Replay: Joan Bernal Part 2

Joan Bernal's episodes originally aired in October 2020. At the end of 2025, there was a major development in her case. Stay tuned to the end of this episode for an important update. I do think that my dad does love me. I think that his love for me is 100% true and real. and a lot of what I'm saying I have said to him, there is goodness in my dad. I know that's hard to understand or accept or realize or anything. There is goodness in him. He does have a good heart, but he has this anger that I have spent countless hours in my life trying to understand where it comes from, why is it so intense, Why can't he get a hold on it? Why can't he control it? He just can't. He's just walked around with this anger for forever almost. And when it comes out, it's like it's a completely different person. He can't control it. He can't get a hold on himself. Now that he's older, he can't really act on it anymore. He's not the young whippersnapper he used to be. On December 9th, 1988, Joan Brunel and her family were preparing to leave their home in Joliet, Illinois, headed toward Texas to visit her husband's family for the holidays. Things didn't go as planned, and they were only able to bring one of their children, the youngest, Sarita. According to Joan's husband, Gil, they left the following morning, and Joan asked to be let out of the car in Oklahoma. She wanted to go back home and try to get her children from a previous relationship and bring them back to Texas. Gil stated that he dropped her off near a McAllister, Oklahoma bus stop and gave her some cash to get back to Illinois. Joan has never been seen or heard from again. I'm Marissa and from Wondery, this is episode 252 of The Vanished, part two of Joan Bernal's story. In part one of Joan's story, we shared with you who Joan was as a person and how her relationship and eventual marriage with Gil developed. You heard that her husband Gil claimed that during their trip to Texas, Joan suddenly decided to go back to Illinois and hasn't been seen in the 32 years that have since passed. Gil says that he last saw Joan walking toward the bus station to catch a bus back to Illinois to get her other two children. But is there more to that story? And was Gil telling the truth? In order to find answers to these questions, we have to take a look back at Gil's life and relationship with Joan. We will hear from Gil as well as more from Sarita, who was more determined than ever to find answers as to what happened to her mom. While we were speaking with Sarita, she told us that from the day her mom was reported missing, the investigation centered around her father. From the get-go, my dad was, I mean, I don't know if paperwork-wise, he was, you know, a suspect. I would say he was definitely a person of interest. Everyone at Pace that worked with my parents knew, you know, what my dad used to do to my mom. Everyone did. I have read police reports. I want to say there was three different police reports that I read myself detailing the situation and what my mom looked like. And there was one police report. She walked into the police station three days post an awful fight, and she had black eyes and welts and bruises everywhere. So he was definitely a person of interest. And there were a lot of people that were basically like, well, it had to have been Gil. It had to have been. The cops had their eyes on him. And my grandma was just absolutely for certain that he had done something to her from the beginning. Sarita has struggled over the years to form her own opinion on whether her mom walked away, or if she may have hurt herself or if she was the victim of murder and her dad was possibly involved. Joan's mother Florence has always been certain. This is what she shared with us. I'll tell you one thing. Gil did a damn good job of hiding her body. I figured he had in his mind where he wanted what he wanted to do with her. They lived not too far from the DuPage River or the Des Plaines River. I should say. But he had threatened her at one time, and I didn't know this until later. She told my oldest daughter's husband at one time. She confided in him, and we didn't know about it until after she was gone. But Gil had threatened her. If she ever tried to leave him, he could kill her and stuff her body into a 55-gallon drum, cover it with antifreeze, and no one would ever know. So I think he must have had in his mind some place that he could take her and we would never find her because that's what happened. He managed to do that. I've hoped for years, what, 32 years now, if we could only find her body. I don't know what he did with her. In our last conversation with Sarita, she indicated that she's come to agree with her grandmother's theory. And she shared with us where she's at now in terms of finding closure to her mom's disappearance. The conclusion that I feel like I've come to with this whole situation is, you know, people always ask me like, Tarita, what do you think happened? It's such a hard question to answer because every day it could be something different. There are days where I definitely believe my mom was in a bad headspace in a bad place in her life and was just tired and wanting to be done because you know I've told people my mom's life wasn't a bowl of cherries when she went missing and so could do I think she could have walked away and been like I can't do this anymore absolutely I think people do it all the time that you would never expect to do that but on the other hand, do I think it's possible that my dad killed her? A hundred percent, basically a hundred percent convinced that I know exactly what he did. And I can honestly forgive the actual act and how it happened. Okay. The actual fight, him actually going too far. I can forgive that. I honestly can. What I can't forgive, what I don't think I will ever forgive. It's him disposing of her the way he did, like she was trash. He took away all these moments that my dad has had with me in the last 34 years, seeing me graduate high school and go to college and graduating college and having kids and getting married and buying the house and all these moments. He's got to witness. He's got to be there for. and I mean yes I'm thankful I had a parent there to be with me but you took that away from my mom you took that away from her and and not only did you take it but you've now taken everyone who ever had anything to do with her you've taken our piece because we have no idea where she is and in the fact that she could be you know either lying in the ground somewhere or in a barrel somewhere and just almost like she's forgotten. That's heart-wrenching. That's my mother. You don't get to do that. And then just live your life like nothing happened. And I feel like he, in his mind, if he convinces himself enough that it didn't happen, then it didn't happen. It didn't happen. He didn't do it. And do I love my dad? A hundred percent. I will always love my dad. He's my dad. He was the one parent I had my whole life. But I don't think it's fair that you get to have a relationship with me, have a relationship with my kids, with my husband, after what you did. It's not okay. And he's never apologized for everything that he did to my mom, but I forgive him anyway. That's the only way I'm able to get up every day and live my life and be the best mom I can be and try so hard to be for and do for my kids what was never done for or what never was for me. I can't sit here and like I said, just hold on to it and all the anger and the questions and the whys and why did you have to be this person? Why did you have to get so mad all the time? And why did you have to get physical when you got mad? Like, I can't hold on to that and just hold on to the anger. Like, I have to let it go. And I have to forgive him, not for him, but for me. Sarita has made up her mind that her dad most likely murdered Joan and hid her body, after going over everything she's heard over many years from her relatives, police, and her own father. We needed to learn more about the facts of this case in order to fully explore how Sarita came to this conclusion. So we started from the very beginning. According to police reports, Gilbert Bernal was arrested in 1969 for aggravated incest. We don't know the details of this arrest or whether or not he was convicted. However, we do know that seven years later, in 1976, Gill was arrested for the forcible rape of an underage relative. The victim reported this to the police, but later decided not to continue cooperating with the investigation due to pressure from family members. The details of this alleged crime are disturbing to say the least. The victim was just 12, and she told police that Gil had tied her to a bed, gagged her, and said, now I'm going to make you a woman before raping her. At the same time that this charge was pending, Gil pled guilty to battery and endangering the life of a child. The child in question was his son, Gilbert Jr., whose mother had reported physical signs of abuse to police after Gil had cared for the child. According to a witness, while his wife was at work, Gil had become enraged after being woken up by his eight-week-old son crying. He struck the child numerous times on the back of the thighs, leaving bruises and redness. The police reports indicate that Gilbert Jr.'s mother, Lillian, had been married to Gil in 1976, and that Lillian told police that Gil had physically abused her while she was pregnant, and that Gilbert Jr. had been born with health problems because of this abuse. Still, Lillian stayed with Gil for several more years, and they had two more children together. We were able to talk to Gil for this story, and first we asked him to tell us about his marriage to Lillian. I met my first wife when she was 15 