Devoted mom Joan Bernal planned to take a holiday road trip with her family in December of 1988, but when plans suddenly shifted, Joan vanished, according to a case taking center stage in season eight of Oxygen’s Cold Justice.

While Joan’s husband Gilbert “Gil” Bernal Sr. insisted that he left her at a bus stop in Oklahoma mid-trip, others have questioned whether she ever left town at all.

“This case has actually taken many shocking turns,” remarked Lt. Lesa Hodgkins during the Sept. 20 episode. “From one witness claiming to have actually seen Joan’s murder to others insisting they’ve seen her alive.” Hodgkins, an experienced homicide investigator, joined prosecutor Kelly Siegler and investigators from the Will County Sheriff’s Office to re-examine the case.

A History of Domestic Violence

After meeting at a bus company where they both worked, Joan and Gil got married in 1985 and formed a new blended family with Joan’s two kids from a previous marriage, Gil’s three children and Sarita, the daughter they shared together.

But the marriage was marred with violence and Joan often sought refuge in domestic violence shelters, according to records kept by the shelter staff. 

“They clearly show the cycle of violence,” Siegler explained, “where time after time you could tell that Joan would have been beaten and threatened and he would convince her to come back home.”

When Did Joan Bernal Disappear?

On Dec. 9, 1988, Joan, Gil and their children planned to take a family trip to Texas, but when they arrived at Joan’s ex-husband Larry’s home to pick up her two oldest children, he wouldn’t let her take them out of state.

As Sgt. Mike Earnest told the team, “On the ride home, Joan and Gil argue about it.” 

What happened next, remains in dispute. Gil and Joan went inside their house while their children stayed in the car. At some point, Gil came out and drove his three children to their mother’s house. 

Gil later told police that after dropping the children off, he went to the bus barn to fix a broken headlight. The next day, he claimed the couple decided to go to Texas anyway with Sarita.

According to police records, Gil claimed that Joan wanted to return to Illinois in the middle of the trip to reunite with her older children and he dropped her off at a bus stop in McAlester, Oklahoma and never saw her again.

However, the case took a turn in 1993 when Gil’s son Gil Jr. came forward to allege that he’d peered through the window of the family’s home on Dec. 9, 1988 and saw his father physically attacking Joan.

“I looked through the window and I saw my dad jerk Joan’s head, grab Joan by the neck and jerk back and went forward and that was it,” he told a detective. “Then he dragged her through the living room.”

Gil was arrested that same year, but the state later dropped the case against him after several witnesses came forward to report that they’d seen Joan alive after she disappeared.

Joan Bernal’s Family Voices Doubts

The Cold Justice team re-examined the case after the couple’s daughter Sarita Woerheide began to question her father’s story.

As Sarita told Siegler, “I’m tired of not knowing.”

Her older siblings Lex and Larissa Stanfill described witnessing violence in the home, including one occasion where Lex allegedly saw Gil hold a knife to his mom’s throat.

The team also spoke with Lillian Bernal Biggs, Gil’s ex-wife, and Christine Salinas, his ex-girlfriend, who shared their own allegations of abuse and described times that Gil dragged them by their hair.

To see whether Gil Jr.’s account had changed, the team brought him in for a new interview, but his account remained much the same.

A Missing Barrel

While Gil has always insisted his wife walked away on her own volition, the Cold Justice team developed another theory. 

“According to the sheriff’s file, Gil bragged to his late friend Ray O’Gorman that he knew how to dispose of a body by placing it into a 55-gallon drum and adding anti-freeze and oil to hide the smell,” Hodgkins said. “Ray had admitted that he gave Gil two barrels before Joan’s disappearance.” 

Investigators theorized that may have been the real reason Gil went to the bus barn that night, especially after noting in the report that only one barrel was later found on Gil’s property by initial investigators. 

Confronting Gil Bernal

For the investigators, all the evidence seemed to point in one direction and they set out to confront Gil in Flint, Michigan.

Gil agreed to talk with the investigators, but stuck to his story that the last time he saw Joan was at the Oklahoma bus stop by reiterating, “I haven’t heard from her since.”

While he admitted he used to “bang her head,” he claimed it was because he’d often come home to find her ignoring the children. When asked directly if he’d killed his wife, Gil adamantly denied it.

After speaking to Gil, and noting some discrepancies in his story, investigators felt they had enough to bring the case to the state’s attorney’s office. 

The Will County Sheriff’s detectives took the case to prosecutors and had a “good meeting,” but, to date, no charges have been filed.