Police arrest man indicted for wife's murder

RENO, Nev. - A Seattle man accused of murdering his wife by driving their truck off a mountain highway near here has been arrested in his hometown.

Peter Bergna, 47, was arrested Friday, two days after a Washoe County grand jury indicted him for the June 1998 death of his wife, Rinette Riella-Bergna, 49. The two were Incline Village residents at the time.

Bergna, an antique appraiser, awaits an extradition hearing before he can return to Reno to face the murder charge. He's being held on no bail.

Washoe County Chief Deputy District Attorney Dave Clifton said it took investigators more than two years to piece together details of the early-morning accident on the Mount Rose Highway.

Bergna told investigators he lost control of his pickup before it sliced through a guardrail on Slide Mountain just southwest of Reno and slid 795 feet down a steep embankment.

His wife was found dead in the vehicle with her seat belt on. She was an international tour director and owned a pharmacological consulting business.

Bergna, who escaped with minor injuries, said he had been thrown clear of the truck. He was found 80 feet down the mountain after he managed to call for help using a cell phone.

But investigators concluded that Bergna should not have been ejected from the vehicle. If he had been, they said, he likely would have been thrown from the passenger side.

Investigators submitted their case to the district attorney in June 1999.

''There are things we know couldn't have happened in certain ways, and his versions have changed,'' Clifton said.

Investigators spent considerable time trying to reconstruct the events of that night, and even called in Ford Motor Co. experts to test airbags in relation to the crash, Clifton said.