years old, and when she turned 21, And I had just gotten home. When I go to Texas to go see my parents, I stay there for a month or two months, you know, on vacation. And I just got home. And, of course, I'm a mechanic, and I do jobs on the side in my garage. So anyway, so when I got back from Texas, I had some cars outside that I had to work on. So I got home, I ate supper, and then I went out to go bring a car inside the garage because it was in the wintertime. It was February. It was her birthday. It was February 18 or February 15, I think it was. She came over, and her mother, she wouldn't let her go anywhere. She always kept her home. And her mother finally told her when she turned 21, she could go out and do whatever, have fun and all that. So what her and her girlfriend did, when I first met her when she was 15, she asked me where I lived. And I told her, well, the damn she didn't come over that night. And she was parking on my driveway, but on the street, you know, the entrance of the driveway. when I got out of the house to go bring a car in to work I saw this car and I went over there and I said can I help you she goes not me her and it was Lillian my best my first wife and I said hi how you doing how did you find me and she goes well I never forgot when you told me where you live so today's my birthday I'm 21 you know we figured you could go out and have some drinks and that's how it all started That's how I got married to her. And I talked to her mom, and she said, Yeah, you know, you guys can get married. So we ended up getting married in 76. When we got married, everything was okay. But then right after that, about two, three months later, I found a quarter smoking pot and drinking. And then after we got married, every time I used to get home from work, because I worked many hours, okay? I never worked like eight hours. When I used to get home from work, whether it was 10, 11 o'clock in the night, she would be drunk, puke on the floor, puke on the carpet, bathroom or bathroom, wherever, you know. That's when it started to go bad for us, you know. I would get mad all the time and tell them, you know, why are you drinking too much? You didn't used to drink before. Now all of a sudden you're drinking too much. You can't even handle yourself. And then that's when we separated. And she ended up pregnant. And she had the first kid, which we named him Gilbert Jr. And then we had Gabriel. The reason Gabriel came was because she said we needed another brother or sister for Gil to play with. And we started again. And we got together, and we had Gabriel, and everything was fine. And then she started smoking pot. It was getting worse. So I just, I can't stand that. You know, I couldn't take it anymore. So we separated. We ended up getting a divorce. And she ended up pregnant again. In 1980, my divorce was final. We came back to Joliet. I called Lily and I told her I want to pick up the boys and bring them over so my mom can be with them. And she said, okay. So she brought them over. And then when she came over, she was pregnant. I said, wow, what happened? And she said, she didn't respond or anything. She didn't say anything. So we left her at that. And she left. And I asked her, when are you due? She says, November 28th. Okay. So I didn't say anything. So then November 28th came around. Didn't happen. Then she changed it to December 28th. Didn't happen either. And then January came around, and the baby was born in January 10th. But she never told me anything about it. And when I married Joan, she found out about it. and I think there was kind of some jealous because I got married to Joan, and we had Sarita, and then she sued me for $24,000. So anyway, we went to court, and I told my lawyer, I said, well, I want to block this done because if you check the divorce, I showed my divorce papers, and she was asking if she was planning it at that time when we were getting a divorce. She said no. well, she ended up being pregnant, you know, so I want to know if this kid is blind or not. The baby that Gil is talking about is his daughter, Carissa. Paternity testing later proved that she was, in fact, his daughter. After Joan disappeared, the police spoke to Lillian to see if she had any insight into who Gil was as a person. She shared some frightening details with investigators. She said that there was no indication of Gil's violent nature until three months after their marriage. Due to the abuse, she decided to separate from Gil and moved in with her mother. She shared that Gil showed up at her mom's house one day irate and had a gun. He partially broke in the front door while Lillian's mom was screaming at him to stop. To get him to stop attempting to break down the door, Lillian promised to stop the divorce proceedings. She told investigators that she didn't drop the divorce after all, which prompted Gil to return. He beat Lillian about the face and held a knife to her mom's throat. Gilbert and Lillian's divorce was eventually finalized, and she said the things had been mostly civil since that time. He would see the kids on occasion and bring them gifts. Eventually, Gil started seeing Joan. When we spoke with him, we asked him to tell us about how he met and began seeing Joan. I'm a mechanic. I work in a shop. I work in the transit in Joliet. And she applied for the job. That's how she, because she drove buses, school buses. And she applied for the job because she wanted to drive a transit bus. That's how we met. When I met her, she was married to Larry Stanfield. I met her in 1980. She was married, and we closed the company in 1981 because the federal government didn't have the money or wouldn't give us money to keep the transit open to the shop. So we were laid off for about three months. She didn't return back to work until 1982. Then when she returned back in 82, we met, you know, in 80. But in 82, when she returned back to work, you know, she gradually, she said she started to, like, have feelings for me. And then I noticed in 82, the end of 82 and 83, she started talking more. You know, we started to talk more and more. By the beginning of 83, that's when they started to tell me that she wasn't very happy with Larry. Because Larry hardly ever worked, she said. She kept the house by her work and support the house and support him. She had a son by privileged marriage. Okay. And then, I think by 82, she became pregnant with Larissa, is her daughter's name. After she had the baby, I noticed she started talking more and more. And then they told her not to go to the shop too much, because she used to come over to the shop and talk to me. And I just didn't push her away. But then, obviously, she came over to the shop. And she was not allowed in the shop. And then one day she said she wanted to talk to me, so I said, okay. So we went out and talked. That's when she told me she would get a divorce from Larry. And that's when she told me that she was in love with me. And then right after that, she always used to come over and park your car in front of my house because I used to live by myself. And she waited until I got home from work. And then I would ask her, what's going on? Is there something wrong with your car? And she said, no, I just come over to see you and I want to talk to you. And that's how it all started. She said she was going to get a divorce from Larry, which she did. And the reason that we started to go out, she told me about herself. She used to go to church on a daily basis. And she used to wear a dress, long dress. You know, she had long hair and kind of started feeling for her, you know. And then after she got divorced from there, we started to go out more often. In part one, we heard Joan's family members tell us that the relationship had been unstable and violent. So we asked Gil to tell us how his relationship with Joan progressed after they got married. She got pregnant with Sarita. It was fine. Sarita was born April 8, 1986. She was born. And right after she had Sarita, everything just started gradually, started going down the tubes. She started to drink. She started to smoke. You got to say, when she was pregnant with Sarita, she would clean the house. She would do everything. She'd cook, whatever she could do, you know. She would cook, you know. And I would tell her not to do too much work because I didn't want her to have a miscarriage with Sarita, you know. Oh, no, no, I'm okay. It's up, you know. you gotta understand you're pregnant so you can't do the things that you know what you're doing you can't do that because it's too heavy you know and she said no I'm okay you know but then right after we had she had Sarita I mean it was like an about face you know it's the opposite she doesn't clean the house she don't do anything then she started smoking she used to wear a dress well you gotta understand when we got married She only had two dresses. The one dress that she wore all the time. And when we got married and we were living together I thought well bring your clothes She hardly had any clothes She only had two dresses She had a white dress She had a dress that she wore all the time to go to church or whatever So anyways, gradually I started buying her new clothes. She got rid of that one dress that she had. And she would wear pants. And then she changed. She went and bought pants. which is okay with me, you know, because she used to drive a bus. And I told her, I said, I prefer if you wore pants instead of dresses. And the company also wanted her to wear pants instead of dresses because she drove a bus and you go to Chicago back and forth and you come back late at night or in the evening, And the more chances that you get raped, it's very easy if you're wearing a dress. If you're wearing a pair of pants, it would be a little