4 . "Mystery deepens as birthday passes"
Posted by Ishtar93 on Dec-18-00 at 05:54 PM (EST)
Mystery deepens as birthday passes
The missing boy is 9 today, but investigators can give no solace to his family. Is he alive or dead?
By CHRIS TISCH
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 18, 2000
CLEARWATER -- It's an annual tradition that on a day near Christmas, Carole Bernhardt's 15
grandchildren gather for a family holiday party.
Bernhardt's daughters and their children exchange gifts. The younger kids scream and play.
The grandchildren gathered again Sunday. But one child was not there.
That child received no gifts from his aunts, uncles and cousins; he ate no cake and ice cream to
celebrate his ninth birthday, which is today.
That little boy, Zachary Bernhardt, has been missing since Sept. 11, when he vanished from his
Savannah Trace apartment in Clearwater.
Police say they are stumped. They don't know whether Zachary was abducted or ran away, whether
he is alive or dead.
Family members say they are just as puzzled. The mystery adds to their woe.
"I try to figure it out, to make sense of something that doesn't make sense," said Denal Donnelly,
Zachary's aunt. "I think it's more the uncertainty, the not knowing."
Another family member also wasn't expected at the party Sunday.
Zachary's mother, Leah Hackett, hasn't ventured into public much since her son's disappearance.
Hackett reported that she went for a 15-minute walk around the complex at about 4 a.m. When she
returned, her boy was gone.
She quakes and cries when she sees little boys, particularly ones with sandy blond hair like Zachary's.
To pick up her children at a dance once, Donnelly said, she took Hackett, who broke down upon
seeing the crowd of children.
"I can make it sometimes a day without crying, but I don't think she can make it a day without
crying," said her mother, Carole Bernhardt. "She misses him.
"It will be 99 days (today)," she said.
The ordeal has left the family in limbo. How can a little boy simply disappear? Where is he? Is he
okay?
"When it's cold or it rains, I wonder if he's in shelter or in the rain," Donnelly said.
Every bite she takes, every drink she swallows and every smile she can manage to crack makes her
wonder whether Zachary can do the same.
"When you get a drink of water, you think, "Does he have one?' " she said. "You're afraid to laugh."
A team of six detectives continues to work full time on the search for Zachary. Initially, 50
investigators were assigned to the case. The current contingent is a fresh batch of officers who are
retracing the steps of the investigation, searching for holes or new leads.
Almost 700 tips and leads have been chased. A segment about Zachary that appeared on America's
Most Wanted last month generated only a handful of leads, none of them useful.
The investigator in charge of the search, Lt. Mark Teunis, declined an interview request last week.
He also declined to disclose additional information about the search other than what already has been
released, said Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor.
Family members, who compliment the investigators, said that for the most part, they have been left
in the dark. Donnelly and Bernhardt said they understand that the police must keep some information
secret from everyone.
Zachary's family also has avoided the spotlight. Some say they haven't appreciated media reports
that have thrown suspicion on Zachary's mother.
Shelor said Hackett has talked with detectives every time they have asked.
"We maintain a constant dialogue with Leah Hackett," Shelor said.
There were no signs of a struggle in the apartment the morning Zachary disappeared. None of his
belongings had been packed or taken.
Clearwater police launched a massive search of the surrounding area. Nine agencies, including search
teams from the FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement, pitched in. Helicopters, boats and
dogs were used. Nothing was found.
Bernhardt said Hackett is living in Hillsborough County. She works at times as a food server and
receives support from her mother. Family members said Hackett, who goes to weekly counseling
sessions, declined to comment.
Though posters and fliers with Zachary's photo once adorned the area around Savannah Trace
Apartments, there are few now. In an investigative effort designed to fan the embers, police planned
to place an electronic sign near the apartment complex reminding people that Zachary still is missing.
Shelor said there are no suspects in the case because there is no evidence of a crime. There has
been no ransom demand. None of the clothes Zachary was wearing that morning -- a T-shirt and
boxer shorts -- have shown up.
"They're frustrated," Shelor said of the investigators."They flat don't know. They absolutely don't
know where Zachary is or what happened to him."
Still, Shelor said detectives are keeping active. They chase sightings on the beach and at malls from
here to Ocala.
"It's not like they have nowhere to go," he said. "They still have avenues to follow. Since we don't
know what has happened to Zachary, nothing has been ruled out."
Bernhardt said she does not feel anyone in her family -- including Zachary's mother -- had anything
to do with his disappearance. She also doesn't think Zachary ran away. She said she thinks someone
abducted him, though she does not know whom.
"Every hope in my heart thinks he's alive," Bernhardt said. "He would never run away or walk away.
