In 1999, She Took Her Dog Out For A Walk In Her Neighborhood But Hours Later Her Dog Was Discovered Alone And She Was Nowhere To Be Found
Kettering, Ohio. On February 7th, 1999 a 9-year-old girl named Erica Baker arrived back at her mom’s house on Pobst Drive in Kettering after spending time with her dad and her three brothers.
Erica’s parents were divorced, and she mainly lived with her mom, Melissa, but she did see her dad on weekends.
Shortly after Erica got home, she asked Melissa if it would be ok to see if any of her friends in the neighborhood were around to play with her.
After Melissa agreed, Erica set out into the dreary and rain-soaked afternoon to knock on their doors.
Erica’s friends didn’t happen to be home, and her new plan was to take the family’s Shih Tzu Jamie out for a walk.
Melissa initially told Erica that she could not take Jamie for a walk due to the rain, but Erica kept asking, and Melissa finally said yes.
So despite the bad weather, Erica slipped on her raincoat, attached Jamie’s leash, and exited through the back door of their home.
The little girl and her dog braved the elements to go on their walk sometime between 3 p.m. and 3:15 that afternoon.
Kettering Police Department; pictured above is Erica
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Erica and Jamie went to the Kettering Recreation Center, and at around 3:45, two people also taking their dog on a walk saw Erica and Jamie playing close to the pond.
At one point, Erica slipped out of her raincoat and cradled Jamie inside of it.
“Soon thereafter, they saw Erica leaving the pond area and walking toward the track of Indian Ripple Middle School, which was adjacent to the KRC,” court documents state.
“A short time later, the couple found Erica’s dog, shivering, shaking, and wet, in the doorway of a building at the middle school. They looked briefly for Erica but did not find her.”
Back home, Melissa was wondering where Erica had gone. Darkness was fast approaching, and Erica knew better than to be outside at that time.
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Melissa had two of Erica’s brothers head out to search for her and see if she happened to be at one of her friends’ houses.
Erica’s brothers came back to say that they couldn’t find her anywhere, and then Melissa decided to go with them to keep searching for Melissa.
Melissa’s next move was to call the Kettering Police Department and report Erica as missing, and authorities quickly came out to look for her.
A helicopter was brought in, a press conference was performed to help get the word out, and officers in their patrol cars and on their bikes combed the area.
The pond where Erica had been playing near was even drained of water to see if she had fallen in.
Nothing led anyone closer to finding Erica though that evening, but over that summer, authorities were led to a man by the name of Christian J. Gabriel.
Christian was interviewed by detectives on July 14th, 1999, about Erica’s disappearance, and he mentioned that he, a man named Clifford Butts, and a woman named Jan Franks (who was dating Clifford) were all in his van driving away from a local grocery store after stealing things from inside.
He didn’t say much about Erica except that “something could have happened.”
Christian did reveal that he sold his van less than a month after Erica went missing, and although investigators were able to track down his van, when they tested it for evidence, they did not find anything to indicate Erica was connected to it.
Then, years went by without investigators interacting with Christian, until April 6th, 2004, when they approached him with more questions about Erica.
This time, his story changed, and investigators put him under surveillance, figuring his whereabouts in the days after might take them to a burial site.
That wasn’t the case though, and 3 months later he was arrested on an unrelated charge. Investigators took the opportunity to again ask him about Erica.
Finally, Christian gave them more information. He claimed Jan drove his van the day Erica went missing, and while they were making their getaway after stealing from the grocery store, Jan hit Erica.
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The trio allegedly put Erica inside the van and later buried her somewhere in the area of Huffman Dam.
Investigators took Christian to Huffman Dam, where he tried to find the burial spot, but he couldn’t.
That fall and winter, Christian was further interviewed, and his stories continued to change. He admitted to driving the van. The locations where Erica had been buried changed. Still, Erica could not be found anywhere.
On February 4, 2005, Christian was officially charged with gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence, even though Erica’s remains still were undiscovered. Christian ultimately pleaded not guilty to all the charges. He claimed he was innocent in everything, and that none of his statements were voluntarily made to the police.
A jury found him guilty, and Christian was sentenced to serve 6 years behind bars. He was released from prison in June of 2011. Authorities have made attempts after Christian was released to get him to help locate her body, but he has refused.
Additionally, searches for Erica have been conducted in Kettering and most recently, Texas EquuSearch was brought in to assist this past April.
Erica loved her dog Jaime and Jaime was found without her on that February day, so authorities strongly believe that something terrible and criminal happened to Erica, though there is a possibility that she is out there somewhere alive.
National Center For Missing & Exploited Children; pictured above is an age-progressed photo of Erica
It’s been 22 years though since Erica was last seen playing at the Kettering Recreation Center with Jaime.
“We will never forget her or her family,” the Kettering Police Department wrote in a Facebook post on the anniversary of Erica’s disappearance last year.
“We are still hoping and praying for any information that could lead to finding her and solving this case.”
If you have any information related to Erica’s disappearance, the Kettering Police Department is asking that you call Detective Mason at 937.296.2583.
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