harder, you know. And that was the reason that the company and I agree with that. But she sued the company. She ended up wearing the case, so she had to wear a dress at the beginning, okay. But then she changed. And all of a sudden, like I said, she's gradually starting to. and when I saw her wearing pants, you know, to go to work and around the house or whatever, then I felt more comfortable, you know. It was okay. And then she started to smoke. Then she started to drink. And things were getting, little by little, it was getting worse. But there was some jealousy in there. Now, my first wife was doing drugs, and then Joan started doing the drugs, smoking pot. I caught her several times doing that. So we separated several times. You've got to understand, I work a lot because I had to help my mom. You know, my dad was passed away. I paid the bills in Texas for the house there and paid my bills. If you're thinking that it's strange that Gil says that his relationships with both Joan and Lillian deteriorated after the women started using drugs, you're not alone. During our research into this case, we couldn't find any evidence beyond Gil's word that Joan was known to have an alcohol or drug problem. We also found it strange that Gil was so insistent that Joan wear pants to, as he tells it, avoid being raped. After he had been charged twice with sex offenses, one of which police records indicate was rape. The story continued to take one strange twist after the next. When we read the police file and learned that Gilbert's older children had found a stash of drugs in the family home, and it was believed that Gilbert was involved in selling drugs, our conversation with Sarita reinforced what we were thinking about these hypocrisies. In reading what I read in my dad being this huge pot and coke dealer, which I believe, I honestly do, do I think that my mom occasionally smoked the pot he had? Absolutely. My mom was a hippie. Do I think that, you know, he occasionally joined her? A hundred percent. That was honestly like the initial rift between my dad and I is that there's just this huge double standard with him. Like it's okay for him, but it's not okay for anyone else. Maybe he, yes, he's telling the truth that Lily did drugs and that my mom did drugs. But what he's forgetting is that he did it too. Yes, it would piss him off that my mom, he'd come home from work and my mom would be sitting there smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. Okay, but you do the same shit when you come home from work. He's always tried to throw in my face that, you know, my mom would leave me at the babysitter's even though she didn't have to go to work or even if she got off of work early, she would still leave me at the babysitter's as if somehow that made her a bad mom. Sarita also shared with us that she knows her dad was abusive towards Joan and that he made the very same comments to her about her mother that he did to us about his ex-wife Lillian. After I was born, there was just a lot of tension between my mom and dad. My dad always explained it to me in a way that I was born and my mom basically did a 180. She, I don't know, I mean, the way my dad explained it was not the kindest of words, but it's how he explained it. She basically, she just got lazy. He was like, I would come home from working 15, 16 hour days and she'd be sitting on the couch, smoking a cigarette, drinking a beer and reading a book. And you'd be in your crib screaming, you know, your diaper soaked, you hadn't been fed. And my dad at that point in time, and pretty much for as long as anyone close to him had known him, like my dad would just had a hot temper, a very hot temper and a short fuse. So, you know, he'd come home and they'd get into an argument. And my dad was, he, he was very physically abusive. And I mean, he's, he's never lied to me about it. He's always been very blunt and honest. There's almost a side to him, especially when I was growing up that almost bragged about it so I just for as long as I can remember I just knew that you know my dad had like serious issues with my mom and how he dealt with them that's just what reality was and he was very matter-of-fact about it and that's it when my mom went missing their relationship and my grandma has told me this too like they just had a very volatile relationship. My mom, as sweet as she could be, my grandma has always made a point to, you know, she knew how to push people's buttons and she would do it. If you pissed her off, she knew what to do to get you mad and she would do it. And with my dad being the way he was, Like the two of them together were just, it was a match made in hell. It was terrible. And my grandma, there was times that my grandma had to pick up my mom and take her to the hospital. And she had broken ribs because, you know, my dad and her had gotten into a fight. I do have a flashback of staying at the guardian angel home with my mom and my brother and my sister. Like I can still remember what the room looked like and what it smelled like. I don't remember any actual situations of like seeing him hit her or beat her or anything like that. According to my brother and sister, we witnessed it many times. I'm sure Lex and Larissa remember a whole lot more of that than I do. Larissa's four years older than me. We also know from Gil's criminal history and the statements made to police by women he had dated previously, that Gil had a violent temper and often had trouble controlling his anger. Joan's mother Florence echoed to us what she told Sarita about Gil's abuse of Joan prior to her disappearance. He had been married before and always had women that he was living with or whatever. The police told me that there was one woman that he had been living with before I met Joan that he left for dead on the floor. He beat her so badly. He beat Joan. I know I had to take her once to the doctor. I picked her up at the, she'd gone to the women's shelter and I picked her up and took her to the doctor for x-rays because she wasn't sure if she had a broken rib. I had been beating on her and when I took her back to the women's shelter, I remember the woman that let her in said, she's got to leave him or he will kill her. And she told Joan that. She said, you've got to leave him. You know, Joan would get out of the shelter and go back to him. Gil's ex-wife Lillian and Joan weren't the only women who had been abused by Gil. Another woman who had been in a long-term relationship with Gil prior to his marriage to Joan told police a chilling story about what Gil had done to her during their relationship. This is what the statement she gave to police says. Sandy related that she has known Gilbert since 1973 and was actively involved in a relationship slash affair with Gilbert from 1973 until 1985. On one occasion, Gilbert accused Sandy of having an affair with her boss. Sandy stated that one afternoon while Gilbert was taking a shower, he related to Sandy that if she did not confess her involvement with her boss by the time he finished taking a shower, he was going to beat her. Sandy, in fear for her safety, ran out of the front door of the residence in an attempt to seek help from one of the neighbors. Gilbert chased her out of the front door of the residence while completely naked. He attempted to drag Sandy back into the residence, and after a brief struggle, he forcibly dragged her inside. Once inside the house, Gilbert began beating Sandy, and at one point struck her in the head with an unknown blunt object. Sandy stated that she felt intense pain and began bleeding profusely from the head. She then lost consciousness. Sandy awoke moments later, lying in the bath with the shower turned on. She stated that two Will County Sheriff's deputies had arrived at the residence after receiving a complaint, and Gilbert informed them that there was not a problem. However, the deputies would not leave until they could check on Sandy's welfare. Sandy stated that Gilbert entered the bathroom where she was lying in the shower and told her to let the deputy see that she was still alive. She wrapped a towel around her head so that the deputies would not see her injuries. Before she spoke to the police, Gil warned her that if she told them about her injury, that he had a gun hidden in a chair and that he would be able to shoot at least one person before being shot by the deputies and that he would shoot her. On another occasion, she said that Gilbert became irate with her and struck her on the right side temple with an unknown object. She related that her head was split open, at which time she lost consciousness. She regained consciousness two hours later and realized that she had a large laceration on her head. A friend convinced her to seek medical attention at a hospital, and the physician advised Sandy that the injury was very serious and that she could have died from that blow to the head. In another police statement, Sandy said that Gilbert was a very meticulous and exact person. If necessary, Gilbert would dispose of a body so that no one would ever find her. She went on to say that if Gilbert did kill Joan, her body is gone and will never be found. She called him a chronic liar who has beaten and inflicted serious injury on every woman he has ever had a serious relationship with. In part one, Joan's mom Florence mentioned that Gil made Joan hand over her paycheck to him. This is financial abuse, a form of domestic violence. It's a way for an abuser to control their partner and make it harder for them to take steps to leave the relationship. In an interview with police, Sandy mentioned that Gill also made her hand over her paycheck and she wasn't allowed to have any spending money. There was a police report dated October 28, 1988, just about six