Kayla Berg

Case background and investigation

Kayla Mae Berg was a 15-year-old girl from Antigo, a small city in north-central Wisconsin. Born on August 29, 1993, she was just weeks shy of her 16th birthday when she disappeared. Her mother, Hope Berg, remembers her as bright, bubbly, sweet, and kind-hearted, always willing to help someone if she could. Like many teenagers, Kayla was navigating friendships, a boyfriend, and the ordinary dramas of adolescence in the summer of 2009, giving no indication that she was about to vanish without a trace.

On the evening of August 11, 2009, Kayla was picked up by Kevin Kielcheski, a 24-year-old acquaintance connected to her family, at around 8:45 p.m. According to Kielcheski, he drove Kayla roughly 40 minutes south to Wausau and dropped her off near a house where she believed her 19-year-old boyfriend, Miguel Marrero, was staying. The home had recently been condemned by the health department and was undergoing renovations, making it uninhabitable. Kielcheski said he then returned to Antigo. That account is the last confirmed information about Kayla's movements, and she was never seen or heard from again.

Almost immediately the story raised questions. Marrero denied that Kayla ever arrived at the house that night, and investigators were left with two conflicting narratives and no physical trace of the teenager. Police conducted extensive searches over the years, deploying cadaver dogs, dive teams, and other resources and involving the FBI. Cadaver dogs reportedly alerted on Kielcheski's vehicle, and investigators noted that his phone was off after 9 p.m. that night; he has been described as a person of interest whose cooperation was, at times, limited. No charges have ever been filed, and no evidence has definitively established what happened.

In the years since, Kayla's case has drawn national attention, including a feature on the television series 'Disappeared' and coverage by outlets such as CNN's Nancy Grace program, which noted that Kayla was a gymnast and an ordinary teenager who simply never came home. Her mother has held annual birthday events and public appeals to keep tips flowing. A 2016 viral video that some hoped was connected to Kayla was investigated and determined to be staged and unrelated to her disappearance. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible.

More than a decade and a half later, the Antigo Police Department still lists the case as open and active. Investigators have never publicly named a definitive suspect, though attention has repeatedly returned to the conflicting accounts of that final night. Hope Berg continues to search for answers about what became of her daughter, describing years of heartache, self-blame, and unanswered questions, and saying she fears she may not learn the truth in her lifetime. Kayla, who would now be in her thirties, remains one of Wisconsin's most haunting missing-person cases.