minutes.
20:03And my little sister's crying.
20:05I brought her her bottle.
20:06She had a wet diaper.
20:07I wrapped her up in the blanket and carried her up to the door.
20:10When I was trying to open the door, it was locked.
20:13Okay?
20:14And I looked in the window, and that's what I seen when I see it.
20:18Dad dragging Joan into the back of the house.
20:21She wasn't moving.
20:22She wasn't trying to move or anything.
20:24How was he dragging her?
20:26Like, basically by her arms.
20:27Did you see anything else?
20:29No, I didn't see nothing else.
20:30Did you see any blood?
20:33Nope.
20:33After all that, I took my sister back to the truck so he didn't know that I was out there.
20:38Because he would have whooped me.
20:39Eventually, my dad comes back out.
20:43When he came back out, he gets in the truck, and he's, like, living.
20:47I mean, you know, you can tell something's wrong with him.
20:50He almost hit the neighbor's car in the street when he backed out.
20:54And he takes me and my brother and sister home.
20:55He was basically throwing our suitcases out of the back of the truck.
21:00Most of what Gil Jr. tells us matches what he told the investigators when he was 15, but he didn't mention the actual attack.
21:08These are the notes, police report from the 1993 interview.
21:10And you said you saw your dad put one hand on Joan's throat and the other hand on the back of her head, grabbing her hair.
21:21And at that time, he snapped her head back and then forward in an abrupt motion.
21:27Do you remember that?
21:28Yeah, I don't remember that.
21:29You just remember seeing her limp as he dragged her on the floor.
21:32Yeah.
21:33Okay.
21:33Gil doesn't remember the actual attack.
21:36And is that due to the passage of so much time or some kind of trauma-induced amnesia or some other reason?
21:44It's really hard, man.
21:45I know.
21:45I was really nervous coming here.
21:46Hey, and I appreciate it.
21:48But to be honest with you, I want to give my sisters and brother some closure to your mother.
21:55But everything that Gil does remember is still circumstantial evidence that Joan did not abandon her children.
22:03She was murdered.
22:18We've learned about the abuse that Joan suffered at the hands of Gil, but without her body, it's really hard to determine how exactly she may have been murdered.
22:27So this occurred in December.
22:29I'm going to assume the ground is probably hard.
22:33I believe back then, the temperature was like in the 50s.
22:36It was cold, but you could have dug in the backyard.
22:39Okay.
22:39According to the sheriff's file, Gil bragged to his late friend Ray O'Gorman that he knew how to dispose of a body.
22:45By placing it into a 55-gallon drum and adding antifreeze and oil to hide the smell.
22:50Ray had admitted that he gave Gil two barrels before Joan's disappearance.
22:54This makes you wonder about a curious part of Gil's story.
22:57Gil does go back to the shop the night that we believe that Joan was murdered because he had to fix the lights on his pickup truck.
23:04Why would you go at 11 o'clock at night when it's dark and drive around with your headlights malfunctioning?
23:10Why not wait until it's light when your headlights are not required and then go get them fixed in the morning?
23:17Could Gil really have been using the shop to dispose of Joan's body?
23:20You guys know where Gil is?
23:22We do.
23:23We haven't talked to him yet, but we want to pick your brain.
23:27There you go.
23:28All right.
23:28Robert Guess, who worked at the bus barn, may have some answers.
23:31So one of his things he said is he went to the bus barn that night to fix his headlights.
23:36Did he ever talk to you about that?
23:38No.
23:38The bus barn had parts.
23:40Would it have parts to fix a Chevy pickup truck?
23:44No.
23:45So it wouldn't have a light bulb, headlight bulbs, any of that stuff?
23:49Headlight bulbs from a truck.
23:51I have to ask.
23:52It's not going to put down anything on a bus.
23:55Would the bus barn be vacant at midnight back then?
24:03Or were there people that worked all night or was it generally...
24:06There was nobody, there was no 24 hours.
24:08There was no night shift?
24:09No.
24:10So not only was Gil allegedly going to fix the headlights on his truck in the middle of the night,
24:14he's doing it at a place that doesn't have spare parts for that truck.
24:18It doesn't add up.
24:19Do you remember Gil telling you what happened to Joan?
24:22How she went missing?
24:23No, he wouldn't...
24:24He wouldn't tell you anything?
24:25No.
24:25Oh, something just...
24:28Mm-hmm.
24:28Mm-hmm.
24:29I went to the garage after he left.