weeks before Joan went missing. There was a report of domestic violence and when deputies arrived, they spoke to Joan who related that Gill had beaten her in the head and neck areas, causing her great pain and numbness in both her arms and hands. She told them that she had an order of protection, but didn't wish to press charges because she feared for her life and her children. They took Joan and the children to a woman's shelter, later returning to arrest Gil. He was charged with violation of a protection order and aggravated battery. There is also some evidence to suggest that Joan may have been taking steps to leave Gil. After he had assaulted her and was arrested, Joan came into work and gave a co-worker various items, including several savings account books, withdrawal and deposit receipts, along with $450 in cash. She asked this co-worker and friend to hold onto the items because she didn't want Gil getting his hands on them before his court date. She said that she was tired of getting beat up and wanted to get a divorce and live alone with Sarita. Another co-worker told investigators that Gil had made statements around early November that he planned to get rid of Joan, claiming that she knew too much. The witness statements given to police are certainly frightening, but every story has two sides, and we wanted to hear Gil's. On December 27, 1988, Gilbert reported Joan missing to the Will County Sheriff's Office, 17 days after he claims Joan got out of their truck in McAllister, Oklahoma, while they were headed to Texas for Christmas. When we talked to Gil, we asked him to walk us through the events leading up to Joan's disappearance. This is what he told us. Okay, we were going to go to Texas in 88. We were not going to go. We weren't planning on going, but my mind got sick. My brother called, you know. Anyways, I called my mom. And she never used to tell me when she really got sick, you know, but I could tell she was sick. I told Joan, I said, you know what, we ought to take all the kids to Texas, you know, and it's warm down there. Your kids haven't met my mom, so, you know, we can meet my mom. And my sons, my mom hadn't seen them since 1980. We decided to go on vacation. And the problem that happened that ignited between Larry and Joan was that Joan told her dad, her real father, not her stepdad, but her real father, we had told Joan's mother and her husband that we were going to take the kids on vacation. That was not a problem. It was okay. And then Joan told her dad, which I did not know, that, and I told Joan, don't tell anybody that we're going on vacation. You can tell your mom, but don't tell anybody. Well, she ended up telling her dad that we were going to go on vacation. We're going to take all the kids. And it was going to be two days prior to, you know, how you get the school break. It was two days prior to school break that we pick up the kids. We wanted to pick up the kids. And then from there, we were going to go to Texas, you know, and be there for a couple of weeks, you know, to the first part of January. When we went there to pick up the kids, Larry said no. And Joan said, well, you know, this is my year to be with the kids, you know, vacation. And he said, no, you're not going to have the kids. They got into a big argument between Joan and Larry. We ended up not taking the kids, you know. He wouldn't let them. So we went back to the house. And I told Jonas, well, we won't go to Texas. We'll just go get the lawyer, see if you can get the kids. So we went back home. I didn't know how long it was going to take, so we decided to cancel it, you know, the vacation until we got the kids. So when we went back home, I told my kids, my two boys, Gabriel and Gil, stay in the truck, and I got to make a phone call. I wanted to know if I called Joan's dad, okay, and asked him if he told Larry that we were going to go on vacation. I had a feeling that he did, that Joan had told her dad and her dad told Larry that we were going to go on vacation, and that was the reason that, because Larry didn't know about it, okay? So anyways, and it turned out to be yes, that he had told Larry about it. Well, no wonder Larry wouldn't let us have the kids. So I passed the phone down to Joan, and Joan told her dad, why did you tell Larry? He says, well, he's got the right to know. Oh, my God. So anyway, so it created a big problem. so we decided not to go and then so I took my two kids back to the to the I called Lilia I took the two kids back to their mother and then I came home when I came home that's when Joan decided well why don't just the three of us go because we had been going on vacation Joan, Sarita and I and she said why don't just the three of us go leave the kids here and the next time You know, we get another chance, we'll take the kids. I said, OK, we'll do that. You know, are you sure? Yeah. OK. Because we can get a lawyer and get the kids and then we'll just take off. She goes, no, we're just the three of us going. So I said, OK. So the next day in the morning, we left. OK. And that's how it happened. We continued talking to Gil and asked him to tell us how it happened and what took place after he, Joan, and Sarita left for Texas. So on the way there, Joan always read books, you know, when we traveled. And I noticed that when we were traveling, she had the book open, reading, but she wasn't turning the pages, okay? You know, when you read a book, you always turn the page, you finish the reading, you turn the page. Well, I noticed that she wasn't doing that, but anyway, So she was on a pace, I guess, or thinking or whatever. But anyways, I kept driving. And then we got to Oklahoma and McAllister. And that's where when I got to McAllister, I had to fill the truck with gas. So I pulled in the gas station, filled it up. And that's what she told me. She said, why don't you give me a couple hundred bucks and I'll drive the bus back. I want to go and see if I can get the kids. And I said, yeah, but it's too late now, you know. And she goes, no, I'll just take the bus back, and I'll go in because I want the kids. You know, it's my right. And I said, well, we should have stayed there, get a lawyer, get the kids. He goes, no, I want to go back. I said, okay, I'll tell you what. I'll give you 500 hours, okay. And here's where the cops, they lie. They said, I said 1,500. No, I never said $1,500. I said $500. Gill mentions that the police lied. However, in the police file we obtained, he stated various amounts of money that he gave to Joan at different times and in different interviews. In the statements that we have access to, he mentioned giving Joan $500, $1,200, and $1,500. Other witnesses told police that Gill had changed the story on the amount of money in talking to them, too. We wanted to hear the rest of the story, so Gil continued telling us what happened when Joan said she wanted to go back to Illinois. I asked the attendant at the gas station, I said, how do I get to the bus station from here? And he said, well, that street right there, on the side street of the gas station, take that street to the end. You have to go right or left, make a left. Take that all the way to the end. You have to make a right or left. left you go back to the highway where you're at you know which is 69 right you go to downtown I said okay so I made a right go three lights make a left and the bus station is there I counted the lights I made a left there was a bunch of stores and all the lights it was dark all the lights I couldn't see no bus station so I turned around and I came back out to the light and there were some kids walking in front of the truck so we asked them, where's the bus station? and they said, oh right there on the street which it's only like it's not a block away, it was only like not even half a block away you know, because there was like two lights close to each other and that would be the fourth light that I would have to make a left so anyways, I was going to take Joan there and Joan says, no, no I'll get off here. I'll walk over there. You make a light, go back to the highway, and go home. I said, okay. So that's where I dropped her off, and she was going to walk to the bus station. Because they said, as soon as you turn, in the building there, the bus station is right there. That's what the kids said. So Joan said, I want you to make a light and go back to the highway, and I'll call you. You called me. I said, okay. So that's what we did. And that was the last time I saw her. After Gil says he last saw Joan walking toward the bus station in McAllister, Oklahoma, he and Sarita proceeded to visit his family in South Texas. He told us that once he arrived, he tried reaching Joan back at home in Illinois. When I arrived in Texas, I was calling Joan from Texas. She would answer the phone. So what I did is my boss at the company, we were friends, you know. so I told him, you know, go to the house and go check and see if Joan is there because I told him what happened. So anyway, so he said, no, we're not on the door. Nobody answered the door at the house in Joliet. I said, okay. So I kept calling and she never answered. So what I did, as soon as I found out my mind was okay, then I grabbed Sarita and we left Gatbert We went back to Joliet And then when I arrived in Joliet what I noticed is there was some drawers that were empty There were, you know, where she kept her clothes and jewelry and all this stuff. All of that was all gone, okay, when I got back home. So I waited a few days. I can't remember. I waited a few days. Then I went and told the cops, you know, hey, my wife is missing. Can you find out if you can find her, you know? And then they said, OK. So they started checking up on that. And then this was in 88, 89, I think it was somewhere