A Texas mother has shared her heartbreak and disbelief after claiming she found the skinned and preserved body of her son on display at a Las Vegas museum exhibition - six years after his death.
Christopher Todd Erick was just 22 when he was found dead in November 2012 at his grandmother’s Texas home.
Police said he died peacefully in his sleep, and a 2014 jury found no evidence of foul play, ruling it likely a suicide.
But more than a decade later, his mother, Kim Erick, remains convinced that her son didn’t just die mysteriously. She believes his body has ended up on display at an exhibition.
Kim Erick claims to have seen her son's "skinned" and "butchered" body on display at an exhibition. Credit: Facebook
Kim, 54, said her world shattered all over again when she visited the Real Bodies exhibition in Las Vegas in 2018.
While walking through the display of preserved human bodies, she says she was hit with a devastating realization: one of the “skinned” and “butchered” bodies on display looked exactly like her son.
“I knew it was him; it was so unbelievably painful to look at,” she said, per The Mirror. “My words cannot describe how this shook me and my family to its core. I was actually looking at pictures of my son's skinned, butchered body. It is gut-wrenching.”
Christopher Todd Erick's body was found at his grandmother's house in 2012. Credit: Facebook
Kim recalled seeing what she described as a skull fracture in the display figure, something she remembered noticing on Chris’s head when he died.
“I started looking online for the deep skull fracture I saw in Chris's right temple of his head when he died. When I saw the platinated body online in the news article with this same skull fracture...it was too painful to look closer," she added.
Museum Says The Body Has Been On Display Since 2004
Kim says she was never involved in any funeral planning for Chris. His father, now separated from her, arranged the cremation and later gave her a necklace containing what he claimed were Chris’s ashes.
Still, she remained skeptical and urged police to reopen the investigation. “The photos were very disturbing. There were restraining marks across Chris's arms, chest, and abdomen,” she said.
But both police and museum officials stand firmly by the facts. Imagine Exhibitions, Inc., which operates the Real Bodies exhibit, has stated that the figure in question could not possibly be Chris.
Featured image credit: Facebook
According to the company, the body has been continuously on display in Las Vegas since 2004, eight years before Chris died.
In a formal statement, Imagine Exhibitions said: “We extend our sympathy to the family, but there is no factual basis for these allegations. The referenced specimen has been on continuous display in Las Vegas since 2004 and cannot be associated with the individual named in these claims. All specimens are ethically sourced and biologically unidentifiable. We remain committed to ensuring that all exhibits meet the highest ethical and legal standards.”
Despite the statement, Kim is calling for DNA testing on the body to be sure. She remains adamant that someone killed her son and that the truth is still buried.