"100% fake:" Antigo police say 2009 YouTube video has "no connection" to disappearance of Kayla Berg
ANTIGO -- Antigo police said on Facebook late Tuesday, October 11th a video posted on YouTube back in 2009, under investigation in connection with the disappearance of an Antigo teen -- has "NO CONNECTION" to the disappearance of 15-year-old Kayla Berg.
Police said they have identified the video's producer/camera man and the actor and actress that were part of the video.
Police say the video is "100% fake, and was produced for YouTube."
It's a chilling video -- to say the least. It features a man talking about a date with a girlfriend. Then, a door is opened, and a woman is seen tied up on the floor, crying.
"Disturbing. Made me sick to my stomach -- literally," Hope Sprenger, Kayla Berg's mother said.
The video, posted to YouTube in 2009, has been making the rounds on social media -- with some viewers believing it shows missing 15-year-old Kayla Berg, missing from Antigo.
Sprenger said she sees a resemblance.
"Sounded like her. Looked like her. It gave me chills. It's hard to explain," Sprenger said.
Sprenger said the outfit the girl is seen wearing in the video could belong to her daughter.
"The clothing could be a big possibility. We do believe she was wearing that type of a shirt. We know she had jeans," Sprenger said.
In just three months, the video has gone from less than 20,000 views to nearly a million.
Sprenger said something about the video really caught her attention.
"As you start looking at it more -- you're seeing 'well, this was posted seven years ago -- two months after her disappearance.' To me -- that's a major red flag," Sprenger said.
When Sprenger saw the chilling ending to the video...she had this to say:
"That first initial thought is -- that's my daughter. But I don't know that. I don't know if it's real. I don't know if it's fake," Sprenger said.
Sprenger said if the video does turn out to be a hoax, or if the girl in the video isn't Kayla Berg...
"My God -- it could be some other person's child missing. Or if it's fake, this person has an extremely sick sense of humor. I thought it looked a lot like her. I was trying to focus on some of the facial features, and to me, it looked a lot like her. I pray to God it's not," Sprenger said.
Antigo police say the girl at the end of the video does resemble Berg -- who disappeared in 2009 after she was dropped off by an acquaintance in Wausau.
"We'll do whatever we can to find out who's in there and identify them," Police Chief Eric Roller said. "Sometimes that's hard on the web because of wherever this stuff may originate from we're going to do everything we can to get to the bottom of it.
The video was posted to YouTube two months after Berg's disappearance.