On September 11, 2000, Zachary Bernhardt went missing from the apartment that he lived in with his mother in Clearwater, Florida. He disappeared literally without a trace (the police photos of the apartment showed nothing that seemed to be out of place); it’s almost as if he just up and vanished. He was 8 years old when he went missing; he’d be 28 today.

From what I can find about him and mother’s relationship, it appears that it was good and “normal” (I only put normal in quotes, because really, what the fuck is normal anyway?). She was a single mother (his father doesn’t appear to have ever been in the picture) and worked different jobs throughout his life to support both of them. At the time of his disappearance, she was working the night shift (which pays more usually), but she was off the night that he went missing. According to her account, they spent the evening hanging out together and he fell asleep sometime around 11 pm. With her being on a night shift with her job, she decided to stay awake when he went to sleep to stay on her regular schedule. She decided to leave him asleep in the apartment around 2 am unattended (last time he was seen) to go for a random swim (in her clothes) and to walk around the complex. She also left the front door unlocked while she was gone. After coming home and taking a shower due to the impromptu swimming in her clothes thing (and this is someone who claimed to “never” swim, and also claimed to not even LIKE swimming), she noticed that he was missing from the bed around 4 am.
…..You probably thought all of this sounded totally normal until about 3 sentences back. Yeah, me too. This case is fucking weird. Was it just the perfect storm of negligence/being a dumb-ass that gave someone else an open invitation to come in and snatch Zachary from his mother’s bed? Or is there something else more sinister going on in terms of the mother’s involvement? Let’s turn to the last seen chart for Zachary.

This chart functions a little different than the other “last seen” and “death charts” that I’ve done a write up on. The reason for that is when you are looking at a missing person chart for a child/minor, you also want to take the cusp of the 5th house/the planetary ruler of the 5th house into account. These charts tend to be a little more fluid for this very reason. The 7th house is always the perpetrator/catalyst, but the Ascendant and the 5th house cusp represent the child (missing person). Oftentimes the Ascendant also rules over the parent(s)/legal caregiver(s), since they are the guardian(s) of the child (and in a case like this one, I would definitely consider the mother to be ruled by the Ascendant). The Moon will also operate as co-ruler in these kinds of charts regardless of the missing person/deceased being a child or adult.

—-So, in this chart we have the Ascendant @ 9 Cancer 57, with the Moon falling in the 8th house @ 19 Aquarius 34. The Moon in the 8th house is NEVER a good sign for “life” in the cases of missing people (since, in these sorts of charts, you can think of the 8th house as the “death house” and the Moon is always co-ruler of the missing person). From the Moon in Aquarius (by way of dispositions), you’d next look to Uranus (since Uranus rules over Aquarius). Uranus is IN Aquarius in the 8th house conjunct the Moon. The chain of dispositions from the Ascendant ends here.
***I won’t lie, just from this alone, it makes me think that his mother AT LEAST KNOWS more about his disappearance than she has told anyone. **
—-The Descendant/ruler of the 7th house is @ 9 Capricorn 57, with Saturn falling in the 11th house @ 0 Gemini 59. Saturn in Taurus in the 11th will dispose of itself to Mercury in Libra in the 4th (since Mercury is the ruler of Gemini). From there, Mercury in Libra disposes of itself to Venus in Libra in the 4th house (since Venus rules over Libra). This disposition chain ends here. Even more interesting with this chain is that the 4th/10th houses have Libra and Aries intercepted inside their bounds. Interceptions in these sorts of charts tend to both put a fog of unclarity over the the house, along with highlighting the energy there.
—-We also need to look at the 5th house cusp (since the 5th house represents children). The 5th house in this chart is ruled by Scorpio, which makes Pluto a marker for Zachary. This marker in this chart is the only one that represents Zachary and no one else. Pluto is in the 6th house @ 10 Sagittarius 57. When you find planetary markers for missing people in the 6th house, there seems to be a trend that those people aren’t found (I do hope that’s not the case here). Pluto in the 6th house will dispose of itself to Jupiter in Gemini the 12th (since Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter). From there, Jupiter disposes of itself to Mercury in Libra in the 4th (since Gemini is ruled by Mercury), and Mercury will dispose of itself to Venus in Libra in the 4th (since Libra is ruled by Venus). The 5th house chain, Zachary’s Chain, ends here.