24:35The place was clean as a whistle.
24:37And I said to one of the mechanics,
24:40Boy, you guys have been busy.
24:42And he said,
24:44This was this clean when we came in here.
24:48This is new.
24:49According to Robert, after Gil's visit to the bus barn, the bus barn was spotless.
24:54Did he clean up before he left?
24:55Did he spill antifreeze or oil on the ground while he was disposing of Joan's body?
25:00Is he that ballsy to bring the body and the barrel to the bus barn,
25:05park inside there,
25:06fill the barrel full of whatever he's filling,
25:08and then reseal it inside the bus barn?
25:10If he can reseal it at home,
25:12he can go get the liquids and then go home and pour it and reseal it.
25:16But if he needs the tool there to reseal it...
25:18Yeah.
25:19And that's...
25:19Then the theory.
25:31While Gil's friend told detectives that he gave him two barrels before Joan went missing,
25:36when they searched Joan and Gil's property, they only found one barrel.
25:40Our crime scene investigators rented a small track hoe to dig on the property
25:45where Gil and Joan lived.
25:47We're going to go see how it's going.
25:49Earlier, a team was sent out with ground-penetrating radar
25:52to look for any kind of sign that Joan might have been buried there,
25:57possibly even in a 55-gallon barrel.
25:59We got a report.
26:03The imaging, preliminary imaging, was a cylinder-like object in this location,
26:09but it was only supposed to be about approximately 18 inches down.
26:13So we dug a little further.
26:14I think we're down to about 3 feet, and we did not locate anything.
26:18The reason we liked that cylinder-like object is we came here,
26:22we were only able to locate one barrel.
26:25So one barrel was missing.
26:27We don't know where it went.
26:28It was worth a shot, but if Joan was buried in a barrel, it's not here.
26:34All right, thanks, gentlemen. Good luck. See y'all later.
26:43I know, and we're sorry to entrench up.
26:45No.
26:45And this man's been out, living his life, for how many years?
26:54Long time, right?
26:55So it's rough, and we know that.
26:58We have one last witness to talk to, another one of Gil's alleged victims,
27:02but not of domestic abuse.
27:04Because in 1977, Gil was arrested for sexual assault of a child.
27:09The girl's mother had her drop the charges, and Gil was never convicted.
27:14But that victim has agreed to share her thoughts on who Gil really was.
27:17I never met Joan.
27:20Okay.
27:21But to me, he's a very, very, very evil person.
27:26Because, I mean, he raped me when I was 14.
27:30It was my eighth grade graduation, and I went home with them,
27:34because little, I'd go to work in the morning, and I'd watch the kids.
27:38Well, he didn't go nowhere.
27:39He always told me, if I ever said anything,
27:43that he would put me in a five-gallon drum of antifreeze in the desert.
27:48He told you that?
27:49Mm-hmm.
27:50He told you he would put you in a 55-gallon drum?
27:53Yeah.
27:54So he told you this when you were a teenager?
27:56Mm-hmm.
27:57So I just automatically assumed when she came up missing...
28:01That's what happened.
28:02Yes.
28:02This is new.
28:03According to this witness, Gil threatened to put her in a drum of antifreeze in the desert.
28:07Maybe that's why we didn't find Joan's body on their property.
28:10He told her that if she told, he'd put her in a 55-gallon drum and bury her in the desert.
28:16He told her that.
28:23Wow.
28:23He has this theory in his mind he's threatening a kid with.
28:26Yes.
28:28Well, before Joan disappears, we all know desert means Mexico, or sure as hell, South Texas,
28:34but there's no deserts around here.
28:35South, at least, right?
28:36Yeah.
28:38Wow.
28:39Wow.
28:40Wow.
28:52If he doesn't want to come to the car, are you comfortable going in the house?
28:56Yeah, that's fine.
28:57Might be combative right off the bat.
28:59You know, I don't know.
29:00He hasn't been interviewed or talked to by the police, uh, since 1993.
29:04If he wants to talk, I would suggest we just...
29:07Yeah, just let him ramble.
29:08Let him go.
29:09It's time to confront Gil Bernal about his wife Joan's disappearance 36 years ago.
29:14We know that he has a pattern of domestic abuse.
29:16They argued that night, and we have a theory on how he killed her and disposed of her body.
29:21Any inconsistencies that we can get out of him today would be circumstantial evidence that
29:26he's lying and would strengthen the case even more.
29:28So I'm just looking to see what you remember about it, what your take was, and anything like
29:35that.
