NOTE: See below for update!
Police in Antigo, Wisconsin are looking into the possible connection between a recently surfaced YouTube video and the August 2009 disappearance of a 15-year-old girl named Kayla Berg. The video was uploaded to a YouTube account called “Hi Walter! Its me Patrick!” two months after Berg disappeared, and until very recently, has laid dormant and undiscovered as the sole video to the account.
In the nearly one minute long clip, the above likely 30-something man addresses someone named “Walter” and tells a story about meeting a girl at the mall, who he takes shopping to J. C. Penney and Kay Jewelers. Finally he asks “Walter” if he wants to see his girlfriend, and he then turns the camera to the door of what appears to be a bathroom, which he opens to reveal a young woman bound and gagged, screaming on the floor.
While it’s possible that it may all be a hoax, an imgur user who happened upon the video and put all of the pieces together noticed that the female in the video does look similar to the missing girl. Likewise, on Monday Berg’s mother Hope Sprenger told WAOW 9 News that the girl in the video was wearing a red tank top and jeans, similar to what her daughter was last seen wearing before she disappeared. “[It] sounded like her, looked like her, it gave me chills,” she told reporters. “Disturbing. It made me sick to my stomach.”
Both the FBI and the Antigo Police Department are now investigating this new evidence in the case, and are still seeking the identity of the man in the video. Amateur detectives on imgur have dissected everything from the reflection in the man’s glasses to details in the home searching for additional clues, but anyone with any information is encouraged to contact authorities.
The video (which has since been removed from YouTube) can be seen below, but as a warning is extremely disturbing and graphic.
UPDATE: Antigo Police have released a statement that they have been able to confirm the video is indeed fake and has no connection to the case of Kayla Berg.