A 16-year-old Missouri girl was killed when a St. Francois County Sheriff’s Office deputy’s vehicle struck her early Saturday morning — and her family says the sheriff’s office initially let them believe she died in a hit-and-run instead of telling them the truth.
Persephone Berger was lying in the road in Park Hills when a witness spotted her and called police around 3:45 a.m. Saturday. Berger had snuck out to a party the night before and was reportedly on her way home. A deputy responding to the scene struck her with his patrol vehicle.
“While approaching [the scene], the Deputy did not see the [girl] in the roadway and subsequently struck [her],” Sheriff Jeff Crites said in a statement. A preliminary autopsy found Berger’s injuries were “consistent with those sustained from the responding Deputy’s vehicle.”
But Berger’s father, Jarred Berger, was initially told his daughter had died in a hit-and-run, according to her aunt, Kimberly Cabuchola. The deputy involved is around 23 years old and had worked for the department roughly three months.
Cabuchola said the family could have accepted a straightforward accident, but not a cover-up.
“All they had to do was say ‘Our officer accidentally ran over your child and she died.’ That’s all they had to do. But no. To try and cover it up and to lie to our family? Why? Why would they need to do that? We could have forgiven that officer.”
She said accidents happen, but the handling of the aftermath was the unforgivable part.
“The lies… not calling the right people in. Not reaching out to my brother for three days. That wasn’t an accident.”
Cabuchola said the only person who contacted the family during those three days was the coroner, who told them Berger’s body was so badly damaged that a closed casket was necessary.
“I want to go over to that county jail and tell them, you know. I want to scream and I want to cuss at them. But I know I can’t. I know I can’t. Just tell us the truth.”
Sheriff Crites, who was not the responding officer, has declined to directly address the family’s claim that his office initially described the death as a hit-and-run.
Toxicology results are still pending, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol will conduct an independent investigation into the deputy’s actions. Berger’s autopsy results have not yet been finalized.
Remembering Persephone Berger
Berger’s family remembered her as an avid Harry Potter fan who sang in her school choir since fifth grade and loved hiking with friends and family. Her obituary described her as “a caring and compassionate young woman, always ready with a smile and a kind word for everyone she met,” and noted she was “affectionately known as a social butterfly.”
Her sister, Allison Berger, wrote online Saturday: “I love you so much Persephone and we miss you more than you would ever even imagine.”
Students at West County High School wore pink Monday in her memory, and hundreds attended a vigil. Classmate Emma Houser said Berger “never judged a soul” and that the school felt “so dull” without her. Friend Riley Skaggs called her “fun, loving [and] very smart.”
