From the article:

Berg's daily communications to his parents stopped on March 24 and he later
told them he was jailed by Iraqi officials at a checkpoint in Mosul. On
April 5, the Bergs filed a lawsuit that said their son was being held
illegally by the U.S. military in Iraq. The next day, he was released.

The family said they were told by the State Department on Monday that Berg's
body had been found near a highway overpass in Baghdad.

--------------------------------------------

Family Demand U.S. Answers Over Beheaded Son

Tue May 11, 2004
By Jon Hurdle

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (Reuters) - The parents of Nick Berg, the American
civilian beheaded in Iraq, said on Tuesday their son might be alive if he
had not been held for nearly two weeks by Iraqi police and they were angry
at the lack of information from the U.S. government about his detention.

Their congressman, Republican Rep. Jim Gerlach, said after visiting Berg's
parents that they had been frustrated by lack of information from the U.S.
government when Berg was detained without charge by Iraqi police from around
March 24 until his release on April 6.

"Had he not been detained for so long it's quite possible he would have made
it back to the U.S.," Gerlach said, adding that Berg had missed a plane
flight because he was incarcerated .

"They did not feel they were getting the full information they wanted to
help them understand what was happening," Gerlach, whose constituency
includes the Bergs' Philadelphia suburban hometown of West Chester,
Pennsylvania, said at a news briefing.

He said he would be seeking further information from the U.S. government as
to why they had not provided information to the family.

On Tuesday, a poor quality videotape posted on an Islamic militant Web site
showed Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq beheading a man who said he was Nick Berg.
The videotape carried statements vowing more killings in revenge for the
abuse of Iraqi prisoners in a Baghdad prison by U.S. soldiers.

Berg was in Baghdad from late December to Feb. 1 and returned to Iraq in
March. He did not find work and planned to return home at the end of March,
according to his parents, Michael and Suzanne Berg.

CONTACT HALTED MARCH 24

Berg's daily communications to his parents stopped on March 24 and he later
told them he was jailed by Iraqi officials at a checkpoint in Mosul. On
April 5, the Bergs filed a lawsuit that said their son was being held
illegally by the U.S. military in Iraq. The next day, he was released.

The family said they were told by the State Department on Monday that Berg's
body had been found near a highway overpass in Baghdad.

Berg, owner of a communications tower business called Prometheus Methods
Tower Service Inc., had been missing in Iraq for several weeks. He was a
contractor who climbed communications towers to inspect them.

His parents last heard from him when he telephoned on April 9 and told them
he was trying to find a safe way home.
The family said in a statement after the Web site posting that they were
devastated by the murder. Gerlach said Berg's parents did not know about the
videotape until Tuesday.

He declined to comment on any similarities with the murder of Wall Street
Journal reporter Daniel Pearl by Islamic militants in Pakistan. Both Pearl
and Berg were Jewish.

"The Berg family is devastated by this loss," said the statement, read on
the lawn of the family's West Chester home 15 miles west of Philadelphia, by
a neighbor and friend, Bruce Hauser.

"They want to extend their sympathy to other families who have also
suffered. They are asking the army to expedite the release of Nick's body so
they can make arrangements and put this behind them."

Berg's body is in Kuwait. It will be flown to Germany and then to Dover Air
Force Base in Delaware, Gerlach said.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5110381&pageNumber=1