So somebody had to take him. Zachary would never leave his mother. And if things ever got rough
enough . . . he would come to his grandma or to his aunt. I think someone definitely took him."
Donnelly tries to talk of Zachary in the present tense. She clings to hope, but also feels a sense of
doom. She says half of her thinks Zachary is fine, the other half thinks he is not.
"Quite honestly, as each day goes on, you start to question it," she said. "But you hold onto the
hope that you'll get him back. Is it a false hope? Yeah. But there's that chance. I don't ever want to
give up on that hope. It's such an emotional roller coaster. The only thing certain is that an
8-year-old boy, soon to be 9, is out there. And we have to find out where he is."
Zachary's 19-year-old cousin, Aimee Simpkins, said 75 percent of her thinks Zachary is fine.
"That's what gets me through the day," she said.
Bernhardt said if Zachary "is being treated mean, I pray to God he's dead. But it's easier not to think
on that line. I pray to God he'll walk down the street tomorrow. So the easiest thing to say is, it's in
God's hands and that God is taking care of him no matter where he is."
Simpkins said she planned to celebrate his birthday.
"He's missing. He's not gone," she said. "And I think we should celebrate it in some way."
But Bernhardt says the family didn't plan on celebrating his birthday Sunday because it would be too
wrenching.
"It's going to be quite an experience this year. Everyone has mixed emotions," Bernhardt said on
Friday. "There won't be Zachary around to play with and tease. We really don't know what to do
because it is so hard. The kids want to go and buy him a present and everything. But the adults
aren't sure. If I had my way, I would go to bed and stay there.
"We decided that at our Christmas party, Zachary would not want us crying," she added. "So we're
going to do our best to have a happy day for Zachary."
Donnelly said she will keep a birthday cake in her freezer. Even if she doesn't unthaw it for Sunday,
she hopes to present it to Zachary soon.
"And when we get him back, I can say: "Here's your cake, Zachary,' " Donnelly said.
- Chris Tisch can be reached at (727) 445- 4156.
Call with any tips
Anyone with information about the disappearance of Zachary Bernhardt can call Clearwater police at
562-4422.
http://www.sptimes.com/News/121800/NorthPinellas/_Mystery_deepens_as_b.shtml
5 . "Reward offered, police refused it"
Posted by LovelyPigeon on Dec-27-00 at 12:23 PM (EST)
Reward for lost child
A businessman offers a $5,000 reward in the Zach Bernhardt case, but police turn it down,
saying they have a policy not to offer money for information.
By CHRIS TISCH
St. Petersburg Times, published December 24, 2000
CLEARWATER -- A few days after 8-year-old Zach Bernhardt vanished from his mother's apartment in
September, local businessman Michael Capestany called Clearwater police with a proposition.
Capestany offered to donate $5,000 as a reward for anyone who came forward with information that
helped find the boy. Capestany's theory was that money could motivate tipsters to come forward
with information.
"Money is the root of all evil, but it motivates people," said Capestany, a general manager of the Car
Shack on Seminole Boulevard in Largo.
But Clearwater detectives, neck-deep in a mystery that police officials say baffles them to
this day, refused Capestany's offer.
"To me, this was very weak," Capestany said last week. "When a child is missing, you throw
everything out the window and do what you can. Putting out a reward isn't going to hurt."
The Clearwater Police Department has had a longstanding policy not to offer money for information
that might aid investigations, said Wayne Shelor, the department's spokesman.
"We're not funded to do it," Shelor said.
The department isn't prepared to accept donations and plow them into reward offers. If people call
wanting to donate money, police will encourage them to establish a fund through the family of the
victim or missing person, Shelor said.
Carole Bernhardt, Zach Bernhardt's grandmother, said friends have warned the family to be wary of
charity from others. So far, the family has asked that donations be sent in Zach's name to
organizations that help find missing children.
Zach, who turned 9 on Dec. 18, vanished from his Savannah Trace apartment at about 4 a.m. Sept.
11. Police say they don't know whether Zach was abducted or ran away, whether he is alive or dead.
None of his clothes were missing or packed when he vanished. There were no signs of a struggle. His
mother, Leah Hackett, took a 15-minute walk that morning; when she returned, she told police, her
son was gone.
Bernhardt thinks Zach was taken by a stranger.
She knew nothing of Capestany's offer until she was told about it Friday by a reporter.
Bernhardt said she would consult with family members and police before deciding whether to pursue a
reward fund based on Capestany's offer.
"I don't know what harm or good it would do," she said.
Zach's family has been complimentary of investigators. Bernhardt said family members last week
visited detectives who are investigating Zach's disappearance and gave them baskets of candy,
cookies and nuts for Christmas.
"We couldn't give Zach anything, so we gave to the guys who are working for him," she said.