there. Gil and Sarita left Texas to head back home on Christmas Day, December 25th, 1988, and arrived back in Joliet the next morning. On December 27th, Gil returned to work. This was also the day that Joan was scheduled to return to work. According to Sarita, Gil called her grandmother to ask if she had seen Joan. My understanding is he then called my grandma and was like, have you seen her talk to Joan? And she was like, no, you know, she went to Texas with you. And he's like, no, I dropped her off at the bus station in McAllister. and it seems like there's more of her stuff gone. And then, you know, from there, the missing person report was filed. From what I understand of the actual investigation, it was essentially just detectives going to people that knew my mom and they were like, you know, when's the last time you saw Joan or you talked to Joan? And, you know, everyone had their own story and whatnot as to when the last time was that they had spoke to my mom. After work on December 27th, Gil went to the Will County Sheriff's Office and reported Joan missing. In his initial interview with police that day, he told them that they had left for Texas on December 8th and that he last saw Joan two days later on December 10th in Oklahoma, when she said she was going to catch a bus back to Illinois to pick up her older children. Other witnesses who gave statements to the police all testified to the fact that they saw or interacted with both Joan and Gilbert in Joliet, Illinois on December 9th. In another interview, Gil stated that they left on December 10th for the trip, and in yet another interview said December 9th. Was Gil confused by the dates that they left for Texas or the day Joan was last seen? In another interesting twist, investigators checked all trains, buses, and airlines for any tickets in Jones' name. They called the bus station in McAllister specifically and asked if anyone had bought a bus ticket from that station to anywhere in the state of Illinois in December. According to police documents, no bus ticket was purchased to Illinois by anyone, and no ticket for any transportation was ever issued in Jones' name. As the investigation progressed, the police honed in on Gill as their main suspect, after his stories proved false. He changed key details and he failed a polygraph examination. Time continued to pass with most suspicions pointing at Gil, but they didn't seem to have anything concrete suggesting what happened to Joan. Gilbert's three children that he had picked up to take to Texas were all interviewed shortly after Joan disappeared. They were 7, 10, and 11 years old at the time. The children gave consistent statements about the evening they were due to drive to Texas. They rode out to pick up Lex and Larissa from Joan's ex-husband. There was an argument over Joan's kids and they left. They briefly returned to Joan and Gil's home. The kids stayed in the truck and Gil came out of the home without Joan and drove them back to their mother's house. Fast forward a few years. In a January 1993 interview with police, Gilbert Jr. told investigators more about what he saw that night. He believed he saw his dad kill Joan. Sarita told us what she knows about Gilbert Jr.'s statement to police about what he witnessed. They had shown up at his school and they had already tried questioning him before to no avail. Okay, there was nothing that they could get out of him. So this particular time, they want to bring him in for questioning again. According to him, I mean, at this point, Gilbert Jr. was, I think, 14 or 15 years old. They questioned him for, I think he's told me, like 14 or 15 hours, according to him. And they were just, you know, like brutal with it. Like, we know you know what you saw, and you need to tell us, and blah, blah, blah. So Gilbert eventually told them, okay, this is what I saw. And that's what, like, that's kind of what their smoking gun was. Like, okay, now we have someone that says that they saw him do it. My husband and I have asked him what really happened that night. What did he really see? And he just, he couldn't even give us a straight answer and just got super, super angry and was just like, I know what I saw. You have no idea what it was like. According to police records, Gilbert Jr. told the police that on the evening they were supposed to leave for Texas, quote, he saw Gil Sr. put one hand on Joan's throat and the other hand on the back of her head, grabbing her hair, at which time he snapped her head back and then forward in an abrupt motion. Gilbert Jr. stated that when Joan's head went backwards that her eyes were open, and after Gil Sr. snapped her head back and forth, her eyes were closed. Her body went limp, and she began to fall towards the floor. The interview continues with Gilbert Jr. telling the police that Gil Sr. continued to hang on to Joan by her hair and throat and dragged her towards the bedroom. Gil Jr. stated that she was not walking and that Gil Sr. was pulling her across the front room towards the area of the hallway, with one hand around her throat and the other hand grasping the hair on the back of her head, with her feet dragging across the floor, limp and motionless. Gil didn't know that his son had witnessed any of this, and Gilbert Jr. told police that he became very scared and went back to the truck, where his siblings were waiting. Soon after, Gil Jr. told the police that his father and Sarita exited the residence and got into the truck, and then Gil dropped his children off at their mother, Lillian's, house and told her they were not going to Texas after all. When asked by police why Gil would have killed Joan, Gilbert Jr. said that he heard his father tell Joan once that you have to learn to keep your mouth shut, which he believed was a reference to Joan's knowledge of Gil selling cocaine and marijuana. Gilbert Jr.'s younger brother, Gabriel, corroborated his brother's story to police, reporting that he had watched Gilbert Jr. get out of the truck where the children were waiting to leave and go to the front of the house and look in the window. Gabriel stated that when Gilbert Jr. returned, he said that Gil and Joan had been fighting. Gil and Sarita came back to the truck and the group left. When we spoke with Sarita, we asked her if she thinks this is what happened to her mom. I mean, if someone were to ask me like Sarita, what do you think happened? I think that maybe Gil didn't see exactly what he says he saw, but something similar to that is what happened. Okay. They got into a bad fight. It got physical. And my dad went to this particular time, my dad went too far. And then he took Gil, Gabe, and Carissa home. Someone had, you know, testified that, you know, my dad had made a comment that my mom knew too much. And what he meant by that was that she knew too much of his drug dealing, what he did. But and I've talked with my grandma about this. You know, we both agree that if he did it, he did it. It's not like he did it on purpose. Like it wasn't like this premeditated, I'm going to do this. This is how I'm going to do it. And this is how I'm going to hide the body. Not at all. We both agreed. Like it was probably a fight. It was probably a bad fight and he went too far. And there are some days that I wholeheartedly believe that. And how do I reconcile that with the man that, you know, loves on my kids and loves me and knows, and I know will do anything for me at any point in time. And after reading everything I read and every coworker saying like she would have never left Sarita, she would have never left Sarita. She was planning on leaving with Sarita. I do think there was a part of my mom who felt like not that Lex and Larissa was like a lost cause, but I think she just accepted she was not going to be able to get them back. In the state that she was in, at that point in her life, she was not going to be able to get them back. I mean, you think about it. she's calling the cops on her husband all the time because he's beaten the crap out of her. He does it in front of the kids. I think she's just like, I'm not going to be able to get them back right now. There's no way, but I'm going to take Sarita. I'm going to put aside this money. I'm starting fresh. Like I have to start over. I have to do this. I have to. And it was never allowed to happen. I do wholeheartedly believe she would have never just up and left me. I don't for a second. I don't believe that. Like reading this was the first time ever in my life I ever sat back and was like, my mom loved me. She loved me. In the course of their investigation, the police interviewed many people who came forward and reported that they had witnessed Gil being physically abusive towards Joan. Other women who had dated Gil told police that they had been the victim of his abuse too. And a co-worker of Gil and Joan's told police that on one occasion, Gil had beaten a former girlfriend until she was unconscious, driven her in her car out to the country and left her there to die. Co-workers made statements that they had personally witnessed Gil's violent behavior towards other staff members, often screaming and throwing work equipment at them. This information and the detailed statement given by Gilbert Jr. that he had witnessed what he believed to be Joan's murder, the police became certain that they had the person responsible for Joan's disappearance, but they still didn't have a body. In 1993, more than four years after Joan vanished, a grand jury convened and returned an indictment against Gill for the murder of Joan. On February 10, 1993, Will County Sheriff's deputies arrested Gill. Sarita shared with us the heartbreaking memory she has of her father's arrest. My dad's girlfriend had picked us up from school, not like always because we