29:36Look, listen to me.
29:37It's really difficult to kind of understand what happened the night when Larry wouldn't
29:48let you guys have the kids.
29:49Right.
29:50Can you kind of explain that so I can make sense of what the world happened?
29:54We were going to go to Texas on vacation.
29:56When we went to pick up the kids, that's when Larry told Joan that we couldn't have the
30:00kids.
30:00I told Joan, you know what?
30:02Forget it.
30:03Okay.
30:03We just won't go to Texas.
30:05We'll just...
30:05I'll leave the kids...
30:06I'll take my kids back home, and we'll just stay spending Christmas here.
30:10But when I came back, after I brought my kids over to my ex, that's when she says,
30:14well, we just let three of us go.
30:16You know what I said either.
30:17I said, okay.
30:18We left in the morning.
30:19What time do you leave, you think?
30:20I know it's a long time.
30:21No, we left probably, what, 8.30, 9 o'clock in the morning.
30:25Okay.
30:26Did you ever go back to the bus barn for any reason in between?
30:30You did?
30:30Mm-hmm.
30:31Because I was going to get some of my tools out.
30:33The tools for what?
30:34Did you need them for something?
30:35Because I used to, when I'd go on the trip, I'd take tools in my car.
30:38Okay.
30:38Like if a car breaks down?
30:40Yeah, something.
30:42Gil's initial statement was that he went to the bus barn that night to fix the headlight
30:45on his truck.
30:46Now he's spinning a different story that he went there to pick up tools, and these are the
30:50types of inconsistencies that we're looking for to strengthen the case.
30:54So you guys are going down to Texas, everything's good.
30:57What made Joan want to not go anymore?
31:00Like what, at what point was she?
31:01No, it was.
31:01We were going through Oklahoma, and she, we stopped at the kitchen to get up, and then
31:05she said she wanted me to drop her off at the bus station so she can go back and try
31:10to get the kids.
31:11Why would she think that Larry would give her the kids when he didn't the night before?
31:14I don't know.
31:14She was, she was pissed.
31:16She wanted, she was going to get the kids somewhere.
31:18What, what town was that though?
31:19That was, um, McAllister.
31:21Oklahoma?
31:22Yeah.
31:23So I gave her money, $2,500, I gave her $1,500, and I said, there's enough money there,
31:28you guys can go to Texas.
31:29So you did give her $1,500?
31:30Yeah.
31:31Okay.
31:32We've heard that Gil was so controlling that he took Joan's paychecks, and we're supposed
31:36to believe that he would so easily part with over $1,000?
31:39And then, uh, I went to Texas.
31:42Okay, and you never heard nothing else, not a phone call?
31:45No, she made it home.
31:47She made it home?
31:47Yeah.
31:48How do you know she made it home?
31:48Because all the jewelry was good.
31:50I left early Texas, and I went back to Joliet, and the shelves, some of the drawers were empty.
31:56The car was parked this way.
31:58When I came home, the car was parked the opposite way.
32:00So the car moved?
32:02Yes.
32:02I haven't heard from her since.
32:04Gil initially said that the only thing missing from the house were two pairs of Joan's jeans.
32:08And then in 2020, he said that Joan's clothing and jewelry were missing.
32:13And now he's saying that Joan's car was parked facing a different direction.
32:17There's a lot of inconsistencies here.
32:19And Joan had already planned on leaving me.
32:23So she was wanting to get divorced from you, or take Sarita's daughter and leave?
32:27No, no, no.
32:27No, no, no.
32:27Take Sarita.
32:28Leave Sarita with me.
32:29Leave Sarita with you.
32:30Right.
32:30Because Sarita was that close to her, she was closer to me than it was to her.
32:34Do you understand why everybody kind of was pointing the finger at you?
32:38You had kind of a long history of smacking women around.
32:41Yeah.
32:41Let me explain to you why I used to bang her head.
32:44Sure.
32:45When I used to get home, her kids used to say, we're hungry, you know.
32:49What is she doing?
32:49She's sitting there smoking a cigarette at the couch and drinking a beer.
32:54Bad mom?
32:55Was she a bad mom, or she didn't see her?
32:57Oh, yeah, she was.
32:57Did you ever tell Joan, like, listen, I'm done with this relationship, like I want a divorce?
33:01Yes.
33:01You know how many times I put her out of the house?
33:03No.
33:04Six times.
33:05Holy cow.
33:06Because Joan did go to a battered women's shelter a few times.
