ANTIGO, WI (WSAU-WAOW) The mother of missing Antigo teen Kayla Berg said this week has been an emotional roller-coaster after a potential lead into her daughter’s whereabouts was proven to be false.
Berg disappeared seven years ago. This week, a disturbing YouTube video gained national attention, with what appeared to be a woman tied up in a bathroom. Many people online said the woman resembled Berg. On Tuesday, police confirmed the video was fake and made by a production crew on the East Coast.
Antigo police chief Eric Roller says detectives interviewed the makers of that video from 2009. He said they had no idea that their video was part of a missing persons investigation, and that they were in no way involved.
“I don’t understand how they can allow stuff on the web like that,” Berg’s mother Hope Sprenger told WAOW NewsLine Nine. “I don’t know how else to describe it, disturbing, horrifying, sickening.”
Sprenger said despite the video being fake, the attention it has received could help in the search for her daughter.
“The one little glimmer in all of this is that it has gotten Kayla national attention,” She said. “Very overwhelming but something I’ve wanted for 7 years and it helps keep that hope alive.”
Sprenger said she’s been receiving support from people across the globe.
“I can’t thank you enough to everybody for your continued caring and support of my daughter,” She said. “Get her story out there, get it told, get people identifying with the case, maybe get people more watchful.”
Sprenger and local authorities ask anyone with information on Kayla’s disappearance or whereabouts to contact the Antigo Police Department at (715) 627-6411.
