CLEARWATER, Fla. – Twenty-five years ago, on September 11, exactly one year before the 9/11 attacks, Leah Hackett told police she tucked her 8-year-old son Zachary Bernhardt into bed, went for a middle-of-the-night swim in the community pool and returned to an empty apartment, sparking Florida’s longest-running Amber Alert.
The backstory:
On September 11, 2000, Zachary’s mother, Leah Hackett, called police at 4:47 a.m. to report that her son had disappeared from the Savannah Trace Apartments.
Hackett told police she went for a walk and took a dip in the community pool while Zachary was in bed and when she returned to their apartment, he was gone.
Twenty-five years later, Zachary is still missing.
“It’s still as devastating as it was the day it happened,” said Billie Jo Jimenez, Zachary’s aunt. “It doesn’t get better with time.”
They feel as though they’ve been holding their breath for decades.
“It’s almost like you never get a chance to exhale,” she said.
Investigators call the disappearance suspicious.
“An eight-year-old goes missing in the middle of the night… and nobody has any answers,” said Clearwater Deputy Chief Michael Walek.
“I believe that he was taken from his home by an abductor, someone that has watched him go back and forth to school from where he went,” Jimenez, Zachary’s aunt, said in a previous FOX 13 interview.
“You don’t believe that it’s happening to you,” Zachary’s grandmother Carole Bernhardt recalled during a past interview. “You think he’s hiding somewhere around the corner.”
“There were kids that had DNA pulled on them to prove it was not him,” Jimenez explained previously. “On 9/11 in Pennsylvania, there was a Zachary Bernhardt that they couldn’t get to, to investigate, to see if it was him… it’s been very hard to have coverage for him since he is missing on 9/11.”
‘Somebody knows something’
The deputy chief of the Clearwater Police Department, Michael Walek, has been involved in the case since day one and takes it personally.
“We have an 8-year-old kid who should be 32 today and somebody knows something,” Walek stated.
The area was searched in and out by hundreds of people. Detectives gathered more than 350 pieces of evidence and Zachary’s case fills 35 binders.
Walek added that the information in those 35 binders was recently scanned into one searchable document using Project Adam – named for Adam Walsh.
“That makes it easier for an investigator to type in one word and search for a particular item, so the technology is advancing every day and we’re using those technologies to further our case.”
The case has changed hands over the past quarter of a century, which Walek says is beneficial because it gets fresh eyes to look at it.
READ: Families of Florida’s missing children gather to honor loved ones, continue search
“It could be the smallest piece. It could be a piece we haven’t realized yet. There’s that technology that changes,” Walek explained. “Twenty-five years ago, cell phones were not prevalent, were they? Twenty-five years to this day, Zach would have been 32. What do you use every day? People have cell phones. People have cameras nowadays. So, there could be that one little piece of technology that we’re missing. Could there be one little piece of evidence. But, there’s somebody out there who knows something, and it may be small. It may be big. We need that person or persons to come forward and say something because we are re-investigating the case all the time.”
He said police still get tips from across the country about possible sightings of Bernhardt. The tips come in on an anniversary or when stories run about the case or the department puts something up on social media.
“People do call and there is a case here and there where people call and say, ‘Hey, I think I saw him.’ Unfortunately, all the leads we actively followed up on turned out not to be him, but we continue to evaluate those. As soon as someone calls or emails a tip in – we’re on top of that lead,” Walek said.
No one has been ruled out
Walek noted that over the past 25 years, no one has been ruled out as a suspect or a person of interest. They would not say whether, at this point in the investigation, they have a suspect or person of interest.
“In 25 years, Zach’s mother has not reached out to us and asked us what’s going on. What’s active in the case. What’s the status of the case? Recently, we traveled to another part of the state of Florida to talk with her and we were met with negative results – uncooperative,” Michael Walek, deputy chief for Clearwater Police Department said. “If that was your son that was eight years old missing, would you be calling every day, every month, every hour? You wouldn’t want to know what’s going on? We got nothing.”
According to a previous FOX 13 News report, Zachary’s aunt and grandmother have shown constant support to Zachary’s mother, who faced her own obstacles being questioned in her son’s disappearance early in the investigation.
“We kind of felt that it was best for her to get out of the state in order for her to be able to try to find herself mentally,” Jiminez stated. “People have no idea what it’s like. Don’t judge somebody else’s situation till you walk in my sister’s shoes one day.”
Recently, detectives went to go speak with Leah Hackett, Zach’s mom.
“We were met with negative results – uncooperative,” Walek, said.
Jimenez said there is a reason for that.
“My sister has cooperated from the beginning. She’s given interview after interview [with police]. There’s nothing left to say. Now there’s nothing else left. There’s nothing left to interview. That’s just maybe causing more trauma to her and her daughter that she doesn’t need,” said Jimenez.
As for why Leah doesn’t call police?
“Why should she call? If there’s information, they should be calling us, letting us know that they found Zach,” she said.
Zachary’s mom has lived under a cloud of suspicion, Jimenez said it is time to move on. She said in all the years, her sister’s story has never changed.
“She misses Zach and wants him to be found,” said Jimenez.
There have been several leads over the years, but nothing has panned out.
In summer 2001, an acquaintance of Kevin Jalbert’s told detectives that he claimed to have killed a child and planned to kill again.
READ: Families of Florida’s missing children gather to honor loved ones, continue search
Pictured: Kevin Jalbert. Image is courtesy of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
An undercover detective made contact with Jalbert and the pair drove through Clearwater and Jalbert reportedly told the detective pointed to the Savannah Trace Apartments and said that he abducted an eight-year-old boy. However, he did not point to Zachary’s apartment and he said Zachary was wearing different clothes than the ones he was wearing the night he disappeared.
When he was taken in for questioning, he reportedly denied taking Zachary.
Jalbert was later convicted of solicitation and child pornography and is currently in prison.
Kidnapping at the Savannah Trace Apartments
On New Year’s Eve 2001, another young boy was kidnapped from the Savannah Trace Apartments by someone witnesses say was driving a white van or truck with stickers on it.
That child was found alive in a dumpster in Sumter County.
Police said the suspect in that case has not been located.
What does Zachary’s family think?
His family has their own theories. They have never waivered in their belief that Zach is alive.
“I think that someone has taken Zachary, definitely kidnapped him.,” said Jimenez. “They searched for days and found nothing, he was not in the area.”
At first, the family searched crowds for Zachary’s young face, hoping to spot the 8-year-old they remembered. Now, they rely on age-progressed images showing what Zachary might look like today in his 30s.
“I watched my nephew grow up on a poster,” Jimenez said. “I watched him age-progress through his life.”
Jimenez said they believe the case is solvable.
On that, police and family agree.
“Somone knows what happened to them. We need everyone and anyone who knows something to come forward,” said Walek.
“One day, we will know what happened to him,” Jimenez said. “Until then, we’ll keep hoping, praying and keeping his face out there — because he is somewhere.”
What you can do:
At the time of his disappearance, Zachary was 4’6″ tall and weighed 60 pounds. He had straight blonde hair and blue eyes. He also had a small scar on the bridge of his nose, chin and lower lip.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released age-progression photos over the years showing what he may look like today.
Anyone with any information on his disappearance is asked to call Detective Daniel Bieber at 727- 562-4242.
The Source: This story was written based on an interview with Clearwater Deputy Police Chief Michael Walek and