There are a lot of curious things in this this chart to take note of:
-—The ruler of the Ascendant (in this case, The Moon) in the 8th house. This can be part of a death pattern (almost always functions this way).
-—The ruler of the 12th house (Mercury, since the 12th is ruled by Gemini) in the 4th house. This can be part of a death pattern.
-—The 4th house ruler IN the 4th house can show the involvement of a family member (and we have Virgo ruling the 4th house cusp, with Mercury inside the 4th house). The interceptions here are interesting, and makes me think that while a family member probably was involved, it isn’t in the way that may be suspected (or in the manner that it’s suspected).
—-The 11th house ruler IN the 4th house (Taurus ruling the 11th house and Venus falling in the 4th) can show someone that either IS involved with the perpetrator/catalyst (romantically probably) or has been involved with them in the past is somehow involved in all of this. In this case I think you’d be looking at a boyfriend or a fuckboy (current or ex) of the mom’s having something to do with this.
—-You also have the marker for Zachary (Pluto) being opposite Saturn, and this opposition is applying or sinister since Saturn is the one to catch up to Pluto (the slower moving planet of the two).
—-Aquarius rules over the 8th house. This makes me think that the manner of death here is something “weird.” Something probably pretty unexpected that happened suddenly. In the 8th house you have Neptune, and that Uranus/Moon conjunction (which is emotionally erratic in this case, or feels that way to me here). The emotional erraticism could either describe an action that led to his death OR an emotionally erratic way of handling his death.
—-Pisces rules over the 10th house cusp, which tends to show the way that law enforcement handles the case and the way the public responds to the case. Pisces can bring a lack of clarity to any situation, and here I feel like law enforcement failed to do something that they should’ve done, or notice something that they were supposed to notice. I feel like they let something slip between the cracks (and were too focused on leads that were false).

With all of that said, I think there are two possible things that could’ve happened to Zachary on the night that he went missing. Either way, I do think that his mother was involved:
1. His death was accidental, though somehow drug involved. When researching this case, it seems that people have whispered (gossiped) about his mom frequenting bars (and places like that) on her nights off after Zachary went to bed. It has also been whispered that she would drug him with medicine to keep him asleep/make him to go sleep. Is any of this actual fact? No, I don’t think so. But! I can definitely see the possibility of that here with Neptune falling in the 8th (can point to things like drugs and poisoning being the cause of death), and the Uranus/Moon conjunction also in the 8th could point to death being quick (though unexpected).
**There are a few eye witnesses that saw his mom’s car leave the apartment complex that evening and come back a couple of times. Some suspect that once Zachary went to sleep that nigh she went out bar hopping (or something like that). If any of these things that were whispered about her behavior were true, she might have been drugging him to keep him sleeping while she was gone. **
2. I think it’s very possible that he was smothered in his sleep (possibly medicated before he went to bed to make this easier, to cause him put up less of a fight), or even drugged/poisoned on purpose (for the purpose of killing him). I think whatever DID happen to him did happen in the home, especially with both Zachary’s chain and the Descendant chain of dispositions ending in with Venus in Libra the 4th house (the house of the home among other things). Who was the actual person to take Zachary out? I think it was either the mother, or someone like a fuckboytoy that she got to do this for her.
—-I definitely feel that after he died, his mother had someone else dispose of his body (and I think this was the case regardless of it being an accidental or purposeful death). Here in this chart, that Saturn in Gemini represents the perpetrator (and in this case there definitely appears to be dual involvement, both the mother and someone else)….and that making the applying/sinister aspect with Zachary, represented by Pluto, just makes this stand out more. She could’ve found him dead from giving him too much of some medicine (by accident), gave him too much medicine on purpose to kill him, or smothered him in his sleep. If she did either of the purposeful scenarios, this would’ve been financially motivated-like not having the money to care for both of them and deciding that things would be easier if he wasn’t around. I mention that because Mars, the ruler of intercepted Aries, falls in the 2nd house (which deals with personal resources-perhaps some hidden anger or financial issues?). I’m not sure if you can take out anything like life-insurance on a child, but I do think that she may have gained (or thought she would gain) something financially from his death…if his death wasn’t an accident.

The blue marker in the center of the map is the location for their apartment complex (when it existed, I actually don’t think it is functional any more…or if it is, I think it functions under a different name). I mapped a bunch of different lines on this map, but the ones that stand out the most to me are the cluster of pinkish/purple lines to the south of the marker, and the turquoise line going north east of the marker. The Pinkish/Purple lines are lines for the IC through Venus (also mapping 0 degrees Libra since that’s where the interception begins). The turquoise line is the Saturn line, and Saturn tends to represent the body so it seems possible that he could be found along this line. I don’t know what the landscape of Clearwater looked like in 2000, but I think if there was any construction going on near the lines that I mentioned (especially construction that was going on because the original structure burned down or had fire damage), I might think that those place would be a good place to look for him. I would think that if he had been put in a construction zone, whatever was built IN that construction area is probably much better than what had previously been there (noticeably so….this would be something that people would notice the contrast with the before and after of the structure). I also wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this location is somehow tied to the workplace of the other person involved in this case (the person involved with the mother). This might be an actual place that this person worked, or just in the same general area that they worked (a place they saw/passed by every day). It could even be a place that the mother passed by every day on her way to work.

If you have any information about this case, contact the Clearwater Police Department at 727.562.4422