typically took the bus home from school. But this particular day, we had brownies and Girl Scouts. So we had to get picked up. And we pulled into the driveway and this car pulled in behind us that none of us knew. Now, my dad's girlfriend at the time ran a home daycare. So cars pulling into the driveway wasn't abnormal, but it was a very small daycare. It's a home daycare. You knew everyone's car. And I remember hearing her say, like, who's that? And so we walked into the house and she told me and her two daughters to like go to the back room. That's kind of where the playroom was. It was actually a man and a woman that had been in the car. She sat in the living room, which was at the front of the house with them. And I remember her oldest daughter, like trying to eavesdrop on what the conversation, what was going on. And I just remember her youngest daughter was trying to eavesdrop through and her oldest daughter was like, get back. Come on. I'm like, I think Gil got arrested. And the second I heard that, like I, the whole world just stopped for me up to that point, even after everything, you know, everything that I had seen or witnessed or experienced or anything like my dad was my world. And even my grandma tells me like, I was like that from the second I was born. I just always favored my dad. I always wanted to be by my dad. I always wanted to, you know, be close to him. And I didn't even want my mom being close to him, next to him, affectionate with him, nothing. And so when I heard that, I just, I remember being completely and utterly terrified. And so next thing I knew these, you know, this man and woman were taking me in their car. and I just remember asking, the man was driving, and I was like, did you arrest my dad? And he goes, yeah, we did. And I was like, is there any way that you can just let him out for tomorrow because it's the daddy-daughter dance and I really wanted to go? And he's like, sweetheart, I'm sorry, but we can't do that. So they took me to their office, and obviously I find out now they were DCFS, and I waited there for what felt like forever, but I think it was maybe just an hour or two. My grandma, they had called my grandma, and she came to pick me up, and I remember seeing her and just being like, what is she doing here? Not that I had a bad relationship with my grandma. My grandma, from the time my mom went missing, her goal in life was to keep the three of us together, me, Lex, and Larissa. She wanted us to know each other. She wanted us to have a relationship. You know, we were Joan's kids. And so every month, once a month, she would pick me up and then she would drive to Minooka and she would pick up Lex and Larissa and we would spend the whole weekend with her. She'd do this on a Saturday morning and then take us home on a Sunday. I loved those weekends. I lived for those weekends. Larissa was my favorite person in the world. But outside of having my relationship with Larissa that I loved so much, I wasn't a big fan of my grandma's house. Her and my grandpa were both chain smokers and their house stunk. And I just didn't want anything to do with going over there. But this day, like I didn't have a choice. So she picked me up and I remember we went out to dinner and she tried to explain to me in, you know, the safest way possible that, you know, I was going to be staying with her for a little bit and that she didn't know, you know, what was going to happen or whatnot. And I remember feeling like what I was going through with her fault. And I knew even at that, I mean, at this point, I was six. I knew even at that young of an age that my grandma absolutely despised my dad. She felt like my dad was responsible for my mom not being there and that she would do anything she could to lock him up. As young as I was, I hated her for it. Like he was everything to me. He was the sun in my sky. And how dare you? Like that's as young as I was. That's how I felt. And so he was arrested on February 10th of 1993. And for 10 months, 10, 10 and a half months, it was just, he sat in jail and it was every month they would have a court date and it would get postponed. I ended up, you know, obviously as I got older and understood more of what was going on, they had arrested my dad finally on testimony that they had gotten from Gilbert Jr. In our conversation with Gil, he told us what he remembers from his arrest and subsequent detention. It took them to 1970, I mean, 1993 to arrest me. You know, they were checking up over and over. They checked with a lot of people, you know. And then in 1993, that's when they came down and arrested me and locked me up. They said, we're charging you for murder, Joan, and you killed Joan, blah, blah, and all this. And I told the cops, I said, you don't have anything. You don't have absolutely nothing. When I went over to the police station and I told them that John was missing, they said, can we come over to your house? And you checked your house? I said, yeah, you can come over. So they came over and they checked the house. And I said, open those drawers. They're empty. Some of them are empty because there were clothes in there. And then her jewelry box is missing, too. You know, there's stuff missing here. So I don't know if she packed up and left or what, you know. I don't know, but can you find out? Because I can't find you. And so that's how it all started. But they didn't arrest me then. Well, after they checked the house, they said, okay, so they left. But then they had a friend of mine that lived next door, which was Joe Pena. He saw the cops in my house one morning. But they knew that I was working. They went in there. They opened the door. I don't know how they did it, but they got the special stuff to open doors, I guess. And they were checking on my house. They're checking my garage and all that. But they didn't find anything. Okay. So in 93, when they arrested me, I told the cops, you're saying that I murdered Joan. So, okay, let's have this trial as soon as possible because you're not going to fight anything. And they kept saying yes and yes. And then when I was locked up in jail, again, they come over. They used to pull me out of my cell, tell us all over again, see what happened, how it happened, and all that. And I had already told them once before, you know. When I first arrived back from Texas, I went to the police station, told them about it. And then they kept asking. Twice they did that to me. They pulled me out of my jail cell to talk to them, tell us all over again, tell us all over again. And I said, look, man, how many times do I have to tell you? I repeat myself over and over. You got it all documented. I mean, how many times do I have to tell you? Well, we just want to make sure. So I had a feeling that this was not going to go through. And then even the cops that were inside when I was locked up in the jail cell, they were telling me, Gil, they don't have anything against you. They don't have nothing. You're going to be, they're going to let you go. that these guys can't find anything. I don't know why you're doing, what are you doing here? I said, well, we're going to fight this thing till the end. We don't know why Gil was being told that the police didn't have anything against him. In the records we received, there's a physical evidence affidavit from the state's attorney making all physical evidence available to Gil and his attorney. We just don't know what that evidence was. But we do know a couple of other things from the records that may have been important to the prosecution's case. The police documents indicate that on February 11, 1993, Gill signed a consent to search for his residence. In the garage, police found 102 photographs in a light blue golf bag. The photographs were of Gill and various women performing sex acts. Additionally, an investigator located a pair of Jones eyeglasses in a bag in the garage. Police seized a 55-gallon drum. The drum is important because of a statement made to police in 1989 by one of Gil's co-workers, Gene Williams. According to this statement, on December 9, 1988, at approximately 4 p.m., Gilbert turned over his keys to the bus barn to Gene Williams because Gilbert was leaving on a vacation for three weeks. At approximately 10.45 p.m. that evening, Gil showed up at Gene's residence unannounced. Gil advised Gene that he needed his keys to the bus barn because he had to work on the lights on his pickup truck. Gene gave Gil the keys to the bus barn and Gil left. Gene had stated that Gil had parked his truck in Gene's driveway and that he didn't notice any other occupants in the truck. The next morning, Gene arrived for work at around 7.15 a.m. and noticed that Gil was in his truck and appeared to be leaving the bus barn. Gene didn't notice any other occupants at this time either. Gene reassured the investigators that he did not see Joan in the truck at that time. Later in the interview, Gene told police that there are numerous 55-gallon drums, which oil and antifreeze are purchased in. These drums are sitting around the workshop in the bus barn. The 55-gallon drums are disposed of by several different means and that they are not accounted for by staff. Gene stated that they have cutting torch equipment and that Gil knows how to use it. There is also a paint stripper acid that burns skin that is used to strip paint from buses in the shop area of the bus barn. Finally, Gene told police that he had seen Gil throw fits of rage in the shop area of the bus barn. He had seen Gil violently throw tools around the shop area and has observed Joan come into work with bruises. Though Sarita was only two at the time her mom disappeared, she has an eerie memory of being in the shop with her dad that night. This is what she told us she remembers. The