Will County Sheriff's Lt. Nat Freeman and Sgt. Mike Earnest said that they, along with several fellow detectives, were followed for several days in October by a Los Angeles-based film crew that is producing a true-crime television segment about the case for the Oxygen network show "Cold Justice."
Joan Bernal was a driver for the Joliet Mass Transit District. She was born in Oak Park and grew up in Hickory Hills, graduating from Stagg High School in 1972.
"It's basically a documentary," Earnest told Joliet Patch. "We got followed around by a camera crew for about 10 days."
Earnest and Freeman disclosed that their prime suspect surrounding the murder of Joan Bernal remains her former husband, Gilbert "Gil," Bernal. At the time of her disappearance, the family lived on Zarley Road.
These days, Gil Bernal is in his early 80s and living in Flint, Michigan.
In October, during the filming for the Cold Justice show, Earnest said he traveled to Michigan to interview Gil Bernal.
"I talked with him about two hours," Earnest said.
Earnest said that Gil Bernal has denied being responsible for his wife's disappearance and slaying. He has continued to insist that his wife went on an out of state bus trip and never returned.
According to a detailed summary by The Doe Network, Joan Bernal was supposed to join her husband on a trip to Edinburg, Texas. Police investigators said they believed that Gilbert Bernal killed his wife on December 9, 1988, after quarreling about taking her children on the planned trip to Texas.
Bernal said he gave his wife $1,500 before she boarded a Joliet-bound bus in McAllister, Oklahoma, authorities have said in the past. But investigators found she never made the trip.
In 1993, Gil Bernal was charged with Joan's murder, even though her body was not found.
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Then, after taking over as the new Will County State's Attorney, James Glasgow had the murder charges against Gilbert Bernal dropped in 1994 based on a criminal defense lawyer's contention that he produced four different people who have claimed to have seen Joan Bernal still alive, the Chicago Tribune reported in May 1994.
"It didn't ever go to trial," Freeman pointed out. "Officially, there were a few witnesses who supposedly knew Gil and said they saw Joan alive."
Freeman and Earnest pointed out that their agency has re-interviewed a number of those witnesses, and some of them have recanted their statements suggesting that Joan Bernal was alive.
Joan Bernal's DNA has been entered into the national criminal databases, but so far, there have been no matches.
Based on the extensive investigation done so far, Freeman said he does not believe Joan Bernal was buried at the family's home on Zarley Road.
"It could be down there or up here. It's all on the table for sure. It's possible she could be in Texas and Mexico," Freeman suggested. "Gil has family near Texas and Mexico, and he did make a lot of trips for family to Texas."
Joliet Patch asked Freeman and Earnest if they were optimistic that Glasgow and his team of prosecutors would revive the first-degree murder case and charge Gil Bernal in 2025, even though the suspect in now in his 80s.
"Obviously, we're pressing with everything we do," Freeman said. "And that's obviously our goal. I think it is a good case ... especially with what they've done updating and re-interviewing and finding more people. He has a whole history of domestic abuse, so it is well within his background."
"The family is happy it's being looked at, and her story is getting out," Earnest noted.
If you have information about Joan Bernal's disappearance, you can call Earnest at the Will County Sheriff's Office at 815-727-8574.
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Unsolved Joliet Murder: Missing Woman's Body Has Never Been Found
Joan Bernal was a driver for the Joliet Mass Transit District. She was born in Oak Park and grew up in Hickory Hills, graduating from Stagg.
patch.com
Daughter of Missing Woman is Brought To Tears When Cold Justice Takes on the Case
Sep 19, 2025, 10:42 AM ETSarita Woerheide got emotional after coming face-to-face with Cold Justice prosecutor Kelly Siegler years after her mom Joan Bernal disappeared.
For family members haunted by the unanswered questions about what happened to a loved one, there’s one cold case specialist they want on their side.
That’s prosecutor Kelly Siegler, who leads Oxygen’s Cold Justice team and has re-examined dozens of cold cases over years as part of the successful investigative series, in some cases leading to arrests or providing families with the long-awaited justice they need.
It was that impressive resume that brought Sarita Woerheide to tears in an exclusive preview for the all-new episode Saturday Sept. 20, 2025, when she finally came face-to-face with Siegler, who agreed to take on her mother’s missing persons case.
“Oh my God,” Woerheide exclaimed as Siegler walked into the interview room. “I’m going to cry, just looking at you.”
“Don’t do that cause you’ll make me cry,” Siegler replied, before adding, “We’re so excited to see you.”
Siegler and Woerheide shared a warm embrace as Woerheide wiped away tears.
“I didn’t think this would ever happen,” she admitted.
Later, Woerheide opened up to producers about what it means to her to have the Cold Justice team look into her mother’s case.
Daughter of Missing Woman is Brought To Tears When Cold Justice Takes on the Case | Oxygen
Learn more about Sarita Woerheide's emotional meeting with Cold Justice prosecutor Kelly Siegler, years after her mom Joan Bernal disappeared.
“I’m a mom. I have three kids. We talk about my mom as much as we—we can,” she said. “Each of my kids has a picture of her in their room and I tell them what I know and what I can, but I don’t know my mom’s smell. I don’t know her presence, her voice. Those are all things I don’t know.”
During the one-hour episode, titled “Road to Nowhere,” Siegler, homicide investigator Lt. Lesa Hodgkins and investigators from the Will County Sheriff’s Office will take a new look at the case in an effort to discover what happened to Bernal more than three decades earlier.
According to a description of the episode: “The “Cold Justice” team tackles the disappearance of a loving mother who allegedly disappeared during a family vacation. The investigation uncovers evidence that she never left town alive.”
Daughter of Missing Woman is Brought To Tears When Cold Justice Takes on the Case | Oxygen
Learn more about Sarita Woerheide's emotional meeting with Cold Justice prosecutor Kelly Siegler, years after her mom Joan Bernal disappeared.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.
www.namus.gov
