[2] During the trip, the victim suffered an injury to the back of the head, which Bernson claimed had originated from a wrench flying off a shelf and hitting her when he crashed his car into a ditch.
[3] Throughout the 1970s, Bernson worked as a produce salesman, allowing him to freely travel across multiple states, with records of him residing in Spokane, the Tri-Cities area, Moses Lake, Ritzville, Othello, Hermiston and Pendleton from May 1973 to April 1975.
[7] Two years later, he was charged for the murder of 22-year-old Diann Remington, a Spokane Community College student who disappeared from her mother's home in Richland on January 4, 1979, and whose body was found by goose hunters in a field near Benton City on December 29.
In 1985, after being assured by prosecutors in both Washington and Oregon that they would not seek the death penalty, Bernson admitted that he killed around 30 women while travelling through the Northwest.
[4] Among his confessions was the murder of 15-year-old Sharon Weber, who had disappeared from Hermiston, Oregon in December 1978 and her remains found near the Cold Springs Reservoir on September 16, 1985.
[10] After being returned to his cell, Bernson explained that he and his accomplices had planned to rent a helicopter to land on the courthouse building, hijacking it, cutting the antenna cables, and wire screening, before successfully flying away to an abandoned farmhouse, where he would hold the occupants hostage.
[13] This decision was appealed by Oregon Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer, who contested that Bernson was causing the delays and that the charges should be reinstated.