craziest thing about reading all of this is that I have forever had a memory of being at the bus barn with my dad. It's nighttime. It's dark. No one's there except for him and I. And I'm in some sort of office and there's a window in the office that looks out into the bus barn. and I must have been laying on some sort of bench or chair that was in the office. And I stand up and I look out the window and I see my dad welding. I see him with a welder's mask. I see him with a blowtorch. I have forever had that memory. Again, I'm young. Context of time I have no idea But knowing that I carried this memory my whole life and then reading that had he put her in a 55 drum he would have had to have welded it shut gave me chills. So I do believe that he welded it shut. He would have had any tool at his disposal to help him get that drum in the truck. I think that he loaded the drum into the truck and that we left the next morning. So when they asked him, did your wife, Joan, leave Illinois with you on December 10th of 1988, and it came back inconclusive, it was inconclusive because she did leave with him, but she was already dead. He went and he had told people that if he ever did this, okay, that he would dispose of her or a person that he killed in the Red River. The Red River snakes along the border in between Oklahoma and Texas. And when you take the highway that goes straight from McAllister to Dallas, you have to cross the Red River. So either he disposed of her there or he went all the way down to Edinburgh. He told Tommy what he did. The Tommy that Sarita is referring to here is her uncle, Gilbert's brother, Tommy. Had her with him. And then Tommy helped. Maybe they freaking crossed the border. They went into Mexico. And Tommy helped him dispose of him there or dispose of her there. I have no idea. I honestly, I don't know. But I do think that my mom left Illinois with my dad on December 10th, 1988. And I do believe she was dead. But Tommy, after reading this, after reading that transcript of what went on with him, he absolutely knows something. And the fact that his girlfriend also called the cops and was like, he definitely knows something. Like, he's nervous. He's scared. You know, there's definitely something going on. I 100% believe that my Uncle Tommy knows something. He knows something. Either my dad told him what he did or he helped my dad dispose of my mom. He did something. He knows something. Throughout this story, there have been several mentions of barrels and that a barrel could have been used to dispose of Joan's body. In the records we obtained, we found even more information. There was an interview with a man who was a friend of Gill's. He stated that around Thanksgiving of 1988, which would have been right before Joan disappeared, Gill asked him for a 55-gallon drum. The friend asked what he was going to do with it, and Gil said he was going to make a pig roaster out of it. Days later, he asked for another 55-gallon drum, this one he wanted to use for washing motorcycle parts. Days before Joan disappeared on December 1st, 1988, Gil picked up these two drums from his friend's work. He asked Gil about making a pig roaster, and he said that Gil laughed and acted very cocky, saying I'm using them for whatever. This man said that he and his wife had assisted Joan on numerous occasions to help her get away from Gil when he was being abusive, often hiding her at their home. Gil had bragged to his friend about how he would dispose of a body. The method he spoke about was to put the body in a 55-gallon drum, fill it with antifreeze and or oil so the body would not ferment, decay, or release gastric odors. He also mentioned that Gil said on several occasions, I got to get rid of this bitch. She knows too much and she wants to take the baby. I'll do her in before I lose my kid. I've lost one family. I'm not going to lose another. Gil's friend believed that knowing too much referred to Gil's involvement in drug trafficking and that he feared Joan would use that information against him in court to get custody of Sarita. After nearly a year in pretrial detention, the charges against Gil were dismissed and he was released. We asked him what happened and how the charges ended up getting dismissed. This is what he told us. What happened was, the only reason they let me out was because this lady that I met through the laundromat, Joan met her, or her daughter, and they were friends. It was a friend of Joan's that she married and she moved to Tennessee or Kentucky, I don't remember, but one of those two states. And her mom and her were talking on the phone, and her mom told her that I was locked up in jail. And she said that, why is Gil locked up in jail? Because she killed Joan. Joan, no. I just talked to Joan. How can she be that? I just talked to her, and she's not there. She's with a guy that's on a white track. And that's when Hermana related it to Sandy. Sandy was the girl that I used to go out with before, and she wanted to see me. So I said, okay, what's the problem? She goes, well, so-so, she claims that Joliet is not that. She saw her and talked to her. She's with another guy. They're in a white truck. That's all she knows. And they run into each other. And so then I call my lawyer, and I told my lawyer what the situation was. And the lady, the mother that lived in Joliet, I told her, I said, look, I'll pay for her to come over here. She can come over here and be my witness. She goes, yeah, I'll tell her. So, no, I didn't have to pay for her to come here to Joliet to be my witness. She drove herself on a bus. She came herself on a bus from there to Joliet because she wanted to see me, to tell me that Joan was not there. And I told her, well, I got to go to court and tell my lawyer, you're here and you're going to be my witness. She said, yeah, I'll stay here as long as you leave me. I said, okay. So we go to court. I tell my lawyer, I says, okay, what's going to happen here? I mean, I told him, I got my witness here. Do we need to bring her in? She says, no, no. I got to tell him that we got a witness, okay? And so we go in front of the judge. Somehow, I think my lawyer told the state's attorney that I had a witness that can verify that Joan was still alive. The judge asked the state's attorney, are you ready to set up a trial date? And what they did, they threw the paper to dismiss the case. And the judge is reading it and says, what? What do you mean you dismiss the case? because I was locked up for 11 months. He says, you know, it's not up to you guys now. It's up to him. So he asked me, the judge asked me, what do you want to do? I said, no, we're not going to go. No, they started, I'm going to finish it. I don't want to throw it out. I want to prove myself. And the state attorney threw another paper. I said, what does that mean? The judge says, well, it doesn't matter. If they find Joan dead or whatever, it doesn't matter. He says, you're free to go. You're free to go. Don't worry about it. They'll never be able to arrest you again. No, no, I want to fight this case. They started. I want to finish it. The reason I wanted to fight it, because I was going to sue them. I did sue them after we left the court and all that. I did sue the state attorney. I sued the cops and all that. But then when we went to Chicago to set up a trial, the judge said that the cops had the right to do what they did. And I told my lawyer, I said, look, you told me that we could sue him. I was going to win. Well, we were sued for $25 million the first time. And then my lawyer said, I have a different lawyer for that, not the one that we went to trial for Jones there. He said, well, they're saying that $25 million is too much. How about if we drop it to a million? I said, well, OK, drop it to a million. You know, see what happens. Then when we went to court, they dropped the case that I didn't have the right to sue them. The cops could do whatever they wanted. I said, no, no, no. And that's how I lost that one. And then the witnesses they had, I found out. My son, Gil, was involved. There was a lot of friends, Joan and I, we had. A lot of them were say-sos that they thought that, yeah, that I probably killed Joan. But you've got to understand, some of these guys, the witnesses that they had were witnesses that they were after Joan. They always wanted to go out with Joan. They wanted to have a relation with Joan. Some of those guys that were witnesses for the state's attorney, it never happened. It just threw down a case. I have a feeling that my lawyer told them that I had a witness. He should have never said that. You should have waited until, of course, you have to turn it in when you go to trial that I've got a witness. But that's all he had to say, that we had a witness. But I wish he would have told him that she could prove that she was still alive. And the reason I questioned the girl, I can't remember her name. But anyways, I questioned, how do I know that you're telling me the truth about Joan being still alive? And the girl says, well, I thought you were. She goes, did you guys go on vacation to Texas? Yeah. This is before Joan had the baby. You guys went on vacation to Texas, didn't you? I said, yeah. You wanted to introduce Joan to your mom? Yeah. And this is the time where Joan was pregnant? Yeah. You guys went to Mexico? Yeah. Did she buy a blue blanket for Sarita? Yeah. And I didn't even ask her. She's telling me. that this is what we did. Now, how would she know all of that? How would she know all of that if she wasn't alive? I didn't ask for that. I didn't ask her that, those questions. She's telling me what we did. So this made me realize, yes, she did talk to her. Yes, she's telling me the truth. If I thought that this girl was lying, she would have known