33:08I think the times you kicked her out is when she went.
33:10Yeah, every time I kicked her out, then she said she wanted to come back.
33:13She wanted to start over and she wasn't going to do it anymore.
33:17And I'll be damned, here we go again.
33:19Gil's telling us that he kicked Joan out of the house several times,
33:23but the shelter records indicate that Joan showed up beaten and terrified of her husband,
33:27and she was afraid to go back home.
33:30One of the reasons that you got arrested, right, is something your son said.
33:34Yeah.
33:35So your son said that he witnessed you and Joan fighting through the window,
33:38and he witnessed you injuring her, right?
33:40Yeah.
33:40Why would he say that?
33:42I could never understand how he could see through the window,
33:44because the windows had curtains you couldn't see from outside in.
33:48Why would he tell us that?
33:49I don't know.
33:49Did you bring some sort of barrel with you down to Texas at that time?
33:55No.
33:56You never brought a barrel with you?
33:57There was no barrel in the back of the truck or anything like that?
34:00Because Ray said you got one for him.
34:01From who?
34:02From Ray.
34:03O'Gorman.
34:04O'Gorman.
34:05I never got a barrel from O'Gorman.
34:06If I needed a drum, I got him at the shop.
34:09And they didn't care if you took him?
34:10O'Gorman?
34:11No.
34:11We have a witness that said that he gave Gil two 55-gallon drums
34:15before Joan's disappearance,
34:17and today Gil's acting like he has no idea what we're talking about.
34:20How long were you at the bus bar?
34:22I don't know.
34:2210, 15 minutes or so.
34:24Did you spill anything from making masks?
34:25Did you clean up when you were there?
34:27No.
34:27When everybody left for the night, the floors were not clean.
34:31You go there in the middle of the night,
34:32everyone comes in in the morning and the floors are clean, which would...
34:35It doesn't matter.
34:36I mean, the floors are always clean.
34:37I'm just asking if you clean the floors,
34:39because why would everyone leave that dirty?
34:41And whenever it comes back, they're clean,
34:43and you're the only one there in the middle of the night.
34:44Why would you clean the floors in the middle of the night?
34:46What does the floors have to do with it?
34:47I'm just asking, why would you clean the floors in the middle of the night?
34:49I didn't clean the floors.
34:50You're saying you did not hit her that night?
34:52You did not accidentally kill her that night?
34:54Listen to me.
34:55If I boot her out of the house six times before,
34:58what I would have done, I would have boot her out of the house one more time.
35:02They drove all the way to Flint to talk to Gil Sr.
35:05He actually sits kind of cocky in the garage as he's talking to him today.
35:09They go into hard questions about little details he's never been confronted about before.
35:13He answers all of them.
35:15And the more he talks, the more he digs his own hole.
35:18All right, Mr. Bernal.
35:19Well, nice meeting you.
35:20All right. Nice meeting you, too, sir.
35:21That builds the case against him out of the words of his own damn mouth.
35:25He actually changed his story, though, a little bit.
35:28Going to get tools to bring with him, which, that's different.
35:32That wasn't...
35:33In case his brand new truck breaks down.
35:35In case.
35:35The car was facing different directions.
35:38Never brought up.
35:38That was a new tidbit.
35:40Yeah.
35:55Okay, so what we're going to do now is we're going to sit here and brainstorm
35:58in anticipation of your prosecutor meeting.
36:01Joan Bernal's body might not ever be found, but we have uncovered circumstantial evidence
36:06that she was murdered.
36:08And now we need to meet with our detectives and go over what they want to tell their state's
36:12attorney.
36:12If somebody wanted to argue that Joan is still alive out there, what are you going to say?
36:18Well, we haven't heard from her for 30 years, 30 plus years.
36:21And she left her kids?
36:22Right.
36:22You're going to convince people that she left her three children behind, including her
36:27two-year-old?
36:28Would she ever leave you guys?
36:30Or just walk away?
36:33It's crazy that he even says that.
36:35When Joan went to the shelter, every time she took Sarita.
36:39And now this time she's not.
36:40Cold cases are often about common sense as much as they are about evidence.
36:45And there is no credible evidence that Joan Bernal ran off and left her kids behind.
36:51And it just doesn't make sense.
36:54What's your position on Gilbert Bernal being the person who killed Joan?
36:58He's got motive.
36:59He's got the means.
37:01He's got the capability to do it all.
