15-Year-Old Kayla Berg Was Dropped Off at an Abandoned House in 2009 and Never Seen Again — Her Case Has Never Been Solved

A post shared to r/HolyShitHistory recounts the disappearance of Kayla Berg, a 15-year-old from Antigo, Wisconsin, who vanished on August 11, 2009, and has never been found.

Berg was last seen after a family friend, 24-year-old Kevin Kielcheski, drove her approximately 35 miles to a house in Wausau where she believed her boyfriend was staying.

According to reporting from WSAW-TV, Kielcheski told investigators he watched Berg walk toward the side of a dark house before he turned his vehicle around and drove home without confirming she had gone inside.

Antigo Police Chief Dan Duley told the outlet, "Kevin said he had taken her to Wausau to an ex-boyfriend's house where he dropped her off, and then he returned to Antigo." Berg was never seen or heard from again.

Berg's disappearance was not reported to police for six days.

Her parents were separated and each assumed she was staying with the other, and Berg did not own a cell phone at the time. Her mother, Hope Sprenger, told WSAW-TV she still blames herself for the delay, saying, "I still have a lot of blame for myself."

Investigators later determined the house where Kielcheski said he dropped Berg off had already been abandoned, and her boyfriend had moved to a different residence roughly a mile away, a detail Duley said still troubles the investigation. "Certainly a question that has come up in the investigation and doesn't quite make sense of why she would direct him to that particular house," Duley said, according to WSAW-TV.

Kielcheski was charged in October 2009 with second-degree reckless endangerment tied to marijuana use that night. The charge allowed police to search his vehicle and family property, but a judge dismissed it the following year for lack of evidence.

No charges related to Berg's actual disappearance have ever been filed against Kielcheski or anyone else, and Duley has said no one has been definitively ruled out of the investigation.

The most recent major development came in December 2023, when police received a tip from an inmate in the Wisconsin State Prison System pointing to a rural property in Kewaunee County, roughly 100 miles from Antigo.

Cadaver dogs were called in and they gave positive indications for human decomposition at the site, according to Skip Boring's reporting on the search, which led the investigators to excavate the property. The dig turned up no bone fragments, clothing, or other evidence connected to Berg. Sprenger called the tip a dead end, saying, "Guess it was just somebody wanting something and manipulated and used my story."

Reacting to the case on Reddit, one commenter drew a lesson about safety from the circumstances of Berg's disappearance, writing that "whenever you drop someone off anywhere, you wait to see them go inside before you drive away."

Another user pointed to Kielcheski as a likely suspect based on general patterns in similar cases, writing that "murders are usually done by people who are close to the victim."

On Facebook, one commenter talked about visiting the place of disappearance, writing, "Every time I drive through Antigo I think of her because they have that sign by the fairgrounds about her disappearance. It’s such a sad story and a parent’s worst nightmare. My heart goes out to the family."

Another Facebook commenter questioned the six-day gap before Berg was reported missing, writing that "evidence and eye witnesses end up becoming fewer" the longer a case goes unreported, while also naming Kielcheski as responsible.

The FBI lists Berg as an endangered missing person and is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. The Antigo Police Department continues to classify her case as an active investigation rather than a cold case.

The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify claims made by commenters. The details above reflect reporting from WSAW-TV and Skip Boring, along with comments shared on Reddit and Facebook. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Antigo Police Department at 715-627-6411.