that. If she knows all of this, it's because she did talk to the girl. While the charges against Gill were dropped, not everyone believes that a witness or witnesses really saw Joan. Due to lack of evidence, charges were eventually dropped. There was two, I believe, women that came forward, one from Tennessee, one from Kentucky, I believe, that had claimed they saw my mom. They ran into her at, the one lady I know, she said she ran into were at a laundromat and that my mom had talked to her about her life that she had left behind. And me in particular, this woman somehow knew my mom and dad had got me a baby blanket from Mexico and it was blue and it had a line. Like there was things that she knew that it would be hard for her to know had she not talked to someone that was either my mom or my dad or someone close to us. I know my grandma has never had faith in either one of those women's testimonies or what they came forward and said. She wholeheartedly believes that my dad paid someone to have those women come forward. And I don't know what to think with that. I really don't. My grandma, when you talked to her about my dad. She believed my dad to be this very smart and cunning man. And maybe in those days, he was. And when I was younger, I definitely felt that way about my dad. I thought he was just the smartest person in the world. But now that I'm older, it's just really hard for me to see my dad that way. It really is. He's a smart man, don't get me wrong. But cunning like that, I'm not too sure. But like I said, there's obviously there's things about my dad that, you know, I obviously don't know. Well, Gil says that charges can never be brought against him again in Joan's disappearance and probable death. We were able to confirm with law enforcement that the charges were dismissed by the court without prejudice. And new charges could be filed at any time as there's no statute of limitations on murder. Gill maintains that he did not harm Joan. The Will County Sheriff's Office has been in charge of the investigation into Joan's disappearance since the day she was reported missing. We tried for months to obtain an interview with the investigators at the Will County Sheriff's Office, and at one point we were able to get approval to interview them. An hour before the scheduled interview, the Sheriff's Office called and asked to reschedule. At the time that the story was being produced, we still had not heard back from anyone in Will County, including the sheriff's office or the state's attorney. This wasn't only disappointing to us. It was disappointing to Sarita as well, who had also been promised by investigators that we would be granted an interview. Here's Sarita on that. When I talked with her last Thursday, I brought this stack of papers with me. I mean, I had everything that you have, I brought with me. So frustrating. I mean, and when I talked to her last week, too, she was like, you know, because I asked him, I was like, have you talked with them? And she was like, you know, we were supposed to talk, you know, a particular day. And then I had a case come up and I told her that we needed to reschedule. I need to reschedule with her. And I was like, OK, make sure you do. She had kind of told me and I interviewed with her and another detective. And they basically told me that my mom's family, which would be like my grandma and my mom's sisters, they weren't so much concerned with going after my dad. They were more concerned with just finding my mom. They wanted all resources, everything directed towards finding my mom. And the point of that essentially being to protect me. And so when I went to talk with Kim, I made a point to tell her and the other detective, don't hold back on account of me. I don't care what you have to do, you know, what doors you have to knock down to get to the bottom of this and find her. don't hold back on account of me. Like I can handle, I can handle it. I'm the one who contacted the podcast. I can handle it. I have a solid support system. I'll be okay. Just please find her. Get to the bottom of it. Whatever you need to do, I don't care. Just do it. They explained that Will County had finally created a cold cases division. So cold cases were no longer being worked on in detectives' spare time, which I'm sure in Will County, they hardly ever have spare time. But that they had finally created Cold Cases Division. And so my mom's case was finally going to get the attention and the time that it deserved. And that in talking to me, it was kind of the breath of fresh air that the case needed. They had lots of people that they could go and interview. We also filed an open records request and received a denial under Illinois law, stating that releasing any records to us would, quote, obstruct an ongoing criminal investigation by the agency. The Will County Sheriff's Office Investigation Division is assigned to this incident. This is an open and active case. This was a frustrating response, leaving us to comb through the police documents that Sarita has and a small number of news articles about Joan's case to establish a timeline that has been blurred by more than 30 years of lost memories and time. So what happened to Joan Bernal in the time after she was last seen by co-workers on December 9th, in the time that Gil and Sarita showed up alone in Texas to visit relatives? Did Joan really get on a bus in Oklahoma and the police simply weren't able to find a record of it? Or did Gil's long history of violence and abuse of women take a darker turn and he killed Joan in the heat of an argument? or was Joan's death a premeditated murder and Gil killed her for knowing too much about his involvement in drug distribution? This case appears to have a lot of evidence to suggest that Gil is involved in his wife's disappearance. Everyone around them was aware of the abuse. Joan routinely showed up to work with visible injuries. There were so many red flags in the lead-up to Joan's disappearance between the statements that Gil was making to gathering 55-gallon drums. At the end of this story, we're left to wonder why there has never been any justice for Joan. But maybe telling Joan's story is just the beginning, and Sarita's interest in finding her mother is what will push this case forward after so many years. At the time of her disappearance, Joan was 34 years old. She was approximately 5 foot 2 inches tall and weighed around 140 pounds. If you have any information about the disappearance of Joan Bernal, you can call the Will County Sheriff's Office at 815-727-8574. You can follow developments in Joan's story on social media at Help Us Find Joan Bernal. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. If you or someone you love is in need of resources, please visit thehotline.org, which is the National Domestic Violence Hotline. You can chat with him securely online or call at 1-800-799-SAFE. That's 1-800-799-7233. I just want to grab him and shake him and just tell me what happened. Please. And the thing of it is, every conversation him and I have ever had about this, it's always the same story. Nothing has ever changed. Even if I were to do that to him, he'd probably look at me and just be like, Gorda, I've told you everything. I've told you what happened. There's nothing else I can say to you. I don't ask anymore. I don't push anymore. My kids adore him. They love him. If they see their, they call him Wilito. If they see their Wilito in that light, I'm not going to be one to take that away from him. Now, I am very honest with my older two. My youngest is two. And they don't know every single detail, but they know the gist of everything that happened with their grandma. And my son, who's 10 and just has always seemed like he's understood and felt things far beyond his years, has just flat out told me, Mom, I think Belico did it. After 37 years, Joan Burnell's disappearance has taken a significant legal step forward. On December 9, 2025, 37 years after she was last seen alive, a Will County, Illinois grand jury returned a sealed indictment for first-degree murder against her husband, Gilbert Bernal Sr. Gilbert Bernal, now 82 and a resident of Flint, Michigan, was taken into custody on December 11, 2025 at his home by the U.S. Marshals Service and investigators from the Will County Sheriff's Office. He was subsequently extradited to Will County to face the charges. The charges allege Gilbert Bernal is responsible for his wife's death in December 1988. Joan's body has never been recovered. Gilbert Bernal made his first court appearance after the indictment and pleaded not guilty. He was first indicted in 1993, but those charges were dismissed before the case went to trial. Although he had been charged years ago, the current proceedings are moving forward under today's legal framework. At a court appearance in January 2026, a judge ruled that Gilbert Bernal cannot be released on an old cash bond that was tied to those earlier charges in the 90s. Instead, the case must now proceed under Illinois' Safety Act, allowing prosecutors to seek his continued detention as the case moves forward through the court system. This legal development represents a major step toward justice after nearly four decades and brings a new chapter of accountability to a case that has long haunted family and investigators alike. That brings us to the end of episode 252. I'd like to thank everyone who spoke with us for this story. If you have a missing loved one that you'd like to have featured on the show, there's a case submission form at thevanishedpodcast.com. If you'd like to join in on the discussion, there's a page and discussion group on Facebook. I'm on Twitter at The Vanished Pod and also on Instagram. 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