Unsolved Joliet Murder: Missing Woman's Body Has Never Been Found

JOLIET — This week marks 36 years since Joliet resident Joan Bernal was apparently slain inside her home in the Preston Heights area of Joliet's far east side, and her body has never been found. Despite the passage of time, the Will County Sheriff's Office said the disappearance of Joan Bernal remains one of the highest priorities for their agency's cold case unit.

Will County Sheriff's Lt. Nat Freeman and Sgt. Mike Earnest said that they, along with several fellow detectives, were followed for several days in October by a Los Angeles-based film crew that is producing a true-crime television segment about the case for the Oxygen network show "Cold Justice."

The one-hour show on the Joliet crime is expected to air around May.

Joan Bernal was a driver for the Joliet Mass Transit District. She was born in Oak Park and grew up in Hickory Hills, graduating from Stagg High School in 1972.

"It's basically a documentary," Earnest told Joliet Patch. "We got followed around by a camera crew for about 10 days."

Earnest and Freeman disclosed that their prime suspect surrounding the murder of Joan Bernal remains her former husband, Gilbert "Gil," Bernal. At the time of her disappearance, the family lived on Zarley Road.

These days, Gil Bernal is in his early 80s and living in Flint, Michigan.

In October, during the filming for the Cold Justice show, Earnest said he traveled to Michigan to interview Gil Bernal.

"I talked with him about two hours," Earnest said.

Earnest said that Gil Bernal has denied being responsible for his wife's disappearance and slaying. He has continued to insist that his wife went on an out of state bus trip and never returned.

According to a detailed summary by The Doe Network, Joan Bernal was supposed to join her husband on a trip to Edinburg, Texas. Police investigators said they believed that Gilbert Bernal killed his wife on December 9, 1988, after quarreling about taking her children on the planned trip to Texas.

Bernal said he gave his wife $1,500 before she boarded a Joliet-bound bus in McAllister, Oklahoma, authorities have said in the past. But investigators found she never made the trip.

In 1993, Gil Bernal was charged with Joan's murder, even though her body was not found.

Then, after taking over as the new Will County State's Attorney, James Glasgow had the murder charges against Gilbert Bernal dropped in 1994 based on a criminal defense lawyer's contention that he produced four different people who have claimed to have seen Joan Bernal still alive, the Chicago Tribune reported in May 1994.

"It didn't ever go to trial," Freeman pointed out. "Officially, there were a few witnesses who supposedly knew Gil and said they saw Joan alive."

Freeman and Earnest pointed out that their agency has re-interviewed a number of those witnesses, and some of them have recanted their statements suggesting that Joan Bernal was alive.

Joan Bernal's DNA has been entered into the national criminal databases, but so far, there have been no matches.

Based on the extensive investigation done so far, Freeman said he does not believe Joan Bernal was buried at the family's home on Zarley Road.

"It could be down there or up here. It's all on the table for sure. It's possible she could be in Texas and Mexico," Freeman suggested. "Gil has family near Texas and Mexico, and he did make a lot of trips for family to Texas."

Joliet Patch asked Freeman and Earnest if they were optimistic that Glasgow and his team of prosecutors would revive the first-degree murder case and charge Gil Bernal in 2025, even though the suspect in now in his 80s.

"Obviously, we're pressing with everything we do," Freeman said. "And that's obviously our goal. I think it is a good case ... especially with what they've done updating and re-interviewing and finding more people. He has a whole history of domestic abuse, so it is well within his background."

"The family is happy it's being looked at, and her story is getting out," Earnest noted.

If you have information about Joan Bernal's disappearance, you can call Earnest at the Will County Sheriff's Office at 815-727-8574.