Jon-Christopher Clark has been formally charged with premeditated first degree murder in the death of his girlfriend, 19-year-old Kiera Bergman.
Bergman's body was discovered by a bicyclist on September 4 near a road west of Phoenix. She'd been missing for nearly a month.
According to AZCentral, investigators used cell phone and banking records along with witness testimony to establish a probable cause warrant for Clark's arrest. They allege that on August 4, Bergman left work early to meet Clark at her apartment. While Clark was on the phone with his aunt, Bergman became upset and Clark ended the call. There was no further activity on either of their phones for the next 39 minutes.
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Bergman's roommate previously reported that she received a strange text from Bergman's cell at around 2 p.m. The text from Bergman's phone said that she'd left the apartment and was with a man she met at the grocery story. AZ Central reports that a data warrant obtained on Clark and Bergman's phones revealed that both phones were using the internet router inside Bergman's apartment at the time the text was sent.
Shortly after this text, bank records confirm that Clark withdrew about $500 from Bergman's account and then used her card to pay for gasoline.
In court documents, investigators allege that Clark had a history of abusing Bergman, including instances in which he restrained her by putting his hand on her chest and throat.
Bergman's parents were not surprised by Clark's arrest. Her father, Chris Bragg, told ABC 15 News in Phoenix that, "we believed from the beginning he was involved, but without any information we didn't want to put him out there as a bad person without knowing some facts."
On the day she was last seen alive, Bergman allegedly told her roommate that she wasn't feeling well and thought she might be pregnant. Asked about a possible pregnancy, Bergman’s mother Kiersten Bragg, told ABC 10 News in San Diego that, “she wasn’t sure, and I don’t know if she had a test done.”
Clark is next due in court on September 18. He is being held at a Maricopa County Jail in lieu of a $1 million bond.