PHOENIX — The boyfriend of a missing Phoenix woman has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
Jon Christopher Clark claims he was questioned by Phoenix police after his girlfriend, 19-year-old Kiera Bergman, went missing.
Clark was arrested on Friday after a search of his vehicle turned up numerous items with personal identifying information of others along with items of forgery. He was booked into jail and faces 22 counts of identity theft and two counts of forgery, police said.
“They treated me like a suspect from the jump … If the police even had a shred of evidence to say I had anything to do with this, they would not of [sic] let me go,” Clark told 12 News via online messaging before his arrest.
Officials confirm Clark did speak to investigators but declined to say whether he had been cleared of any involvement in Bergman’s disappearance.
“This remains a missing person case; however, circumstances related to her disappearance are suspicious,” said Phoenix Police Sgt. Vince Lewis.
In an Instagram post, Clark wrote that he has been, “nothing but open and honest with investigators and Kiera’s family.”
“However, I am still being looked at from her family as having something to do with this,” he wrote.
Bergman’s mother has stopped short of saying she believes Clark was involved, but said the family has “our suspicions.”
“I don’t want to come out and say, because I don’t know for sure what happened, but of course that’s always a thought in our mind, especially because he’s the last one that saw her,” said Bergman’s mother, Kiersten Bragg.
“If he was really concerned he would have been at her apartment every single day, checking in with the roommate and all that stuff, trying to see if she’s come back or not, and he hasn’t done that,” said Bergman’s sister, Braydee Bragg.
“I had nothing to do with anything that’s going on,” Clark said in a video interview published Thursday night on azcentral.com. "I love Kiera with all my heart, I want Kiera to come home."
Bergman’s mother told 12 News Friday she watched the interview and was skeptical.
“There’s no emotion. If you’re truly worried, there should be emotion there. It just seemed to me the whole time he tried to make himself look like a victim,” said Kiersten Bragg.
“If he truly was worried, there would’ve been emotion there and there was nothing.”