Seriously Mysterious - Missing Persons, Unsolved Murders & Historical True Crime · John Lordan - Respectful True Crime Content Creator, Advocate and Host

"He's Back" The Last Phone Call of Kelly Bergh Dove

·22 min·2 clips

Terror in her voice, shuffling sounds, the phone slamming - then nothing. The line went dead.

This episode details the 1982 disappearance of 20-year-old Kelly Bergh Dove from an Imperial Gas Station in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Host John Lorden narrates the case, emphasizing Kelly's determined character and the haunting evidence left behind. The story centers on her final, frantic phone calls to police before she vanished without a trace. Kelly was working an overnight shift she had swapped with her sister when she called police about a suspicious man in a silver Ford. Dispatcher Martha Yankee heard Kelly's terror during a final call at 2:29 AM, ending with a dead line after she said, "He's back." Officer Donald Yankee arrived minutes later to find the station empty, with Kelly's purse, a magazine, and a still-burning cigarette on the counter. Police theorized a swift abduction, possibly completed in 15 seconds, with a weapon used to subdue the known "scrapper." A convenience store clerk reported a similar silver Ford circling his store that night, driven by a blonde man with out-of-state plates. A composite sketch was made, but the description fit many local James Madison University students. The most surprising lead involves a specific high school acquaintance from Turner Ashby High, never publicly named, who owned a silver Ford and had a record for indecent exposure and obscene calls. An anonymous letter to Crime Solvers later named this same individual. In the reopened investigation, forensic testing is being done on evidence from a vehicle of interest, where a tennis shoe print matching Kelly's size was reportedly found in the trunk. Detective Brooke Wetherill states the suspect pool is now narrowed to one man. Alternate speculation involved serial offender Glenn Barker, but his height and victim pattern made him an unlikely fit for most investigators. The episode reveals that the obscene phone calls to the gas station, common for female clerks, stopped completely after Kelly vanished. Kelly's husband, Dale, who was cleared by police, searched tirelessly for her before passing away in 2024. Their daughter, Tammy, was raised by Kelly's parents, who also tragically lost their son to a shooting in 2008. The tone is narrative and empathetic, blending factual reporting with a focus on the family's enduring quest for answers. Lorden's style is conversational yet meticulous, building suspense around the unresolved suspect. True crime listeners interested in cold cases with modern forensic reinvestigations will find this compelling. Those seeking a resolved narrative or graphic details of violence may prefer to skip it, as the mystery remains officially unsolved.

As heard by us

A missing persons case built around a last call, a tight timeline, and hard unanswered questions.

Kelly Berg Dove's disappearance is told as a clean, unsettling timeline: her early independence, the last phone call from a gas station, and the narrow stretch of time before she was gone.

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Why you'd press play

A vanished woman, a gas-station call, and a police response measured in seconds.

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