The Clearwater Police Department is not unique in its approach to rewards. Most law enforcement
agencies in the Tampa Bay area rely on the Crime Stoppers program to offer rewards, said Debbie
Carter, president of the Crime Stoppers of West Central Florida, which oversees the program in eight
Suncoast counties.
Since 1988, about 5,900 cases in the Tampa Bay area have been solved through the program, said
Susan Fraley, Crime Stoppers coordinator for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
Carter and Fraley said police run into a slew of prickly problems if they offer rewards.
Where will the money be kept? What happens to the interest? What happens to the money if no one
comes forward? What if more than one tipster offers help? What if the donor decides to balk on his or
her pledge? Will the money be paid upon arrest or conviction of a suspect?
Crime Stoppers, which allows donors to remain anonymous, can provide the push people need to
come forward. About half of tipsters collect their reward, Carter and Fraley said.
"The reality is law enforcement is faced with a lot of apathy, and people don't want to get involved,"
Fraley said. "Money can talk, and it can get people to come out of the woodwork."
But Crime Stoppers is limited by bylaws that allow the organization to dangle no more than $1,000 for
information. For information on Zach's whereabouts, for example, the reward is up to $1,000.
The agency caps the reward amount because it doesn't want assisting law enforcement to become a
get-rich scheme, Fraley said.
Law enforcement agencies in Manatee County can offer larger rewards through a private organization
established earlier this year. The group, called the Goldstar Club, has offered $5,000 rewards in 31
unsolved cases, most of them homicides.
The program was launched after the September 1999 slayings of a mother and her two young
daughters in their home. A suspect was arrested about five weeks after the killings, but Sheriff
Charlie Wells wanted to establish a program that offered large rewards for particularly violent crimes.
Maj. Ron Getman, commander of the Florida Highway Patrol troop in Bradenton, formed the non-profit
club, which solicits money from the public but is not linked to any law enforcement or government
organization.
Before the Goldstar Club was formed, people who wanted to donate more than $1,000 to help solve a
specific crime were stymied, Getman said.
"We had the public wanting to donate to a fund, but there was no mechanism," Getman said.
The organization has raised about $20,000 through fundraising efforts.
The organization paid out $6,000 earlier this year after the conviction of a suspect in a homicide in
which a rock tossed off a Manatee County overpass killed a motorist. Crime Stoppers paid another
$1,000 reward in that case.
Two tipsters came forward with information that led to arrests in that case after the large rewards
were offered. The tipsters split the money.
"I think you could probably safely say the tips came in because of the rewards that were offered,"
Getman said. "Because of the information, we were able to make arrests and get convictions.
"We feel it's a great resource," Getman added of the club. "It's a situation where you have to utilize
every resource available to you. The reward system is simply another tool available to them."
Getman said he can understand why police agencies don't want to get involved in the reward
business. "They don't want to handle the money, and I don't blame them," he said.
But he said he would consider a reward in the case of Zach's disappearance, if he were asked and
the money were donated.
Authorities recently have posted two billboards in the area asking the public for information about
Zach's disappearance. Clearwater police also set up an electronic sign near Savannah Trace
Apartments asking people to call with tips.
Capestany said he just wants to do whatever he can to help find Zach Bernhardt.
"We should do something like that, especially with a child," he said.
* * *
Anyone with information about the disappearance of Zach Bernhardt may call Clearwater police at
562-4422 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 873-TIPS. Callers can remain anonymous and can be eligible for
a reward of up to $1,000. Zach has blond hair and blue eyes. He was 4-feet-6 and 60 pounds at the
time of his disappearance.
6 . "This is how I see it...."
Posted by Ashley on Jan-01-01 at 05:08 PM (EST)
Zachary did not get up himself and leave the house in boxers @ 4a.m. never to return. Somebody
came into that apartment and took him. He looks to be a big kid, so I doubt he was picked up and
carried off without a struggle.
He must have known his abductor and trusted him/her.Possible lead would be the person with the
puppy or a close neighbor.
I really don't think the mother knows what happened to him, although I still don't think she's being
totally honest on her whereabouts that morning.
Bottom line is Zach most likely went with someone he knew and didn't bother to ask any questions,
since he left in his underclothes.
Could the perp have told him there was some kind of emergency? Very possible.
I fear thtat he is no longer alive and the police probably need to look no further than someone in that
complex...someone he knew and trusted.
7 . "Investigation Continues "
Posted by LadyBug on Jan-18-01 at 05:34 PM (EST)
I have received information of further investigation. I'm not certain how much can be made public. I
promise, I will ask...
8 . "I'm intrigued"
Posted by LovelyPigeon on Jan-20-01 at 06:11 PM (EST)
I'd love to know what direction the investiation of this missing child is going.
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