37:03Joan Bernal and Gilbert Bernal had a volatile relationship that he had a history of beating
37:08her.
37:08She obviously left with the kids a bunch of times as they at the shelters.
37:12I remember seeing him smacker, and I think that's one of the times that we went to the
37:19shelter.
37:19On the night of December 9th into December 10th, they got into an argument.
37:23He's the last person to see her alive.
37:25He acknowledges that.
37:26He can't keep his story straight.
37:28Did you ever go back to the bus barn for any reason?
37:31Yeah.
37:32You did?
37:32Mm-hmm.
37:33Because I was going to get some of my tools out.
37:35Okay.
37:36Which that differs from the story that he gave previously, which was to go fix his headlight.
37:40And then you're to the big piece.
37:43What little Gilbert has to say happened that night in front of his eyes.
37:46I looked in the window, and that's what I seen when I see.
37:50The dad dragging Joan into the back of the house.
37:52She wasn't moving.
37:53She wasn't trying to move or anything.
37:56And your theory on how he took care of her is what?
37:59Once he realized that he went a little bit too far with her, and he killed her this time,
38:05I believe that he loaded her up in his truck.
38:06He went to the bus barn.
38:08And then what he's told people in the past of how he would get rid of a body was to put
38:12the body in a 55-gallon drum, load it with antifreeze and or oil, put the barrel in the
38:18truck, and he left for Texas.
38:20He always told me if I ever said anything, that he would put me in a 5-gallon drum of
38:27antifreeze in the desert.
38:29And we know that something happened at the bus barn that night, because when Robert Guess
38:34went in the next morning, he said the place was, quote, clean as a whistle, to the point
38:39where he asked another employee, like, why is the floor so clean?
38:43And he said, this was this clean when we came in here.
38:47This is a good case.
38:50Gil was arrested for this one time before.
38:52With all that we've uncovered this week, it's time for this case to move forward.
39:03The sheriff's office met with the state's attorney's office and presented the case to him.
39:08And now it's time to update Joan's daughter, Sarita.
39:12Hello, everybody.
39:13Hello.
39:14It's good to see you.
39:16I'm Kelly.
39:16Hi.
39:17Nice to meet you.
39:18Lex, nice to meet you.
39:19We've also reached out to her siblings, Lex and Larissa, and asked them to join us, too.
39:24I appreciate you guys coming in.
39:26I'm sure it's been hard.
39:28It's been a lot of emotions that probably have come up.
39:30We've talked to Gil Sr. and throughout our investigation, we believe he is the one who
39:36killed your mother.
39:37His story that he says about leaving her in Oklahoma, it just doesn't make any sense.
39:48There's no way your mom is not contacting you guys over the last 36 years.
39:53The hardest part of reading that case file is that it wasn't until I read it that I knew
40:00my mom loved me.
40:01I finally realized my mom loved me.
40:03Well, everybody else knew it.
40:06I know.
40:08We did meet with our state's attorney today, went over the case, and the state's attorneys,
40:13you know, they sat back, they listened, they asked follow-up questions.
40:18I left feeling pretty encouraged by it.
40:20It's hard, because he's lived for 36 years.
40:26The system failed you years ago when the charges got dismissed.
40:30Y'all were failed, and y'all were wronged, and you've been living with this for your whole
40:35life.
40:36And these guys today, trying to convince the prosecutor to move forward, it was a good
40:41meeting, guys.
40:42It was very positive.
40:44In my head, it should happen where y'all hear that he's arrested.
40:49I just want him to pay.
40:54I want him to pay.
40:57That man has ruined so many lives.
41:00He got to watch me grow up.
41:03He got to experience being a grandpa to my kids.
41:08My kids will never know my mom.
41:11And that's where I just, like, I struggle.
41:14Because he's a monster.
41:16Yeah, he is.
41:17And what does it make me?
41:19It makes you your mother's daughter.
41:23When I hear, you know, like Kelly said, that my mom loved me very much, it's so unbelievably
41:30comforting.
41:31I'm beyond thankful that the sheriff's office, you know, picked it up again and put all these
41:35resources into it.
41:36I'm so glad you came.
41:37And you started this ball rolling.
41:39And now we're going to keep it rolling.
41:41Mom is definitely beaming down on us right now.
41:45It was wonderful meeting you.
41:47I'm glad you started all this.
41:48Joan Bernal left behind three children.
41:52They have lived their whole lives being told their mother ran off and left them.
41:57The pain's never going to go away, but it's time for them to get justice.
Comments