Kiera Bergman’s Body Turns Up in Arizona Desert

The body of missing teen Kiera Lanae Bergman was located in the Arizona desert near Phoenix. (Phoenix Police Department)

The body of 19-year-old Kiera Bergman was found in the Arizona desert about 45 minutes’ drive from her Phoenix home, local police say.

Bergman’s body was found in the afternoon of Sept. 3 near SR 85 and Hazen Road, about a 45-minute drive from her apartment in west Phoenix, AZ Family reported.

Bergman had been missing since Aug. 4.

Phoenix police would not say how long Bergman’s body had been in the desert or how she had died, saying they could not comment on “an active homicide investigation.”

In March, Bergman had moved to Phoenix from El Cajon near San Diego to be with her then-boyfriend. The couple broke up not long before she disappeared, though they still lived together.

That boyfriend, 23-year-old Jon Christopher Clark, was arrested on Aug. 17 on 22 counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of forgery, Phoenix Police spokesman Sergeant Vince Lewis told AZ Family. Fox News reported that Clark was being held on $25,000 bond.

Clark has not been arrested in relation to Bergman’s disappearance, though it seems he might have been the last person to see her alive.

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Picked Up by Her Ex

Bergman’s mother, Kiersten Bragg, told AZ Central that her daughter was a “very happy, loving, very outgoing, very strong-minded girl,” who attended cosmetology school and was passionate about hair and makeup.

Once in Phoenix, Bergman moved in with Clark and got a job with Progressive Leasing—the finance division of furniture retailer Aaron’s.

“Not too long after that, the phone line was disconnected. We'd only be able to connect with her through messenger or FaceTime on Facebook,” Bragg said.

Not long after that, Bragg told AZ Central that her daughter broke up with Clark and moved in with Destiny Hall-Chand, 20, who was a friend and co-worker at Progressive Leasing. But later, Clark also moved in with Bergman.

According to Hall-Chand, she and Bergman went to work together on Aug. 4 when Bergman got upset by something and left early, according to AZ central. Clark had picked up Bergman from work, Hall-Chand said.

Clark told Fox News that he took her home that day, they argued, and Bergman left the apartment angry.

Hall-Chand told AZ Family that Bergman sent her a strange text message that day.

“She was saying she was going to go out with a guy that she met at the store a couple days ago which is something that’s not like her,” Hall-Chand told KPHO. “I mean, that’s not something that she would do.”

Hall-Chand told AZ Central that when Bergman didn’t come home on Saturday, Hall-Chand texted and called her repeatedly. At one point Bergman apparently texted back saying she would call once she found a phone charger. That call never came.